Post by 9fsay on Jun 2, 2014 20:33:55 GMT 2
Another of my posts from the MOCKZN forum....If anyone feels it is pointless to repeat this stuff here, let me know and I'll take it down.
So I thought I'd share some of the research I've been doing over time on Mk1 minis' interior trim. I've basically been trying to collect as many pictures of original bits of trim as I can for my own future reference for restoration projects. In the interest of preserving this trim, of which there is not a lot around after 45-50 years in minis, I hope this might also help owners identify what they have in their cars - and not to throw original Mk1 trim away if they can help it (or at least throw it in the direction of someone who can use it/save it.) If anyone knows of a reliable source of SA spec Mk1 Mini trim, please let me know. Ryno's book is certainly very useful but understandably does not go into the minute details of specific year models, since he covers the entire range of minis throughout Mini production/assembly in SA.
So firstly I'll attempt to cover the trim used as floor covering, bulkhead covering (behind the pedals) and inner front wheel arch covers. On some models the same trim was also installed on the door bins, rear companiom bins, rear parcel shelf and boot board.
A particular texture of fabric was used in Mk1 models in SA for the period I'm covering here. Ryno's book mentions that some of the interior trim was local content from the beginning. I've managed to document examples of this ranging across 1959 - late 1966, Austin & Morris Mini 850s, 998s as well as Cooper S1071s and 1275s. Various models had this fabric installed on different parts of the car.
1959 - Austin Seven 850
This car has a grey exterior and grey interior. More on it in another thread on here.
Trim wise, it had the fabric in question on the inner front wheel arches, bulkhead and floors. It didn't seem to have any covering on the crossmember. It also had a different kind of rubber fabric on the bulkhead (no pics of that unfortunately).
1961 Morris 850 Basic (fixed rear windows)
This had a light green floor cover in a car with light green paint. This car had a black vinyl rear parcel shelf, plain uncovered door bins and rear companion bins and no boot board. The fabric in question just covered the floor, bulkhead and inner front wheel arches. The pic is not too clear, being taken through the window, but the texture is the same as the fabric in other pics in this thread.
Next up there is a 1963 Morris 850 Basic.
This car had a two tone body colour scheme, light green from the windows down, cream pillars and light green roof - also on its first coat of paint, so original. The trim in this car is grey and covers door bins and companion boxes in addition to the floor.
Wheel arch in grey
Door bin in grey
Then a 1964 Morris Cooper S 1071
This car is the original Palm green with Protea white roof. The trim is a darker green than that of the 1961 model above.
Bulk head and wheel arch has the familiar Mk1 textured vinyl trim. The floors on this had green carpet bound in porcelain green edging. This must be one of a handful of minis in SA with its original carpet - notice the original Mk1 heel mat in the driver's footwell.
Door bin - Mk1 minis that had trim present on sliding door bins seem to have all had this shape of trim.
Rear companion bin. It seems that the models that had trim fitted to the door bins also typically had the same trim on the rear bins (bin liners were different though)
Rear parcel shelf
Single tank boot board
Most of this trim was bound along some of its edges. In the case of the darker green trim, the edging was done in porcelain green.
I've seen this shade of green on a 1963 Morris 850 as well. I think it may have been associated with the Palm green or Almond green body colour. However, on the 1963 Morris 850 I just mentioned, the car had been resprayed to British Racing Green, so I can't say for sure what colour the shell started out with.
For 1965 I have an example of an Austin Mini 850 with a grey bodyshell and red trim as well as an Island Blue Austin Mini 850 with blue trim. Both cars had no trim on the door bins on companion bins, black vinyl rear parcel shelves and no boot boards.
Grey/red wheel arches
Grey/red floor - trim bound in same shade of red.
Blue/blue wheel arches and bulkhead - trim bound in same shade of blue. This one shows the original felt under the rubbery vinyl floor cover.
Blue/blue floor - Here you can see the clips with which these floor covers were clipped into position on the floor. The floor had the "male" part rivited to the floor pan - two on each side next to the door sill on the front section of the car. The rear floor cover had two clips on each side as well, next to the door and close to where the seat belt lower mounting is.
Also in 1965 there is this 1275 Cooper S single tank boot board. The rest of this car's trim had been redone along with a sprayjob to British Racing Green, so I don't know what else was covered in this same fabric. This car had non original green carpets on its wheel arches, rear bins, bulkhead and floor.
In late 1966 I have a couple of examples of a 1275 Cooper S (one Morris and one Austin). These cars had boot boards in the vinyl fabric we've seen up until now, but on their Aussie doors' bins they had carpet strips instead of the rubbery vinyl fabric of earlier cars. Both cars were Palm Green with Protea white roofs and had the same shade of green vinyl boot board as the 1071 S and 1965 1275 S I showed above.
From fragments of original carpet I'd previously found and some restored examples I'd seen these Cooper S's had green carpets on the floor, bulkhead, front wheel arches and the rear companion bins. Now, after seven years of looking, I have finally managed to see one complete original 1275 S floor upholstery in the flesh. These things are seriously rare - but here are the pics! (keep in mind the seats in this one have been re-upholstered). I'm including quite a lot of pics of this one - if anyone restoring a car is looking for more pics, feel free to give me a shout. I'll share what I have.
Front floor, showing 48 years of use!
Door bin and wheel arch
Rear floor
Rear bin
Gear lever area
The floor sections have thick felt padding with the carpet glued on and edges folded under.
Bulkhead & wheel arch
Sill
Door carpet strip
Twin tank boot board
I'll post some info on seat trim for the various models as well as time allows and I get all the images uploaded to photobucket.
Hope someone has found this useful so far.
