Volvo 240 Resto, Modified Vauxhalls & Suzuki Jimny
Discussion
The Corsa
A very minor update. The car has been performing about as well as a rock-hard 50bhp yoghurt pot can. I recently did a small modification I've been putting off for a long time. Corsas came in several trim levels, and one of the trim upgrades were the interior door handles. Poverty-spec heaps like mine had black textured plastic handles, like this.
Mid-spec cars had brushed silver handles, like I had fitted to my old Combo. Top-spec cars had chrome handles, which I had a spare pair of from a scrapped diesel Corsa. I removed the door card to access the handles. Swapping plastic to chrome was a little fiddly, but not impossible...
Once fitted, I decided to remove all the torn plastic bag cover, clean up underneath, and insulate what I could with what little materials I had left.
I was pretty happy with the result when I was all finished. The difference when driving isn't really noticeable, but then the majority of the road noise comes from the exhaust and tyres anyway.
A very minor update. The car has been performing about as well as a rock-hard 50bhp yoghurt pot can. I recently did a small modification I've been putting off for a long time. Corsas came in several trim levels, and one of the trim upgrades were the interior door handles. Poverty-spec heaps like mine had black textured plastic handles, like this.
Mid-spec cars had brushed silver handles, like I had fitted to my old Combo. Top-spec cars had chrome handles, which I had a spare pair of from a scrapped diesel Corsa. I removed the door card to access the handles. Swapping plastic to chrome was a little fiddly, but not impossible...
Once fitted, I decided to remove all the torn plastic bag cover, clean up underneath, and insulate what I could with what little materials I had left.
I was pretty happy with the result when I was all finished. The difference when driving isn't really noticeable, but then the majority of the road noise comes from the exhaust and tyres anyway.
Interesting thread, like others have said, it's good to hear about everyday cars and keeping them running. Pistonheads is not all about 911s and Ferraris, although to read some of the threads you'd think it was.
And an observation; your previous Combo van looked better as a valeter's business vehicle, (even more so if you'd had it signwritten), I think turning up in a Corsa car with your gear stuffed inside doesn't put across a professional image?
And an observation; your previous Combo van looked better as a valeter's business vehicle, (even more so if you'd had it signwritten), I think turning up in a Corsa car with your gear stuffed inside doesn't put across a professional image?
Bobupndown said:
Interesting thread, like others have said, it's good to hear about everyday cars and keeping them running. Pistonheads is not all about 911s and Ferraris, although to read some of the threads you'd think it was.
And an observation; your previous Combo van looked better as a valeter's business vehicle, (even more so if you'd had it signwritten), I think turning up in a Corsa car with your gear stuffed inside doesn't put across a professional image?
It did look better, but it spits out more fumes, takes up more space and costs more to run. I did wonder about how the Corsa looks to begin with, but since making the change, I wouldn't go back to the van. The Corsa is very much a work in progress and will eventually look more professional anyway. Thankfully in the meantime, my business has been built up nicely over the last six years so it's not really brought into question.And an observation; your previous Combo van looked better as a valeter's business vehicle, (even more so if you'd had it signwritten), I think turning up in a Corsa car with your gear stuffed inside doesn't put across a professional image?
Bobupndown said:
Fair play, if it works for you.
What type of vacuum are you using for detailing? I have the old house cordless Dyson now removed to the garage but it's seen better days, thinking a mains electric one for heavy duty use for the cars would be better.
I use Karcher WD3P. It's a pretty good price at around £100, it's very powerful (deafening indoors), it's a wet and dry so can be used to shampoo seats here and there, and also has a reversed port, so you can blow out leaves in engine bays etc. However, the motor burns out in very dramatic fashion every 2 years like clockwork. That may be because it's in use for around 10 hours every week, though. For the latest failure, I replaced the motor with a £35 ebay motor, so we'll see how long it lasts compared to the original.What type of vacuum are you using for detailing? I have the old house cordless Dyson now removed to the garage but it's seen better days, thinking a mains electric one for heavy duty use for the cars would be better.
