The car has been entrusted to Gary Blackman here in Melbourne to carry out the trimming, I decided on a grey/ blue trim colour to match the paint work, this isn't an original colour.
Carpeting to the transmission tunnel and foot wells completed, English carpet was chosen for the car.
The Armacord trimming installed, after spraying to match the leather.
One drawback in using 100S seats in the car is the the seats cannot be hinged forward to allow raising the hood frame, so both seats need to be on runners, so they can be moved out of the way
The carpets installed
Note the Austin Foot mat. This is the original foot mat from the car. When the car was crashed back in 1956 the carpets were not in the car. The brother of the George Berry (who was killed in the car) passed the carpets on to The Kilmartins in Ballarat, who passed them on to me. I carefully removed the heel mat and had it installed into the new carpet.
The finished 100S seats.
The Armacord boot linings
The hood in blue fabric material.
As a final reminder of the cars past, on the way back from the trimmer the overdrive stopped working. After checking that it was working electrically I drained the oil so I could remove the overdrive side cover and check the non return valve. The oil had a bronze colour to it!! Inspection showed that the gear box main shaft was bent at the front spigot where it locates in the input shaft. I remember being told that the gear box casing was smashed in the accident and the input shaft snapped off. Obviously the main shaft front spigot was bent at the same time, unfortunately both the original repairer and I missed it. So after a second overhaul including another main shaft and front bush all is now fine.
Almost Four years exactly have passed since I started this restoration, in the process I have re-established old friendships and made a lot of new ones. The other reward has been the tremendous amount of satisfaction gained from seeing a pile of junk turn into a car that turns heads wherever it goes. I think it is rather fitting that the last image is from the rear, because disappearing into the distance is the view most other motorists will get. Cheers!
Home