It was just one of those little things that I wasn’t prepared to live with. The Crab is never going to win any concours prizes - the paint has a not so bad side and a bloody awful side, the chrome is questionable at best and the interior isn’t wearing its 34 years that well.

   But I can live with gentle decrepitude. It adds an undeniable charm to a car. What I can’t live with is the bodged, half arsed attempts at restoration of previous owners.

   You may not understand what the problem was if you took a closer look at the Cosmic Bus’ interior. The seats have cracked with age, bits of trim have fallen off and the carpets look decidedly flood damaged. But the top dash rail had obviously suffered from the sun, and like most cars, the original covering had no doubt given up the ghost.

   The problem was a previous owner had decided they knew what they were doing when it came to upholstery and the dash rail was going to benefit from this skill. You can sort of understand the approach, the need to improve a car so you tackle a job which you think is easy and straightforward. The end result didn’t bear this theory out. It also explained the large selection of brass nuts and fastenings scattered around the floor of the car - the fixings are a nightmare to get at and you need fingers of ET proportions to get them back on.

   The new vinyl covering looked like it had been cut from memory and then a blunt butter knife had been used to trim it. Removing the original covering had also damaged the underlying foam pretty badly as well. There were a couple of upsides. One, it had been glued on so badly it didn’t take much removing. And secondly, our would be restorer was also pretty lousy at maths and had over ordered on the vinyl, so there was a roll of the stuff spare in the boot.

   So it would take some time to put right, but apart from some contact adhesive and some staples, it would be a cheap job.

   The end result could never be mistaken for a factory job but it’s neat and tidy, and there’s no random bits of foam sticking out at the corners. And the good thing is that I’ve already made a difference to the old bus. Now, I’ve just got to sort the paint, the carpets, the bonnet trim…

Above: The tools used. The knife and staple gun are the obvious must haves. The hot air gun really helps but you could just do the job on a hot sunny day or 'borrow' a hair dryer. The pliers are not really ideal as they're just as likely to tear the vinyl as stretch it, but I was grateful for the leverage they gave in a few tight corners. The only thing missing from this picture is the contact adhesive. Buy a big tin, you'll be surprised at how much it takes.

Pics 1-3 (Click on them for closer look at the true horror...): After removing just three finger tight nuts, the rail pulled out and you could see just how poor the previous attempt at recovering had been. The new covering didn’t really fit, the ends had been trimmed with teeth (blunt, false ones) and the vents had been cut from the other side of the room.

Pic 4: The vinyl didn’t need much persuading to be parted from the foam/hardboard structure. A gentle touch was required to prevent any further damage to the structure - it’s fragile from both age and previous restoration attempts.

Pics 5-6: A new piece of vinyl was cut. This overlapped the underlying structure by at least a couple of inches on all sides because once you’ve finished wrapping it round, folding, gluing and stapling, you’ll be surprised how much of that slack disappears. And its much easier to trim it off when you’re done. The flat surfaces of the structure and the corresponding area of the vinyl were given a good coat of contact adhesive, allowed to go touch dry and then smoothed together, stretching the vinyl taut. It was then allowed to cure fully.

Pics 7-8: This is where it starts to get tricky. Give the edges of the structure and the vinyl a good coat of adhesive and allow to go touch dry. You need to stretch the vinyl round quite tightly to get a satisfactory job, so play some gentle heat from the hot air gun along the area you’re working on - note gentle heat, it’s very easy to melt the vinyl if you’re too keen - and pull it round and stick it down. If the adhesive is doing its job properly it should stay pretty much in place while you punch in a couple of staples. We were using 6 mm staples. The pegs were used to make the edges stick uniformly, even between the staples. Work your way all the along, take your time, making sure the vinyl is nice and tight.

Pic 9: Getting the ends/corners right really makes or breaks the job. Be careful not to trim them too close, use the excess material to grip a good grip and pull the material round while heating it with the hot air gun. This isn’t just a straight fold, you’re trying to get the vinyl to form to the shape of the shelf so it’s a mix of careful heat application and brute force. Keep working it until it looks right. As long as you keep the folds/pleats reasonably flat, it won't matter too much but too much bulk won’t allow the shelf to sit right. If you’re not sure how much you can get away with, try it back in the car.