Afternoon all,
So far I’ve failed to obtain front leather headrests but will continue the search. I know they can come up from time to time. Fingers crossed I’ll find what’s required soon enough to compliment the heated, black leather electric lumbar SE seats. So impressed with them as they’re starting to clean up really well.
To compensate the lack of correct headrests I thought I’d quickly move elsewhere and update the footwell:
Yes it needs a clean down there already.
The rear wheels have recently been off to investigate the vertical handbrake lever. I can report that I now fully locking wheels when the handbrake is applied and the handbrake lever no longer is vertical so that sees the rear brakes good to go for MOT, just the front discs and pads to replace now. I’ll get to them when I replace some of the suspension items.
The A1 MFSW that’s resided in both Project OEM and 250 has been handed down to this A2. I’ve not got an A1 airbag now as swapped it for an A3 8V type but they’re easy enough to come by when I need one for MOT:
Left hand button not fully fitted as it’s part of my heated MFSW testing kit.
The rest of the retrofit is now complete though but only for the Concert 2. It really is in need of a RNS-E PU fitting which leads nicely to the dashboard saga!
The double DIN dashboard conversion has commenced, but only away from the vehicle so far. Having a Jive double DIN dashboard spare along with a spare Soul single DIN dashboard made me investigate further what might be possible…
Initially removed the double DIN cage to transplant into the single DIN dashboard. As much as it’s totally possible I thought it wouldn’t be as perfect as I’d like and might be better to take a different approach. Namely painting the Jive dashboard.
Knowing how much you have to ‘handle’ the dashboard during carrying from the garage and during installation I thought painting the complete dashboard could easily see the finish spoilt so have chose a method that doesn’t see the whole item receiving a new coat of paint:
Jive double DIN dashboard
Soul single DIN dashboard
You can see what I’ve already done
Yes I’ve had the Mr Dremel out again, this time to remove the centre part from both dashboards (
5 minutes removing the plastic melt fixings just like the rear cup holder dismantle guide) and will simply add the Soul painted Jive centre part to the Soul dashboard:
Of course painting the Jive item Soul before it’s perfectly/strongly adhered into position.
Less painting and less chance of compromising the newly painted finish. Just need to find a good paint and lacquer now. As much as I like the Volico product, I think it’ll cost around £60 (2x Soul 1x Lacquer) to obtain the finish I’m after so will ask James
@jp.oog what products he uses for his hard touch refurbishment service as it might be a little more economical on the wallet.
There is now no immediate rush on this project as it looks like this is just going to be a spare vehicle to ‘play with’ when bargain desirable items present themselves for sale. I’ll retrofit as much to it as possible at rock bottom prices before I decide it’s destiny.
Kind regards,
Tom