With the headliner fitted & the pillar panels in place it was time to pay some attention to the rest of the interior. First job was to clean out the floor pan of the months of debris.
With the new upholstery in store, the new floor mats were laid out along with the old ones. The pop fasteners were in various states of decomposition but the exact positioning could be transferred to the new mats using the old ones as templates.
With the fasteners in place the mats could be laid down. The drivers side required additional work to make holes for the pedals, dip switch and the hand brake but this was an easy task with a sharp knife and careful trimming.
The doors and boot lid have seals that feature a metal push fit flexible channel that fits over the body panel lip. It required some clamping to get it to bite evenly. The door seal also helps fasten the door pillar internal trim panels.
The bonnet did not feature the rubber stops usually found on Regals. Instead a vinyl trim was fitted. So this feature was reproduced.
The lap belts were never factory fitted items, but Phoebe did have some after market ones. The rear mount is through the body to a special frame attached to the chassis. The floor mounts originally featured a two bolt fitting. The new belts only had the one bolt fitting. In order to annotate the belt mount and provide a sturdy mount, some Land Rover seat belt mount brackets were adapted and bolted down using high tensile fittings.
With the floor mat laid out, it was a dive underneath to see which of the many holes in the body matched the mounting points. The seats are fixed by three mounts. I grabbed the old ones to help mark out the positions, whilst some NOS ones got a coat of paint.
Popping the seats in threw up some issues. Here I have the replacement seat for the driver, with the nut for one of the chairs rods fouling the bodywork. It turns out the screw head end of the fitting needs to be closest to the wall ! When the bolts on the mounts were tightened it pulled the seats down to the point they could not be moved forwards or backwards. Experimenting with various washers helped, but did not solve the problem. In the end plates were fitted between the mount and carpet. These are featured in the parts manual, but it states they are "underfloor" fittings.
With the seats in place the belts are put up out of the way.