VC Commodore cabin clean - Our Shed

By: Glenn Torrens - Words & Photos

Date: 14.01.2023

Glenn Torrens gets into the comfort zone of his VC Holden Commodore resurrection

The minor rust of my saved-from-the-wrecker 1981 VC Holden Commodore has been repaired. I’ll get to the mechanical make-over soon – and I have no intention of doing anything with that paint! – so the next important task in this car’s resurrection was to give its interior a makeover.

Despite being more than 40 years old and having been parked under a pine tree for half its life, the interior of this car was quite tidy. In fact, apart from the tatty carpet, two cracks in the dash and a few smudges of dirt, the car’s upholstery looked almost as if dad had driven this Commodore home from his office just last night, rather than last century.

It didn’t need much more than a good clean!

| Read next: Project Coomadore rust repairs

I rust-proofed the insides of the four doors; later I will protect the sills, the front chassis rails and the bases of the front guards

So that’s where I began; cleaning the door cards, dash and console, and the seats’ vinyl edges. While the interior was apart I wanted to clean the insides of the car’s door shells – to remove any dust and mud – and to apply a rust-proofing compound.

After a spray session with a cheap ‘n cheerful general-purpose kitchen cleaner, I removed the armrests and door trims to get inside the doors to pick out the remains of the dried, broken window seals and to give everything a pressure-wash.

This is how the interior looked when I bought the car – dirty trim and tatty carpet. But it didn’t take much work to make nice again

After allowing everything to dry for a few days, I degreased and re-lubed the four-door latches and sprayed the door interiors with rust inhibitor. I’ll apply rust stuff to the remainder of the car (front chassis rails, sills, inside rear quarter panels etc) later.

To make my Commodore truly comfy – and to give it back most of its early-1980s showroom appeal – I ordered brand new cut-pile carpet from resto specialist Ausclassics. After the carpet was delivered I got to work by removing the front and rear seats. They were pressure-washed.

I bought fresh carpet from Ausclassics. It’s the original grey colour but because I wear thongs all summer, I chose lovely cut pile instead of the VC’s original loop pile

My Commodore’s under-carpet felt sound-proofing was a bit tatty so I hand-cut a replacement before laying in the new carpet. Like many of these 1980s Commodores, there was minor cracking in the floor under the front seats that needed to be repaired by welding.

This is easy with the carpet removed... but my welder was broken so I had to come back to this task after I’d installed the carpet. Bummer!

The dashboard, like most Commodores, has several cracks in it. But a cheap ’n cheerful dash mat makes things tidy again without spending too much moolah

I had a set of new seat belts to install; I bought the four retractables and one fixed lap- only belt (for the centre rear) direct from Hemco in Victoria. Installing new seatbelts is much easier with the seats and trim out of the way!

A kitchen fire blanket is ideal for shielding carpet and trim when welding in confined spaces – for instance, Commodores with half the interior still in place!

While the interior was stripped, I also attended to the problem of the heater blower not working beyond the second of its four speeds.

Sure enough, dead circuits at the blower motor’s plug led me to suspect the sliding speed control lever as the likely culprit for the no-blow. It’s far easier to diagnose and replace this hardware with the console out... I installed another switch module and the fan works as it should!

Commodores often suffer cracked floors. I cleaned the area, jacked- up the slightly sunken floors and zapped the cracks with my trusty MIG welder

As mentioned, the dash has a few cracks; it’s not so horrible to be worth the time, effort and expense of a replacement so I’ve ‘fixed’ the problem with a carpet dash cover.

With its gorgeous cloth seats, tidy door trims, plus new carpet and seat belts, this Commodore’s interior is, once again, a comfy place to cruise!

Not a sight you want to see but all part and parcel of a resto

As I do with all my resurrected cars, I installed brand new seat belts. The four retractables and one fixed belt came from Hemco. Cost was around $700 for the lot. What price safety?

Cassette player for road trips old school style

The original door cards were good enough to re-use with nothing more than a clean

Take a seat, now they’ve been cleaned and ready to go back into the cabin

The velour seats look at treat and near new

From Unique Cars #473, Dec 2022/Jan 2023

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