For private use on a personal car and odd jobs, I can't see it failing, but if you want something that just won't die, you can't go wrong with a Numatic. We've got a hand-me-down Hetti that's about 10-15 years old for hoovering the house, and it's still the backup work vacuum whenever the Karcher craps out. It takes whatever you throw at it.
The Jimny
Another minor update, this time for the little Suzuki. It's been giving us a few issues with overheating over the last several months. At first, we tried a coolant flush, which helped, but it started overheating a few weeks later. More recently, I tried pressure washing the radiator, and cable tying the viscous fan so it's always on. That helped, but again, it's started getting very hot. So, it's booked in, and I'm going to throw the kitchen sink at it; new radiator, new viscous coupling, new thermostat.
In the meantime, I have finally fitted that most basic of creature comforts; a stereo!
So, when we bought it, the previous owner had rather crudely fitted a double din touchscreen with broken mounting brackets, which you can just about see in the first photo I took of the interior at the end of 2021.
It barely worked, so I flogged it for £20 and intended to replace it.
We had a spare single din in the car, but this raised an issue. To fit a single din, we would need an original fascia, which had a clock and a small storage cubby underneath the slot for the stereo, which is great, but we didn't have one. The Jimny owners Facebook group helped, but another issue came up; wiring. I have no idea what the previous owner had done with the stereo and clock wiring, but it was all wrong. I got Shaun to re-solder a few wires and tidy it up a little, only to find the clock didn't work, and there was no adapter cable for a normal stereo, because the chinese double din had a very obscure type of plug. So, I found another clock and got that working, and then ordered an adapter for the Jimny's stereo wiring. After all that, the spare single din that came with the car worked for one day.
Christ sake.
So, after all that ballache, we went on Halfrauds/Amazon/Ebay to look at options for a new stereo. In the end, we went with an Avylet stereo, on offer for £24 on Amazon. It has no CD player or touchscreen, which is fine because we only want to use the Aux port. Thanks to the lack of a CD player, it's very shallow, meaning there was plenty of room behind it for all the wiring (the recess for the stereo is very small in the Jimny). However, I think my favourite part of it all is that it's so plastic-y and basic, it looks completely OEM.
All in all we're happy with the result, but it's now revealed how crap the speakers are, so that might be another item on the to-do list soon!
Another minor update, this time for the little Suzuki. It's been giving us a few issues with overheating over the last several months. At first, we tried a coolant flush, which helped, but it started overheating a few weeks later. More recently, I tried pressure washing the radiator, and cable tying the viscous fan so it's always on. That helped, but again, it's started getting very hot. So, it's booked in, and I'm going to throw the kitchen sink at it; new radiator, new viscous coupling, new thermostat.
In the meantime, I have finally fitted that most basic of creature comforts; a stereo!
So, when we bought it, the previous owner had rather crudely fitted a double din touchscreen with broken mounting brackets, which you can just about see in the first photo I took of the interior at the end of 2021.
It barely worked, so I flogged it for £20 and intended to replace it.
We had a spare single din in the car, but this raised an issue. To fit a single din, we would need an original fascia, which had a clock and a small storage cubby underneath the slot for the stereo, which is great, but we didn't have one. The Jimny owners Facebook group helped, but another issue came up; wiring. I have no idea what the previous owner had done with the stereo and clock wiring, but it was all wrong. I got Shaun to re-solder a few wires and tidy it up a little, only to find the clock didn't work, and there was no adapter cable for a normal stereo, because the chinese double din had a very obscure type of plug. So, I found another clock and got that working, and then ordered an adapter for the Jimny's stereo wiring. After all that, the spare single din that came with the car worked for one day.
Christ sake.
So, after all that ballache, we went on Halfrauds/Amazon/Ebay to look at options for a new stereo. In the end, we went with an Avylet stereo, on offer for £24 on Amazon. It has no CD player or touchscreen, which is fine because we only want to use the Aux port. Thanks to the lack of a CD player, it's very shallow, meaning there was plenty of room behind it for all the wiring (the recess for the stereo is very small in the Jimny). However, I think my favourite part of it all is that it's so plastic-y and basic, it looks completely OEM.
