Mk1 Interceptor up for auction at the NEC

[Dion]

At the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show, 23rd & 24th March 2019 - NEC, Birmingham



Mk3 wheels. No antenna. The leather does it best to look like vinyl!

https://www.classiccarauctions.co.uk/19 ... tor-63-mk1

[Mark1Stu]

Could well be vinyl. Looks it to me - and the shape of the front seat backrests appear an early style.... of the early design.

[RAP72]

more photos on the survivors site http://www.joc.org.uk/Interceptor_Mk_1/ ... 9_ELL.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

now on age related number plate

[Dion]

Could well be vinyl. Looks it to me - and the shape of the front seat backrests appear an early style.... of the early design.

What do you mean by another style of backrest? Looks the same as in 2943. The seat bottoms though look very different!

20190303_131026.jpg (212.38 KiB) Viewed 3528 times

[Mark1Stu]

From my recent experience of restoring my cache of Mk1 spare seats, while the general shape of the front seat back looks standard, early ones had a different profile to the fibreglass hoop. They were also more heavily padded and about an inch wider than an equivalent seat of the same design (i.e.with the squab pleat cross brace toward the front of the seat - unlike yours which has the cross brace toward the back of the squab, being a later Mk1). The material around the seat back hoop of the car advertised also looks wider than on later seats that I've seen.
So I'm still pretty confident the seats are vinyl. Whether they originated from that '68 car is less clear (I haven't got the chassis book to hand). If it is an early' 68 registered car, then perhaps. Or maybe the seats came from an earlier car and were swapped over in the days when the cars were virtually worthless and spares were plentiful and cheap.

Anyhow, happy to be proven wrong (maybe the seats have been retrimmed). ...but having read sales ads for other cars which mention leather interior when it clearly is ambla, the only real test would be putting water on it and waiting to see whether it soaks in. Or sitting on it for an hour on a hot day (wearing your best shirt) whilst in stationery traffic would do it!

[garyc]

Hello Stu .....or a late 67.....Dec nice steering wheel note the machine milled aluminium


Hello Dion
I'm surprised your seats are with squab to the back as yours was fairly early car and they normally have the swab nearer the front on earlier cars
Although your seats may have been changed as well Dion
for reasons Stuart mentions.
As Stuart says the very early seats were all vinyl and slightly different shape more square
Some like my mk1 have vinyl down the sides of the seat base and leather on top where you sit and vinyl door cards and it's a later car by 20 odd numbers than yours Dion

All though we know quality control wasnt that good back then so a chassis number
doesn't always tye in with when the car was originally built although probably only a few months out at most.

GaryC

[Mark1Stu]

Being an F reg certainly puts it in the early category interior to my mind - and most probably the car's original interior. As evidenced by early style electric window switches and door card blanks to get at the window motors.

At the risk of boring everyone and contradicting myself, when leather was used on the early style seats, it seems to my eye to have a more processsed/painted finish than the leather used on the later design. Different manufacturing process or supplier?

Heres a pic of the early leather..

Enough from me, I've already bored myself....possibly including some inaccuracies.

[Dion]

Hi Stuart and Gary,
2686 is ex factory December 1967, so quite a bit older compared to my car (Aug 68). The Chassis Book does not say for 2686 whether it has leather or Ambla, but in "Original Interceptor & FF" (the other book from Richard Calver of course) it is noted that from the beginning of 1968 onwards leather had become the standard fitment. This would mean 2686 should have had Ambla trim and as such there is a very good chance that the seats are original to the car.

As for my car, I cannot be 100% sure as the owner from which I got the car had taken apart the car and mixed with other (better condition) parts. However most of the parts came from a later car (3529) which I also got when buying the car. With them, an almost complete interior was with it presumably from the later car as it has the Mk2 style seats. So I think my car still has its original seats. Maybe you have spotted the leather door panels which are from the later car. My car was restored with the non-vented door window frames so the newer door panels were used. I still have the original door panels and windows frames for 3529 though.

As an aside, I fitted those (3529) front seats to my Triumph 2500 Mk2 as I used that car as an every day car about 15 years ago. The original seats of the Triumph were much worse as the foams had disintegrated. I loved the Jensen seats. Stupidly when I sold the Triumph (12 years ago) it was with the Jensen seats. By accident I saw the same Triumph advertised for sale with another owner half a year ago, still had the Jensen seats (although in a worse condition, with some splits). Seeing a chance I offered the owner to buy the non-original seats in exchange for the original cloth seats (which looked still good externally). We made a deal so I got back "my" seats. They may come in use as I cannot remember what condition the seats are from my other Interceptor (2610, a Vignale / Sincar LHD example).

Your findings about seats & leather are not boring at all! At least not for me, I enjoyed your adventures about restoring the seats. Fascinating to learn about how Jensen dealt with the early years of the Interceptor.

[Mark1Stu]

That's a very nice story Dion - and a great outcome! Got to keep your eyes peeled as those chances are few and far between.

[Richie]

Terrific reading here. I've been in the JOC for 17 years and have just learned that not all interceptors came with leather interiors.
And what a terrific, warm welcoming patina here...exactly how a fifty+ year old seat should look.