Episode 19

Finishing the interior:

The interior started out great, with decent BMW sourced Recaros a decent back seat, OK carpeting and then devolved with the reconfiguration of the transmission tunnel and addition of the cage. First came Dynamat, then recutting the carpet from before the conversion, and a period of running carpet square tiles on top of that. The tunnel was never covered, and as a trunk divider I simply refit the cardboard piece that fit behind the stock rear seat. Recently, I got together with Tom Richardson, who did the carpets in the Alfa SS, and he agreed to create and fit carpets to the Cortina. He inspired me to make a proper trunk divider he could work with in order to finish off the 'rear-seat-delete' area behind the roll bar.

Above, the divider in thin plywood, and slots into the stock tab for the cardboard divider and attaches a three points across the top....

For the seat bottom area, the platform had to be two-piece to be able to be placed in the car with the roll cage.

Incorporated into the deleted area was a provision for a tie-down hook. This may or may not be accessable - depending upon how the upholstery comes together.

The backside of the the divider was clad in thin sheet aluminum, making it more of a firewall. The addition of the solid divider (instead of cardboard) reduced interior noise by about 40%.

Progress in expert hands - Tom creates patterns and lays down padding and carpet.

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Rear fenderwell detailing.

Rear roll bar mount and rear bottom seat delete panel details.

Shift boot progress.

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Making the pattern for the rear divider, taking cues from the door panel patterns.

Test fit of the rear divider... looking good.

Carpet progress...

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Divider with top panel completed

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Definitely a huge improvement, both in looks and further refining the interior auditory experience.

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