All in all we're happy with the result, but it's now revealed how crap the speakers are, so that might be another item on the to-do list soon!
It's been quite a while. I'll do a little summary...
The Volvo 240 is sitting in a garage. We've driven it a bit over summer and enjoyed it a little more this year, but nothing interesting has been done.
The Corsa is behaving well. No issues or changes.
The Jimny seems to have a head gasket leak. We've tried some steel seal recently so we'll see how well that bodge works.
The Paseo's battery died under warranty, and we got a new one. It's taken us to Devon and back again, achieving 45mpg, which was a little less than expected. Other than that, it drives lovely!
So, today's update is a little different; I've bought yet another car!
A Toyota Yaris
You can probably tell what the previous owner used the car for, given the questionable sticker on the bootlid. Before you ask, I did not get a happy ending with my purchase
It is a 2002 Toyota Yaris with a similar-sized 1.3 litre 4-cylinder petrol to the Suzuki Jimny, making a similar 86bhp, mated to a similar 4-speed torque converter. Sensing a theme?
I bought this automatic s***box as a potential replacement for the Jimny. If Katherine likes it, we keep it. If not, I'll breathe some life into it and sell it on, hopefully for a profit, but having a project car helps the depression either way.
The only issue I could find was a hole in the exhaust, which is easy enough to weld a patch over, and other than that, the body seems to be sound, and the car runs well, too. I drove it an hour to bring it home, and it compares rather well to the Jimny.
-The most noticeable benefit is its manners on dual carriageways. At 70mph, it turns about 3000rpm, where the Jimny is nearer 4000. It's much less stressed when cruising at speed.
-Possessing almost identical power figures, you'd expect performance to be fairly similar, but the Yaris picks up much better, thanks to weighing almost 200kg less.
-The automatic gearbox is smoother.
-Fuel economy and running costs should be noticeably lower.
-Oddly, though, the Jimny actually feels better on windy B-roads. The Yaris feels quite wayward and sloppy when turning hard, and the Jimny feels more planted. Perhaps that's down to wider tyres.
Either way, I'm going to be cleaning and polishing the car up before any decision is made, since it smells like old shoes and has a bloody great purple sticker on the bootlid. Or, had. The first thing I did upon getting the car home was to pull off the bootlid sticker, which was mind-numbing. I got most of the way through the lettering on the rear bumper but had to stop, so did what anyone would do in my situation.
I should hopefully be tackling the interior tomorrow...
The Volvo 240 is sitting in a garage. We've driven it a bit over summer and enjoyed it a little more this year, but nothing interesting has been done.
The Corsa is behaving well. No issues or changes.
The Jimny seems to have a head gasket leak. We've tried some steel seal recently so we'll see how well that bodge works.
The Paseo's battery died under warranty, and we got a new one. It's taken us to Devon and back again, achieving 45mpg, which was a little less than expected. Other than that, it drives lovely!
So, today's update is a little different; I've bought yet another car!
A Toyota Yaris
You can probably tell what the previous owner used the car for, given the questionable sticker on the bootlid. Before you ask, I did not get a happy ending with my purchase
It is a 2002 Toyota Yaris with a similar-sized 1.3 litre 4-cylinder petrol to the Suzuki Jimny, making a similar 86bhp, mated to a similar 4-speed torque converter. Sensing a theme?
I bought this automatic s***box as a potential replacement for the Jimny. If Katherine likes it, we keep it. If not, I'll breathe some life into it and sell it on, hopefully for a profit, but having a project car helps the depression either way.
The only issue I could find was a hole in the exhaust, which is easy enough to weld a patch over, and other than that, the body seems to be sound, and the car runs well, too. I drove it an hour to bring it home, and it compares rather well to the Jimny.
-The most noticeable benefit is its manners on dual carriageways. At 70mph, it turns about 3000rpm, where the Jimny is nearer 4000. It's much less stressed when cruising at speed.