If you know of someone who is ripping out their old, dirty, tired trim to reupholster/recover, please let me know. I'll happily pay the shipping cost to get it and restore it. Not often you see this stuff anymore.
more to follow soon....
So I thought I'd share some of the research I've been doing over time on Mk1 minis' interior trim. I've basically been trying to collect as many pictures of original bits of trim as I can for my own future reference for restoration projects. In the interest of preserving this trim, of which there is not a lot around after 45-50 years in minis, I hope this might also help owners identify what they have in their cars - and not to throw original Mk1 trim away if they can help it (or at least throw it in the direction of someone who can use it/save it.) If anyone knows of a reliable source of SA spec Mk1 Mini trim, please let me know. Ryno's book is certainly very useful but understandably does not go into the minute details of specific year models, since he covers the entire range of minis throughout Mini production/assembly in SA.
So firstly I'll attempt to cover the trim used as floor covering, bulkhead covering (behind the pedals) and inner front wheel arch covers. On some models the same trim was also installed on the door bins, rear companiom bins, rear parcel shelf and boot board.
A particular texture of fabric was used in Mk1 models in SA for the period I'm covering here. Ryno's book mentions that some of the interior trim was local content from the beginning. I've managed to document examples of this ranging across 1959 - late 1966, Austin & Morris Mini 850s, 998s as well as Cooper S1071s and 1275s. Various models had this fabric installed on different parts of the car.
1959 - Austin Seven 850
This car has a grey exterior and grey interior. More on it in another thread on here.
Trim wise, it had the fabric in question on the inner front wheel arches, bulkhead and floors. It didn't seem to have any covering on the crossmember. It also had a different kind of rubber fabric on the bulkhead (no pics of that unfortunately).
1961 Morris 850 Basic (fixed rear windows)
This had a light green floor cover in a car with light green paint. This car had a black vinyl rear parcel shelf, plain uncovered door bins and rear companion bins and no boot board. The fabric in question just covered the floor, bulkhead and inner front wheel arches. The pic is not too clear, being taken through the window, but the texture is the same as the fabric in other pics in this thread.
Next up there is a 1963 Morris 850 Basic.
This car had a two tone body colour scheme, light green from the windows down, cream pillars and light green roof - also on its first coat of paint, so original. The trim in this car is grey and covers door bins and companion boxes in addition to the floor.
Wheel arch in grey
Door bin in grey
Then a 1964 Morris Cooper S 1071
This car is the original Palm green with Protea white roof. The trim is a darker green than that of the 1961 model above.
Bulk head and wheel arch has the familiar Mk1 textured vinyl trim. The floors on this had green carpet bound in porcelain green edging. This must be one of a handful of minis in SA with its original carpet - notice the original Mk1 heel mat in the driver's footwell.
Door bin - Mk1 minis that had trim present on sliding door bins seem to have all had this shape of trim.
Rear companion bin. It seems that the models that had trim fitted to the door bins also typically had the same trim on the rear bins (bin liners were different though)
Rear parcel shelf
Single tank boot board
Most of this trim was bound along some of its edges. In the case of the darker green trim, the edging was done in porcelain green.
I've seen this shade of green on a 1963 Morris 850 as well. I think it may have been associated with the Palm green or Almond green body colour. However, on the 1963 Morris 850 I just mentioned, the car had been resprayed to British Racing Green, so I can't say for sure what colour the shell started out with.
For 1965 I have an example of an Austin Mini 850 with a grey bodyshell and red trim as well as an Island Blue Austin Mini 850 with blue trim. Both cars had no trim on the door bins on companion bins, black vinyl rear parcel shelves and no boot boards.
Grey/red wheel arches
Grey/red floor - trim bound in same shade of red.
Blue/blue wheel arches and bulkhead - trim bound in same shade of blue. This one shows the original felt under the rubbery vinyl floor cover.
Blue/blue floor - Here you can see the clips with which these floor covers were clipped into position on the floor. The floor had the "male" part rivited to the floor pan - two on each side next to the door sill on the front section of the car. The rear floor cover had two clips on each side as well, next to the door and close to where the seat belt lower mounting is.
Also in 1965 there is this 1275 Cooper S single tank boot board. The rest of this car's trim had been redone along with a sprayjob to British Racing Green, so I don't know what else was covered in this same fabric. This car had non original green carpets on its wheel arches, rear bins, bulkhead and floor.
In late 1966 I have a couple of examples of a 1275 Cooper S (one Morris and one Austin). These cars had boot boards in the vinyl fabric we've seen up until now, but on their Aussie doors' bins they had carpet strips instead of the rubbery vinyl fabric of earlier cars. Both cars were Palm Green with Protea white roofs and had the same shade of green vinyl boot board as the 1071 S and 1965 1275 S I showed above.
From fragments of original carpet I'd previously found and some restored examples I'd seen these Cooper S's had green carpets on the floor, bulkhead, front wheel arches and the rear companion bins. Now, after seven years of looking, I have finally managed to see one complete original 1275 S floor upholstery in the flesh. These things are seriously rare - but here are the pics! (keep in mind the seats in this one have been re-upholstered). I'm including quite a lot of pics of this one - if anyone restoring a car is looking for more pics, feel free to give me a shout. I'll share what I have.
Front floor, showing 48 years of use!
Door bin and wheel arch
Rear floor
Rear bin
Gear lever area
The floor sections have thick felt padding with the carpet glued on and edges folded under.
Bulkhead & wheel arch
Sill
Door carpet strip
Twin tank boot board
I'll post some info on seat trim for the various models as well as time allows and I get all the images uploaded to photobucket.
Hope someone has found this useful so far.
If you know of someone who is ripping out their old, dirty, tired trim to reupholster/recover, please let me know. I'll happily pay the shipping cost to get it and restore it. Not often you see this stuff anymore.
more to follow soon....