1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500 Restoration

It's been a bit busy over the past couple of weeks with decent progress on the old can but before we get into that I just want to fill you all in on the engine noise. I wanted to check the cam followers as the noise was within that region so I popped the rocker cover off, removed the rockershaft and pushrods, once this was done I inserted a magnet down to the followers and sure enough the very back 3 were a bit sticky so I poured some engine oil down there and exercised the followers using the magnet until they were sliding freely, I assume this has happened because the engine has only really ran at idle so they might not have been getting as much oil as they normally would. Anyway started reassembling and whilst torqueing up the rockershaft nuts the stud stripped... curse word. Thankfully it stripped on the nut side, new 1 is on order along with a new thicker cover gasket just in case the rockers were fouling the cover. Enough waffle time for the progress update. So after the success of retrimming the armrest I thought I'd swallow the brave pill and attempt the seats, bit of a confession I did the passenger seat 1st to practise but I'll show the drivers. and speaking of the drivers seat, here it is in all its beige ruined glory,



Yeah not what I'd call ideal. Never mind I got to work stripping it down by removing the base and back cover,





I think its safe to say at this point that none of it was reusable aside from the frame, good job i purchased everything. After i removed the crumbling old foam the frame was cleaned up and received a nice coat of satin black and new straps.



It seems to be quite a trend with this thread that i just get in the zone and forget to take pictures however after this stage i sprayed a liberal amount on contact glue to the back of the new foam and the frame, stick them together, place new clips into the pockets and slide the new cover over and clip it into place which was made easier after leaving the cover on the radiator for a couple of hours. The seat base got similar treatment and after much swearing the new covers were on,




(I did finish the lower edges after the picture was taken) Next up headrest. Pretty easy job just remove the lower plate and pull the cover off to revile more crumbling 70s foam... Nasty




And heres the finished result




By no means perfect but considering I'm a complete novice when it comes to trimming I'm pretty chuffed with the result, I can confirm that they are pretty comfortable and the leather feels great, was well worth the expense however i do think i need a smaller steering wheel haha



So along with the seats I've also fitted a new plastic trans cover which for an aftermarket part fitted really well, just needed to trim the lip down for a flush fit. After this the carpet piece was fitted followed by a new gear knob and radio frame (what a ball ache that was to fit).





And that just about wraps this update up sorry its been a long 1.