-Possessing almost identical power figures, you'd expect performance to be fairly similar, but the Yaris picks up much better, thanks to weighing almost 200kg less.
-The automatic gearbox is smoother.
-Fuel economy and running costs should be noticeably lower.
-Oddly, though, the Jimny actually feels better on windy B-roads. The Yaris feels quite wayward and sloppy when turning hard, and the Jimny feels more planted. Perhaps that's down to wider tyres.
Either way, I'm going to be cleaning and polishing the car up before any decision is made, since it smells like old shoes and has a bloody great purple sticker on the bootlid. Or, had. The first thing I did upon getting the car home was to pull off the bootlid sticker, which was mind-numbing. I got most of the way through the lettering on the rear bumper but had to stop, so did what anyone would do in my situation.
I should hopefully be tackling the interior tomorrow...
The Yaris
Between work and the rain, I've managed to do a little more to the ass spa Yaris. I started with the boot, which was still full of various bits of sticker, along with what appears to be a spare fuel filler neck.
The more I removed, the more mess I found...
So, I got a bucket of soapy water to clean the wheel well...
I also removed the boot carpet to shampoo it separately...
Once I had given it a once over, I left it in my shed to dry. After a day or two, I shoved it back in the Yaris with the carpets aligned a little more nicely this time around. Not all the stains came out, but it's much better. I gave the plastics a quick scrub with some APC and a brush, too.
Next Up, I moved onto the rest of the interior, which had been given a quick hoover by the previous owner, but the car was still disgusting. I removed the mats to give them a thorough wet vac...
I then moved onto the rest of the car, working back-to-front.
The passenger seat was easily the worst part of the car. The horrid woollen fabric held onto years of dust and whatnot. I used a rubber squeegee intended for windows which picked up most of it.
The seat base, meanwhile, was even worse, with various suspect-looking stains towards the rear.
A thorough shampoo and agitation with a drill brush, followed by a wet vac helped.
The only other noteworthy part of vacuuming the interior was the driver's corner. The heelpad and pedals were fairly dirty, so I sprayed on some APC, agitated with a brush, and vacuumed out the water from the grooves. I didn't bother shampooing the surrounding carpets.
Before I do anything much with the exterior, I'm going to be taking it to my friend's workshop to get a patch welded over a hole in the exhaust centre box, as well as a general checkover, and possibly an MOT.
Between work and the rain, I've managed to do a little more to the ass spa Yaris. I started with the boot, which was still full of various bits of sticker, along with what appears to be a spare fuel filler neck.
The more I removed, the more mess I found...
So, I got a bucket of soapy water to clean the wheel well...
I also removed the boot carpet to shampoo it separately...
Once I had given it a once over, I left it in my shed to dry. After a day or two, I shoved it back in the Yaris with the carpets aligned a little more nicely this time around. Not all the stains came out, but it's much better. I gave the plastics a quick scrub with some APC and a brush, too.
Next Up, I moved onto the rest of the interior, which had been given a quick hoover by the previous owner, but the car was still disgusting. I removed the mats to give them a thorough wet vac...
I then moved onto the rest of the car, working back-to-front.
The passenger seat was easily the worst part of the car. The horrid woollen fabric held onto years of dust and whatnot. I used a rubber squeegee intended for windows which picked up most of it.
The seat base, meanwhile, was even worse, with various suspect-looking stains towards the rear.
A thorough shampoo and agitation with a drill brush, followed by a wet vac helped.
The only other noteworthy part of vacuuming the interior was the driver's corner. The heelpad and pedals were fairly dirty, so I sprayed on some APC, agitated with a brush, and vacuumed out the water from the grooves. I didn't bother shampooing the surrounding carpets.
Before I do anything much with the exterior, I'm going to be taking it to my friend's workshop to get a patch welded over a hole in the exhaust centre box, as well as a general checkover, and possibly an MOT.
While the Yaris has been waiting to have its MOT, I've taken on another small-ish project. An old friend of mine from school lives with his father, who has a couple of old cars sitting unused.
