115/2576

[Nicholas Lightbown]

Beautiful. Sheer automotive pornography.

[taximan]

Show us pictures of what you have on 2576s dash and gearshift and we'll advise from there, you do have chrome window switch surrounds though, or are they polished aluminium? The cars I've seen with these also had the same polished/chrome in the rectangular surround around the gearshift lever.
The rest of us got black wrinkle finishing on ours.
Also both panels have stainless U channel finishing surrounds mitred in the corners, some polished, others painted black wrinkle as the steering column cowl is, and the radio panel.
The picture of mine is an early one pre wrinkle finish. (satin black paint)
Shaun.

[Ronnie]

Thats best pic i have whilst she's in winter storage. Does have chrome around window switches but not gearstick base. I did just buy a set of fascias from rejen last week along with a new vinyl seat back to replace that torn part in the pic. I'll keep the current walnut fascia to see if it can be saved and brought back to life (it fairly well gone with cracking)...

[ajm541s]

Reading through the car file brings back a lot of memories, as it was one of the first cars released from the factory after I joined the sales department on July 1st, 1967; although not directly involved with any of the correspondence I remember the car very well. In case the name Richard Lester is not familiar, the following link will tell you about one of the most successful and prominent film directors who worked in the UK at that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lester" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The car was sold to Lester by Guy Salmon Ltd from their Thames Ditton, Surrey, location. Charles Follett Ltd were the distributors for the London and Home Counties area, and Guy Salmon were dealers under them. Their service operation was at the other address. The 20% discount shown on the factory invoice to Charles Follett included a 2.5% extra discount on cars distributed to dealers.

When Guy himself retired his company was taken over by the Sytner group and today is a multi location operation with Jaguar and Land Rover franchises throughout the country. Guy's first car when he bcame a motor dealer was bought from my father's business in Walton-on-Thames.

[Ronnie]

Thanks Tony, what a connection. Wished you lot hadn't been so mercenary with the quote for the retrofit of power steering later in 67 though as that would be a nice feature to have inherited!

[taximan]

Retrofit electric steering? the panel is there, can't make out it's covering but it will be steel underneath.
Strip the covering off and veneer with fresh leaves, the same applies to the switch panel, strip out the switches marking each one as you go, the panel will be steel and more than likely will need a de-rust and thorough clean before application of new veneer, or you can cheat with wood effect vinyl?
Shaun.

http://www.rvinyl.com/woodgrain.htm#.UQ5v8R2e-Sr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chris_R]

I'll keep the current walnut fascia to see if it can be saved and brought back to life (it fairly well gone with cracking)...

To pick up on Shaun's comment, the walnut veneer is glued directly onto a piece of steel which will almost certainly have some rust. Mine did. Veneers are very thin, perhaps only 0.6mm so there is not much material to play with. Often trying to restore it is not too successful, cracks have to be filled, the whole thing has to be sanded down and then recoated and polished.

[taximan]

Speaking to people who have done this sort of job before, they've said to put a cheap veneer underneath with the grain running the opposite way to aid stiffness and give a good surface to stick the quality veneer onto.
In my youth I made quite a few chessboards, I would scrape the veneer with a razor blade rather than rub it down with paper, then lacquer until I was happy with the depth of finish.
Shaun.

[Kieron]

Shauns right, you use a cheap veneer to get it onto the steel, then a nice one for teh finish.

theres a whole thread on here somewhere as I've done it myself..

[Kieron]

Heres the link!

http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... lit=veneer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ronnie]

I bought a set of mk1 walnut fascias from Rejen and apparently they already have the steel plate backing on them. They're also making me a new vinyl seat back for my dodgy torn driver seat too so just waiting on that little lot.

The power steering thing came out of the factory file correspondence. First owner richard lester enquired about it in November 1967 and Jensen wrote a note in that file which suggested they do a 100% markup on the cost it took to do it to another customer's car previously, which must have put him off. Just thought it would be nice if it had sailed through. Alas, it did not happen.

[Ronnie]

Got my new driver seat back cover and walnut fascias from Rejen yesterday. Very nice and now am excited to get them fitted. Still some bits to come from Andy first and hoping he has an old toggle switch for my headlights to tidy my whole console panel up in one swoop!

[taximan]

The armstrong selectoride switch is the one you will struggle with, the fitting screws are behind the knob, can't recall how to remove knob at this moment in time, may be someone else can advise?
Shaun.

[Ronnie]

thanks Shaun - i think it's here: http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... h&start=15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

pull the knob off with pliers then two brassy screws underneath by the looks of it.

[Ronnie]

Just a brief article that appeared in the Hagerty employee newsletter: