Chris
The seats are coming along quite well having been carefully cleaned and treated with Hide Food the leather is starting to feel a lot better, there are one or two very small repairs needed which I am confident a local trimmer restorer will be able to sort out without needing to replace any sections and again two short areas of stitching to re do. I am lucky that these seats are the same colour as the seats in both of my 401's , they are in a lot better condition than the seats in one but it is a very close run thing with the other car where they exhibit very little wear but have suffered by being stored in a very dry and hot environment. The trimmer I use worked wonders however on the interior of my R Type Bentley which had on the face of it been ruined by its time in the States but now looks really nice, slightly distressed in one or two areas but really mellow overall and well in keeping with a 62 year old car, some areas of leather were replaced but I had some new old stock hide in the same colour plus some leather rescued from the remains of a 1930's Southern body which were incorporated into the project.
The R Type interior looks really nice as if it has always been well maintained not restored and gives few clues to its former state.
I have in the same colour the remains of another 401 interior so I am hoping Dave will be able to use this to replace some of the damaged parts on the door trims. The thicker leather is harder to work but like me he does like to see material being reused and is great at conserving and repairing rather than replacing where possible.
There is a very well known 403 in the club which I coveted for many years until one of its previous owners had its perfectly good nicely patinated interior re trimmed, although done to a very high standard for me it ruined the car. Years later when it came up for sale that factor alone put me off, if it had still had its original interior I would have snapped it up in a flash.
There is something very satisfying about old well maintained leather and wood in quality English cars so these seats now saved will be put to good use.
Geoff.
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