One is a 2002 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi, which wouldn't pass its MOT a year or two ago, due to the doors not opening, among other things they can't find parts for. The other is a 1995 Peugeot 405 Estate, which was left sitting about 12 years ago because the Skoda was being used instead. It never failed an MOT, but it's been turning into a bit of a terrarium. The Skoda is a competent car, which I'd rather see on the road instead of an untold mass of disgusting crossover SUVs, but the Peugeot interests me, thanks to its retro charm, and a genuinely high-quality interior (when compared to the nasty carpets and plastics on today's Peugeots).
In need of something fulfilling to do (as always), I managed, a bit selfishly I admit, to convince my friend that we should both try to get the Peugeot back on the road. Thankfully, he wants to see the 405 running again (partly to have a roadworthy wagon again, to complement his Dacia Sandero), so it's not completely selfish of me
After 12 years sitting outside, it was looking a little unloved...
One of the first issues we came across was that only the driver's door would open. The car had been left unlocked all this time, but the door handles were a bit seized. Some door-pin jiggling and brute force eventually got all 5 doors opening and closing reliably, and some oil on the hinges silenced the squeaking, too.
We fitted the Skoda's charged battery to see if it would start. The starter motor turned, but the headlights were flashing, and there was no spark. We figured it was the alarm and messed around with the key fob which had just enough charge to disarm the alarm, after lots of button-mashing. The headlights no longer flashed, but still no spark. Since the car was rather green, we decided that if we were spending any time working on it, the old girl should at least get washed.
Starting with the engine bay, we went top down. The insulation was covered in cobwebs, but wasn't chewed up at all.
Rather than pressure washing it and flooding the engine bay, we tried vacuuming it.
Next ,we cleaned the scuttle and behind the firewall, which was full of foliage. We also binned the split wiper blades.
The gearbox somehow had a few hundred sycamore seeds on it, which I vacuumed up.
Over on the left side, the fusebox was covered with more cobwebs...
I had also removed the intake and manifold plastic pipes to clean them separately, and get more access underneath. The engine itself came out looking a little better overall, but by no means spotless. The main aim was just to stop us getting completely covered in moss and gunk when we work on the car in future.
It's also worth noting that the oil dipstick quite literally fell apart when we removed it, so we need to order a replacement.
With the remaining daylight, we made a start on the outside of the car. The first thing I noticed was that the roof racks were quite crusty.
Given my obsession with weight-saving and efficiency, I suggested they be removed. I have not weighed them yet, but you can trust that I will
We then started washing the front and passenger side of the car. I pressure washed it off, and my friend used an assortment of brushes in the seams while I washed the paintwork.
We ran out of daylight at this point, so next time we'll finish washing the car, and then have a look at the non-start issue a little more.
One is a 2002 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi, which wouldn't pass its MOT a year or two ago, due to the doors not opening, among other things they can't find parts for. The other is a 1995 Peugeot 405 Estate, which was left sitting about 12 years ago because the Skoda was being used instead. It never failed an MOT, but it's been turning into a bit of a terrarium. The Skoda is a competent car, which I'd rather see on the road instead of an untold mass of disgusting crossover SUVs, but the Peugeot interests me, thanks to its retro charm, and a genuinely high-quality interior (when compared to the nasty carpets and plastics on today's Peugeots).
In need of something fulfilling to do (as always), I managed, a bit selfishly I admit, to convince my friend that we should both try to get the Peugeot back on the road. Thankfully, he wants to see the 405 running again (partly to have a roadworthy wagon again, to complement his Dacia Sandero), so it's not completely selfish of me
After 12 years sitting outside, it was looking a little unloved...
One of the first issues we came across was that only the driver's door would open. The car had been left unlocked all this time, but the door handles were a bit seized. Some door-pin jiggling and brute force eventually got all 5 doors opening and closing reliably, and some oil on the hinges silenced the squeaking, too.
