Also fuel filler and hoses…

A little out of sequence but I thought I’d just round up the completion of the seatbox / floor / cab area job with a few photos of how it looks now. Overall I am very happy with the way this work has gone although it has taken far too long and has cost way too much. It can be quite slow progress working outside in the front drive as interested passers-by and neighbours like to stop and chat about the progress. All part of the hobby I guess.

I had rubbed down the rear bulkhead and applied paint with a roller, not perfect but better than expected. I sprayed the capping (sorry!) with Simonz wheel paint after T-Wash and etch primer.

The rusty levers were rubbed down and treated. Handbrake and pedals were roller-painted with satin black using the 2″ roller. The gear stick and high / low selector were covered with heat-shrink tube (thanks Nick!) and new gaiters fitted throughout.

The instruction plate was missing so I sourced one from ebay (I fitted this with rivets then realised it should have been self-tappers). I removed the knobs and removed gouges and scratches with emery then restored the smooth finish with Brasso

A view from the passenger side. Since taking this I have fitted a 32mm blanking grommet to the aperture in the bulkhead. The doors and lower dash now look more scruffy.

Fuel filler and breather hoses

There was a strong smell of diesel in the cab, this was found to be due to a split in the filler hose. I replaced this along with the breather pipe. To help prevent damage to the hoses where they exit the aperture I fitted some rubbery / soft PVC trim that I sourced from Amazon.  Fitting these pipes was much harder than I expected – at the ends that fit to the filler assembly. There seems to be a huge amount of force required that I had to walk away from it and calm myself down. However, a ciggie and a Red Bull seemed to do the trick in the end. The filler pipe doesn’t look to be sitting well and is slightly compressed. I hope the warm weather will help it soften and find its own form.

Fuel filler cap refurbishment

The hard part: I just hope these rivets hold! Otherwise the whole lot will spring out and end up in the neighbour’s drive. Not a great job here as I wanted to get it all done in one go. The housing, hasp and cap were very rusty. I fitted a new Britpart cap as the centre strip that engages in the hasp had rusted very thin. The version on this vehicle is the three-prong type. The hasp came up fine but I now wish I had spent longer rubbing down the housing. They are sprayed with wheel paint, unfortunately two different makes so not a good match. I used some nice stainless dome-head hex socket set screws that I found in the front of the cab. It will do for now, I will tidy it up when I eventually attend to the bodywork in that area, probably next year. This panel has different paint from the rest of the body and seems to have a layer of clear lacquer.

I had forgotten to order gaskets for this job so made them up from a bit of the neoprene sheet left over from the seatbox lids, it is a very similar material and should create a weather-tight seal.

I notice that Britpart products are very often automatically written off on forums and the like, and I am sure that there are good reasons for some of the criticism. I intend to give an honest and open-minded appraisal of all the products that I use. The Britpart fuel cap was very cheap and seems up to the job, I can’t really fault this and it’s a huge improvement on the rusty and worn out old one.

Next job in this area

I will clean up the existing outer seats, they are still in quarantine at the moment as I may have discovered new forms of mould but I will try some upholstery cleaner on them. They seem to be nice Exmoor trim high backs, worth keeping. I have purchased a ‘standard’ vinyl centre seat for very occasional use by my grandaughter. As it will be used only to support a child seat I saw no need to have a high-backed seat in the centre (if such things exist). I have bought new seatbelts as the existing ones show some damage to the webbing and don’t retract very well.