Thread: Rebuilding Sid

Nice end to the week, seats are back!



I may be doing the old boys back in Birmingham a bit of a disservice, but I’m pretty sure French seams weren’t on the original options list

Things were clearly going too well. With the end in sight I’ve had a major setback.


Connected the last of the lights that arrived yesterday and one has a dead short.

Unfortunately in the time it took to disconnect the battery, the loom caught fire.

No damage to Sid other than the new loom is toast. Literally.

Hopefully I can get a new one made quickly and Sid will be back driving soon.

And hopefully you can claim on the supplier of the light for the new wiring . I made sure I added extra fuses on Landy on the last rebuild with a hidden fuse box under the bonnet near the bulkhead on the inner guard. Decided on this after having a pinched wire between instrument panel & bulkhead , took 25 years before it eventually shorted & burnt out the ignition wiring.

Fitted one similar to this worked a treat 1-7fed615f9f-rb9kfvmigngagktiaa0q3t1e3gs095.jpg

Alas, I doubt there is going to be much sympathy from an eBay seller for $800 claim against a $60 light.

Thinking about rigging some fuses on the lighting circuits

The wiring problem hopefully has a solution that won’t take too long to resolve.

Only the lighting circuits back to the dash were fried. I can’t be sure what the heat did to other circuits and it destroyed the woven cloth cover, so new loom is on its way and I can still run the engine.

Kept going with the fitout, today was rebuilding seat runners. They had rusted up and needed to be stripped apart, but they were never designed to be taken to pieces.



To get them apart you have to drill out the pressed indents that lock in the springs and ball bearings. Drill out one pair at each end.


This allows the bearings and springs to run beyond the stops and the whole thing comes to pieces.

Warning, there’s lots of sharp bits and you will trap fingers as you tap it apart.

Reassembly is fiddly, reverse of the sequence of taking apart, but you can push new bearings in after it’s together, similarly, the roller springs can be tapped in with a square piece of wood.

To replace the indents I tapped the holes and fitted grub screws



They aren’t the smoothest and I’m tempted to replace with after market sides. I’ll see if they loosen up.

More seat runners.

Gave up on originals. Found a universal set of 4x4 runners on eBay, delivered in 48 hrs for $38.

Nearly a straight swap, but they are a touch shorter. (These runners are 4x4 set at 440mm centres which is exactly the same as the originals. Sports or drift runners are narrower).

So made up some plates.

5mm galv, these go inside the seat box and reinforce between the front and back of the box, picking up the old holes.


Done. Only an hours work all in, but these slide every time, not just every now and again.

There’s a lot of finishing bits and pieces.

Metal stuff today.


New floors. 2mm aluminium and they will get painted orange. I had several sets of floors to use as templates and nothing really fitted so cardboard again.


Made some lids for the tub.

Rolled a feature strip in them for strength, it’s meant to mimic the rub strips in the tub.

Last day of painting (hopefully).



It’s just lots of bits and pieces now, but I am up against a deadline.

Loom is nearly done, hoping to have the replacement next week.

Hoops have arrived!!! But now realised he won’t go under the garage door

Started to fit door seals, but have to make spacers for hinges.

Still missing the spare wheel which remains at the powder coater

And then there’s the hood. Been in order for a while and hoping it appears soon but I’m getting a little nervous.