We fitted the Skoda's charged battery to see if it would start. The starter motor turned, but the headlights were flashing, and there was no spark. We figured it was the alarm and messed around with the key fob which had just enough charge to disarm the alarm, after lots of button-mashing. The headlights no longer flashed, but still no spark. Since the car was rather green, we decided that if we were spending any time working on it, the old girl should at least get washed.
Starting with the engine bay, we went top down. The insulation was covered in cobwebs, but wasn't chewed up at all.
Rather than pressure washing it and flooding the engine bay, we tried vacuuming it.
Next ,we cleaned the scuttle and behind the firewall, which was full of foliage. We also binned the split wiper blades.
The gearbox somehow had a few hundred sycamore seeds on it, which I vacuumed up.
Over on the left side, the fusebox was covered with more cobwebs...
I had also removed the intake and manifold plastic pipes to clean them separately, and get more access underneath. The engine itself came out looking a little better overall, but by no means spotless. The main aim was just to stop us getting completely covered in moss and gunk when we work on the car in future.
It's also worth noting that the oil dipstick quite literally fell apart when we removed it, so we need to order a replacement.
With the remaining daylight, we made a start on the outside of the car. The first thing I noticed was that the roof racks were quite crusty.
Given my obsession with weight-saving and efficiency, I suggested they be removed. I have not weighed them yet, but you can trust that I will
We then started washing the front and passenger side of the car. I pressure washed it off, and my friend used an assortment of brushes in the seams while I washed the paintwork.
We ran out of daylight at this point, so next time we'll finish washing the car, and then have a look at the non-start issue a little more.
The Jimny has been sitting rather neglected until recently. The overheating issue that's troubled it for over a year appears to be a blowing head gasket, which on a Jimny, pretty much means it's time for the scrapyard. After what we've put into it, we didn't really want it to come to that.
I tried a steel-seal, which I thought was a snake-oil bodge. Following the instructions to the letter, it did improve things quite dramatically. It now only burns about 200ml of coolant per tank of fuel. The temp gauge still reads high after 20 minutes or so, though my mechanic is fairly sure it's hot gasses flowing through the head gasket, passing over the sensor, giving a false reading. When you turn the engine off after a long journey, and then turn the ignition back on again, the temp gauge immediately drops to optimum, so I'm inclined to believe him. Still, for now, the car works, so we'll get what we can out of it.
In other news, I had the side steps/rock sliders cut off to save a little more weight...
They weigh 8.8kg each, so I've saved another 17.6kg off the car. I also removed the rear wiper and motor, for another kilo saving. The total should be somewhere around 90kg now. I'll do a breakdown at some point. It does feel a bit more lively since. I also gave it a long-overdue wash. I removed the roof rails, partly out of curiosity for another weight-saving, but the car looked wrong without them, and it wasn't worth it for about 1.5kg each.
I took the opportunity to clean under the rails while they were off...
Yes, the fake vent fell off
I tried a steel-seal, which I thought was a snake-oil bodge. Following the instructions to the letter, it did improve things quite dramatically. It now only burns about 200ml of coolant per tank of fuel. The temp gauge still reads high after 20 minutes or so, though my mechanic is fairly sure it's hot gasses flowing through the head gasket, passing over the sensor, giving a false reading. When you turn the engine off after a long journey, and then turn the ignition back on again, the temp gauge immediately drops to optimum, so I'm inclined to believe him. Still, for now, the car works, so we'll get what we can out of it.
In other news, I had the side steps/rock sliders cut off to save a little more weight...
They weigh 8.8kg each, so I've saved another 17.6kg off the car. I also removed the rear wiper and motor, for another kilo saving. The total should be somewhere around 90kg now. I'll do a breakdown at some point. It does feel a bit more lively since. I also gave it a long-overdue wash. I removed the roof rails, partly out of curiosity for another weight-saving, but the car looked wrong without them, and it wasn't worth it for about 1.5kg each.
I took the opportunity to clean under the rails while they were off...
Yes, the fake vent fell off
I started a new project on the Jimny over the last week, out of boredom, and a desire to waste some money. A local scrapyard had a 2006 Jimny come in, and it turned out to have a part-leather interior, which I thought would be a nice upgrade to our Jimny. I went there in an empty Corsa, removed the front and rear seats myself, along with the door cards, which I got for £120 total.
