My Rivage interior project

I've always wanted a blue Rivage with cream leather, and when I finally decided to get one, could I find one in good condition, NO. So I settled for blue cloth Rivage. Then what do you know, about 10 came up in great condition and the right price, DOH!

So anyway, after a few failed attempts of buying a genuine Rivage cream leather interior. 1 tuned out to be black & ripped, then next was battered, beyond the good condition it was described as, 1 sold on ebay for silly money and the story goes on….. I thought about having the interior retrimmed, and was looking about ?1200.

So I decided to make my own!  8O

I bought some genuine Rivage cream leather doorcards off eBay (thanks badvwboy) for ?85, a brand new buscuit carpet from Newtown Commercial ?130 with club discount, cream leather gear and handbreak gaitor off eBay for ?20 and some cream leatherette seat covers off eBay for ?125. They custom made them exactly like the Riavge ones for me, they look the absolute business. I've yet to fit them, so I won't hold my breath.

Anyway, Phase 1, carpet & door cards:

This is what the interior was like when I started




 The rear seats had holes in when I bought the car, the previous owner have just drilled the seats for the headrests to fit.

So I started by taking off the seat runner covers


Then out came the fronts seats


I kept all the little screws in this tray, better be on the safe side.


Then out with the rear bench



I bought this little interior tool kit off eBay for ?3! great bit of kit


Then out with the rear door cards, just undid the winder screw and popped out the card.


The previou owner had put Sony 6x9's in the parcel shelf, stupid coz when you put the roof down, you can't hear them! So I was going to take them out an upgrade the standard speakers in the rear door cards. You can imagine my amazement when I saw these little beauts!

The wiring was all screwed up spliced here and there, it was coming out tho.


I took the speakers out, coz I needed to swap them over to the leather door cards.


Next the carpet.
I started with the rear section.

It had a few of these clips holding it in, also had to take the seat belt bolts out.

Sill cover had to come off

A few clips holding the carpet in place


Only found 5p in the whole process!


Rear section of carpet had some silcon style glue holding it down


Rear section out


Next started to take the front doorcards apart





Disconnect tweaters, looks like somebody has fitted capacitor cross overs


Door pockets come off from the back


I called it a day at this point and started dismantling some beers instead! :mrgreen:

So the next day, with a slight hang over, I realised afterwards that I'd forgotten to take many pics whilst I was working, doh  

The knee bar was a nightmare to get off, my club style hands were not small enough to squeeze in to some small places.

Centre consol had to come out



The front carpet was a little more tricky to come out, theres some round clips that hold it on at the front, but it all came out eventually. Sound deadening was in pretty good condition so I left it all as it was. I'm really gutted that I didn't take any more pics as it was all going back together. I was too excited to care!

Here's the carpet from Newtown Commercial, buscuit colour


So jump forward a bit and this is how it looked earlier on today.





Do you like my wooden steering wheel? ?5 off eBay ages ago! It had a few splits in the wood so I sanded all the paint off and repared the knackered laminations at work. It helps being a wood work teacher! Stained it with some teak wood stain, then used some 2pack clear coat to get the shine back. The door cards had some holes cut in them for window winders, but i've made some blankning plates and am waiting for some cream leather to cover them with.

Next on the list is phase 2, the seats!

Doing some excellent work mate, looking forward to seeing the seats…

If you're binning the blue vinyl, I wouldnt mind some off-cuts so as I can repair my drivers seat bolster - let me know your plans and we could sort something out  8)

Steve

yeh if these seats come out well i know what ill be buying next! looking good!

Sorry seat cloth is already promised to somebody else, I started the rear seat earlier, should be easier than I expected!

whats the quality of the carpet like?

Interior looks great What a difference a new carpet makes. Where did you get yourcar mats from? Im looking for plain black ones that actually fit so Im hoping the company you got them from sells plain ones. The ones I have are  too wide.

Crazy_Ivan said

whats the quality of the carpet like?

My new black carpet from Newton commercial came a few weeks ago but havent fitted it yet. The pile isnt as thick as the original carpets but it looks very well made and everyone says they fit perfeectly

Carpet is good quality, doesn't have all the holes you'd expect, seat belt mounting etc. Fits well, but i'd say the darker the better, as theres a few wrinkles in mine, near the passenger front footwell, which you'd probably not see if it were black. But i'm defo happy so far.

I got the floor mats from Ultimate Dubs this year, can't remember who from tho. Ans4r was there with me when I bought them, think I paid about ?15 for them.

Here's a quick question: How do you get the rear seat upper section out? I've folded it forward and can see at the bottom where it hinges, but they have rounded heads on the bolts? :dontknow:

I've re-covered the bottm rear seat and it looks fab. Much easier than I expected. I just need to get the upper section out to do that and start on the fronts. I'll post some pics later.

