I also removed the bottoms of the back seats and guess what I found – more rust! Hard to believe I know. It was also painfully obvious that the replacement seats in the car were not only not the right size, but not even Jaguar seats. I think these came out of something like a Land Rover. They did not fit at all and I even found wood blocks under the seats to hold them up! So, I am now in search of the correct back seats. I was kind of thinking that putting two race seats back there would be fun too, but that would be expensive! I think I’ll just stick with finding a good condition used back seat. I sourced one in the fall, but I don’t know if that is still available.
Finally, I removed all the carpeting and sound proofing in the back, so I have a really good idea of what I need to clean, scrap, weld or replace. Fortunately, all the rust except in a couple of non critical places looks like surface issues, which is really good because if the rust was extensive around the “C” or “B” pillars, I might as well write off the car. As it stands, I haven’t run into anything that can not be repaired.
It's also good to know that, even by 1971, the Brits had still figured out how to include wood in the construction of cars! These pieces of ash are under the aluminum rocker covers to keep them from crushing if stepped on.
After I get the back door stripped, I’m going to remove the glass and chrome and put them aside. Then I start on the front doors, front seats and interior. Definitely moving forward!
