From the earlier photos you could see that the car's interior was fairly complete, however much of it was in poor condition as you would expect from 45 years use. I wanted to keep as much of the original interior as possible but there were issues with almost every part. One of the rear seat bases had a cigarette burn, one of the rear quarter panels had a tear, the rear seat backs vinyl had chips along the top, the parcel shelf was broken along the cardboard spine and the door cards had speaker holes cut into them. I bought some original replacement panels but wasn't too impressed with the finish since the vinyl had slightly different shades to the parts in my car due to ageing and overall, the effect looked pretty poor. So I bit the bullet and asked Southbound to retrim almost every panel. In fact, the only parts kept in their original state were the dash top, knee bars and the garnish rails. Southbound's materials were a good match to the originals and their stitching and finish was very good.
Gary said the carpet set fitted very well and I liked the ribbed rubber beneath the pedals so I asked Southbound to make a set of salt and pepper over mats with the same ribbed rubber:
You may have read elsewhere that I wasn't too happy with the Recaro Sports seats I had bought and had restored and reupholstered by Southbound. Originally, my head was almost touching the roof which is baffling since I am only 5'9" and slim. Southbound adjusted the seats and they are ok(ish) now. I still feel my knees are a little close to steering wheel (40cm) but will see how I feel with time.
When I first placed my order with Southbound, their roof lining had square perforations but by the time my interior was needed they had introduced the now common diamond perforations. It is not an exact match but fairly close.
Original:
New replacement:
The colour is a little more "mushroom" but I think this actually works well with my original sun visors. My passenger side sun visor is in very good condition. I thought about restoring the driver's side, as others have done here, but it isn't too bad so have left it for now. The sun visor hinges were rusty and the chrome was flaking. It was cheaper to order replacements from Carpoint but the quality was not very good (beware if you are considering purchasing these) so I had my originals rechromed.
However, the Carpoint door striker rebuild kit is very good and I would recommend this:
My rear quarter window openers were fine but I came across a pair of very nice originals for the same price as the Carpoint repros, so a no brainer:
I wanted to retain my original 1973 stamped Repa seat belts with the red jelly bean button but preferred the inertia reel set up to the statics I had. I knew this should be possible since it was a factory option:
After a lot of searching for various seat belt parts, I managed to put these together. Orange tracer seat belt webbing and dated labels from Stretch (thank you, Dave). Gary made the inertia reel covers, had the components replated and reassembled the seat belt parts. They work well and are much better than before.
Took a while to find these sports receivers with the long black plastic backs:
I also wanted to have rear seatbelts in the for the kids (although three years on, my daughter is finding it a squeeze in the back!). Original 1969 dated Repa lap belts were kindly offered to me from barryb (thank you, Barry). I knew lap belts would not be as safe as three point so with some work, we managed to put these three point belts together:
All the belts were stitched by FDTS and they were excellent and very pleasant to deal with. They also supplied the black webbing and some of the hardware including these hooks. I'm not too sure I like them but they are convenient for storing the belts away:
The previous owner had supplied me with the original door pockets but they are too far gone to restore so I ordered these replacements from Carpoint. I have read that some question their fit versus the ones supplied by Porsche but these were fine and fitted without any issues:
I have never understood how the driver's side door is supposed to be closed without a door handle to pull on. Since the door pockets on my had been removed I used to pull on the door frame. Gary said that some pull on the small door pocket but we both agreed that having a proper door handle would be better. I sourced this one from the US but have kept the original RHD one I had.
The electric window switch bezels were real chrome plated plastic which I believe was also used on Mercedes cars of the same era. My passenger side window switch was in good condition but the chrome was peeling on the two driver's side switches. Although chrome plated plastic is still used today, I found it very difficult to find a company who would restore these two switch bezels for me. One company that tried to provide this service were not happy with the results since the plating was too thick such that the bezel would not fit around the switch and thinner plating showed the defects in the plastic beneath. In the end, I used a company that applied chrome spray paint to the bezels and the results were good.
Paint plaque supplied by Ake Olssons at Skaraborgflyg (he also supplied the engine decals shown on my last post). Good reproductions and a nice guy to deal with. Gary stamped the paint plaque for me 936-9-3 per davep (thank you, Dave).
My windscreen had a chip and had also been repaired previously so we replaced this but kept the old tax disc holder:
Kind regards
Gitesh