Interior looks great often contemplated a new carpet for my rivage, you just need to get the cream leather arm rest in the door and the look will be complete.

To get the back rest off there are 2 bolts on both bottom corners you just need to bull the corners back to get to it then release the top.

Drew

So I had a go at the rear seats today, with great success. A previous owner had drilled holes in the top of the seat frame to fit head rests. I was in 2 minds wheather to keep them or not, still am to be honest. But i've got all the gubing that you need to do the headrest conversion in the shed, so i'm in no rush. So I made the decision to take them all apart and have a look at the insides, then retrim them with the cream leatherette. But leave the headrests to a later date.

Started with the base.
Unwound the wire keeping the cover taught

Then you have to unclip these wires that hold the fabric tight to the foam

Heres the 2 covers

I had to slide all the wires out of the old covers and then slightly bend the ends to make it easier to re tread them in to the new covers. I sued a loop of electrical wire to slide though first then hook the wire over the end and then pull through.

Base retrimmed

And in the car


Next the back support. I couldn't figure out for ages how to take it off. I knew that if you pull the lever in the boot and then unlock the seats rom the side, this would tilt the seat forward. But could I figure out how to unclip the seats from the hinge at the bottom, no. Then smack, i saw that they unscrew at the hinge part      

So with the seat out, I lay it on it'ds front and took the rear cover off.

The back just pops off, revealing the inards

You cansee where the holes had been drilled

The sides are hog clipped in, and the top and bottom use a thick cardboard insert to keep them in place.

Then just like the base, unhook all the wires and then transfere them in to the new cover.



The holes in the frame for the headrests are going to be covered over for the time being. I could just make a small hole in the fabric and just place them back in. But, I want to do it properly at a later date.


And here it is all back in


I'll start taking the front seats apart tomorrow, hopefully be done by the weekend, or the sunday evening!

They look a bit baggy, but I still need to add more hog clips to make it all taught and then steam the hole interior to a perfect fit.

And the 6x9's in gthe shelf are going aswell,l so at some point i'm goingto need to make a new shelf and re trim that in either cream carpet ot cream leather.

I was in a furniture shop today and was looking at some leather cushions. I think i'll get 2 in cream for the rear seats when i'm all done.

that looks the business bud very nice indeedie….im not jealous at all…hmmm..no i am really 8)  8)  8)  8)

looking good

looking good what a difference

Cheers, i'm proper chuffed, but I had a go at the passenger seat last night, OMG  8O  Hog clip heaven. The base was easy enough, but the back rest was a nightmare to undo. There are loads of hog clips inside keeping it all in place and the worst part was trying to get the head rest plastic tubes out. My poor fingers got savaged! If I had some decent hog clip pliers, instead of using normal pliers, I recon I could do a half decent job. But i'm off out today to see if I can get some a t a good price.

By the end of the day, it'll either be looking good or I would have admitted defeat and sent the front to my local trimmers to get finished off! :roll:  ops:

So wish I was at Coombe Abbey, but can't make it. Right, no luck on the hog clip pliers in Hereford. So the front seat backs will probably end up at the trimmers to get finished off. I might buy some off ebay yet, proper stuck about what to do next for a few reasons. I took the drives seat apart today, both door side bolsters were knackered, but I knew this and in preparation I bought a donor seat from BVF earlier this month. However, I made the school boy mistake of getting a tin top GTI passenger seat The backs are the same but the base is different.      So I need a good cabby font GTI seat base to finish off. Which means I have a good condition GTI base set of foams if anybody needs them, drop me a PM.

So I retrimmed the passenger base anyway.

I started off by taking head restd out

Then off with the handles

Then the plastic trims

I then separated the back from the base.

The base is really easy to do. Undo the wire holding the cover on underneath then slide the cover off. It's held in by the same wires as the rears. Here's the passenger base redone.

Again I have to tighten it all up and steam them, but happy with the result.
Heres the knackered drivers base.



Heres the headrests redone

Front back covers waiting to go on, I had a trial fit and they looked good.

You can see the difference between my 1991 passenger back and the 1983 tin top donor back! Look at the colour difference! 8O


And all my original Blue Rivage cloth finally off


So this is far as I can go for now, untill I get a new drivers or passenger foam cabby base in good condition. I'll try and get the backs to the trimmers to finish off, but I may end up buying some hog clip pliers off ebay. We'll soon see…..

I've just realised that I haven't said where I got the leatherette covers from I bought them from a company on eBay called Eurotrims for ?125. They fit really well, and i'm very happy with the quality, they even include a bag of hog clips & 2 seat belt pads.

ive tried searching for them on ebay and cant find them, any chance you can post a link? thanks
JJ

I know that this isn't the auction that I used but they are the same people and i'm sure that they'll do it for the same price as I had ?125:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250463919397

These are the photos that I used to send to the company to copy





Not bad eh

did they do you door cards as well??