Having come from a Jimny that was used on a farm, the seats were disgusting. Dust, grime, dog hair and mould permeated the seats, front and rear, so I spent my free time over the next few days cleaning them up.
The rear bench wasn't too bad, needing only a vacuum and a clean up with some Surfex HD and a soft brush.
The carpet-backed backrests needed a more thorough vacuum meanwhile...
Moving onto the fronts, I started with the passenger side, which was the better of the two...
When I sat the cleaned passenger seat next to the untouched driver seat, I started to worry that it might be a little far-gone, given how stark the contrast was...
Since I was committed, I began to clean the driver seat. The chihuahua helped.
The driver seat came out better than expected in the end.
With part 1 done, it was a case of waiting for some decent weather to swap the seats...
Having come from a Jimny that was used on a farm, the seats were disgusting. Dust, grime, dog hair and mould permeated the seats, front and rear, so I spent my free time over the next few days cleaning them up.
The rear bench wasn't too bad, needing only a vacuum and a clean up with some Surfex HD and a soft brush.
The carpet-backed backrests needed a more thorough vacuum meanwhile...
Moving onto the fronts, I started with the passenger side, which was the better of the two...
When I sat the cleaned passenger seat next to the untouched driver seat, I started to worry that it might be a little far-gone, given how stark the contrast was...
Since I was committed, I began to clean the driver seat. The chihuahua helped.
The driver seat came out better than expected in the end.
With part 1 done, it was a case of waiting for some decent weather to swap the seats...
So, the seats. We started with the rears, and I had some reservations about whether they'd fit or not. The reason for that is the seats came from a facelifted 2006 Jimny. While I thought the only changes made during that facelift were the front bumper, centre console, introduction of VVT engine, and the change from a 4WD-select lever to buttons, it turned out that the rear bench is mounted differently.
The original rear seats were two individual items that each flip forwards.
As you might have seen in the last post, the leather bench was one single item that fits into place via fasteners. Thankfully, when we removed the original rear seats, we found these two bolt-holes.
Perfect! We screwed in the mounting bracket ready for the rear bench.
After that, the rear backrests were identical, other than some plastic trim to hide the mounting brackets.
The only issue was that the plastic trim made it so my carpeted boot floor no longer fits, so I'll need to cut it slightly. Meanwhile, the front seats were very easy. Four bolts and no wiring made for a ten minute job.
I also changed the door cards a few days later. The scrap Jimny also had chrome door handles which lifted the appearance a little more. Unfortunately the passenger side has been chewed up by a dog, but overall, I still think it was an improvement.
It's been one of the more fun jobs I've done lately. I need some more interiors to tart up!
The original rear seats were two individual items that each flip forwards.
As you might have seen in the last post, the leather bench was one single item that fits into place via fasteners. Thankfully, when we removed the original rear seats, we found these two bolt-holes.
Perfect! We screwed in the mounting bracket ready for the rear bench.
After that, the rear backrests were identical, other than some plastic trim to hide the mounting brackets.
The only issue was that the plastic trim made it so my carpeted boot floor no longer fits, so I'll need to cut it slightly. Meanwhile, the front seats were very easy. Four bolts and no wiring made for a ten minute job.
I also changed the door cards a few days later. The scrap Jimny also had chrome door handles which lifted the appearance a little more. Unfortunately the passenger side has been chewed up by a dog, but overall, I still think it was an improvement.
It's been one of the more fun jobs I've done lately. I need some more interiors to tart up!
jamesson said:
Regarding the passenger door card, could you not simply swap the chrome handle and arm rest? I can't see how all those scratches make it an improvement!
The armrest cannot be swapped. I was hoping to, but it's just part of the whole assembly. The choice is either chewed up plastic with decent matching armrest, or decent plastic with chewed up mismatched armrest. I'll be on the lookout for a replacement door card with the same black fabric and decent plastics.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff