Inside - hmm, the place I shall probably be spending many, many hours! Wasn't too keen on the black, peeling vinyl dash that was in the car so out it came!
I used the older dashboard as a template, drew round it onto a sheet of 12mm MDF and set about cutting it out... Got the shape right! Into the vice it went, so I could smooth all the edges, and thin the material on the back, where it will sit against the dash rails so I can fit a bead of sealant to stop vibrations...
Dusty bloody horrible stuff to work with in an enclosed space, especially with a belt sander and planer to get the shape perfect, too!
Fitted the dashboard up to the car, held it in place with duct tape and took a permanent marker to it, sat down in the drivers seat and marked on where I could see the guages, digital dash, indicator/main beam lights and vents best.
Once this was done, I used a 55mm hole saw to drill where the guages would go - a 10mm drill bit for the digi dash mount. Cut a square out for the digi connectors, along with the vents with a jigsaw. Notched the back of the vent holes with the edge of a drill bit at 90* positions for the little bits that hold them in place. Again with a 10mm drill bit, I drilled holes for the immobiliser/alarm light and turn signal lights.
Once done, I sent the dashboard off to my local sign writers to be carbon wrapped.
Whilst the dashboard was off being wrapped, I decided to make a start on the interior - out came the seats, out came the carpet, out came the rear seats. It looked a bit crappy before.
http://www.brydenenterprises.co.uk/
I gave the carpet to a friend who does carpet and rug restorations, he restored the carpet to new condition for nothing! Remember the thread title, this is on a budget!
Again, whilst the carpet was away, I set about something else - stripping the floorpan right back to check for rust - which I'm pleased to report - there was none, none what so ever! Stripping back the bitumen sound deadening was a right PITA! Plenty of wd40, a big hammer and chisel sorted that though - why do rover think it's a good idea to only put small peices of the stuff around the car? How is that meant to make it any quieter?
I primed the floor with zinc primer, after stripping back to bare metal to check for rust. 3 coats should be enough!
Then the interesting part, I blew £70 of my budget on sound deadening. If a jobs worth doing though, it's worth doing right. Rover - take note, this is how sound deadening should of been done!
As you can see, there's a centre console - Came from custom consoles, and wow I'm impressed! Its a tight fit with all the sound deading down, but I'm sure it would of fitted perfect otherwise! I only had it in those pictures to hold a new pioneer head unit to keep me amused when working on the interior. Again, too eager to shove bits in! Lets just call it a test fitting or something!
Eagle eyed viewers will also notice a mdf parcel shelf - I remade that with the spare mdf I had from doing the dashboard.
Ooh, whats that? A load of goodies you say? For me? Oh, for Kermit... The mini. Yay! MG seats, Sabelt harnesses, an amp, pioneer head unit and 4, 210 watt three way speakers. Oh, and a copy of miniworld. Okay - the budget wasn't blown. The mg seats and harnesses came with the 'project' and the rest were ebay deals - set me back less than £150 for a system loud enough to drown the every day rattles out.
Before I knew it, I had the carpet and dashboard back! Carpet, seats, centre console, new kickboard, and speakers all went in whilst I made the dashboard up with the guages, mounted them in place, and sorted out some of the wiring behind the dash. All back together inside now - yipee!
That 800w amp only cost £25, and was brand new in the box - bargain!
Not bad! Centre console was the most expensive thing in the car, but so worth it! £83 shipped. The dashboard cost £20 to be wrapped, as I put a lot of business that way for the guys there! Had the MDF left over from a woodworking project. The heater panel graphic was from Roofless on here, as you can see from the 'sticky fingers' decal on the console! I ordered a switch panel graphic too, but ordered the wrong one, so it's sat in the garage somewhere!
I found these in a box in my room, ordered them years ago as a mate wanted them for his scooter, falling out with him resulted in him not getting them for christmas - I thought, well, they're green, so why not?
Digi Dash that was with the car looks awesome at night, so neat and tidy too!
Thats all for now folks - Going to pick up the engine this weekend coming, so expect a few more updates through the week about my excitement, and maybe some prep work - will be using an allspeed subframe, which my budget says I wont be able to afford till December, so I'll post plenty of updates on the flip front, sorting the engine, gutting the wiring and any other things that can be done before then - will try and keep this active!
