Producing interior trim for Healey 100's

Over the past few months I've been producing by hand, all the interior trim for a couple of upcoming Austin Healey 100's I'm doing this summer.
One is for an early 1953 BN1 car that will be painted in the rare "Coronet Cream" with a contrasting Dark Blue interior and Grey piping on the seats.
The other is for a 1956 BN2 car that will be painted Black with a Persimmon red interior.
This article will show the differences in upholstery for the two marques...

I've been gathering all the various patterns needed for doing everything on Healey interiors, but there was still a few small pieces I need to complete the puzzle.
In order to further verify and complete my BN1 patterns, I borrowed a local car (owned by Trevor Parker) for a few days to go through and cross reference each piece to make sure that I have everything right.
Trevor's BN1 has been in his family since new and with the exception of some re-trimmed seats and minor repairs here and there, it has never been restored so it's a very original car.

I started with making the new seat covers, I sourced some good quality leather with natural grain, in the correct colours, with hand made piping & Hidem strips, complete with the vinyl pieces for covering the lower cushion pans.
For the trimming of these seats I also produced all my own seat foams and wood seat bases made completely in house.

Next I made the center armrests, the one for the BN1 being the longer 19" style and the BN2 having the shorter 17" style.

Then came the carpets sets. In these next pics I'm showing the new Karvel carpet sets I made for the BN1 and BN2.
Both are cut as original with vinyl edging on only a few of the center tunnel pieces.
They have the correct "Austin" rubber heel pads sewn in place over top of the previously installed front carpet snaps - a detail that many other manufactures forget to do before sewing in the heel pads.
The BN1 tunnel is a very different design and has a few more carpet sections than the BN2...

Next I made all the interior trim panels and vinyl covers. The kick panels and B-post panels were cut from 1/8" birch ply with the edges sanded round before being trimmed in vinyl. The BN1 kick panels are a taller profile than the BN2's.
The inner door panels were cut from black panel board and trimmed. Also included are the wheel arch covers and vinyl to complete the doors and parcel tray...

The door panels were also cut from birch ply with the edges sanded to a curved bevel. Then they're trimmed with 1/8"foam and vinyl.
On the lower insides of BN1's door panels there was a brown suede like material sewn to the inner edge of the vinyl cover and glued in place.
The later BN1's/BN2's had this material done instead with matching vinyl and the entire pocket opening had a seam stitched through the panel about 5/8" in from the edge. - early BN1's did not have this stitching at all.
To finish, I cut and trimmed the Furflex door seals along the front and back edges to complete the panels.

I then cut and bound all the Armacord linings for the rear cockpit and the boot compartments of both cars.
Notes: - the early BN1's had a much fatter spare wheel bag then the later BN1's&BN2's. .
-BN2's also had Armacord to cover the rear tunnel section, whereas BN1's used carpet...

In the boot, the early BN1's had a different style of main gas tank cover and also had longer side floor mats as well, as you can see...

Finally I also made new accessory bags to complete the interior kits for both cars. I included bags for the side screens, tool roll, jack and handles. All as original with the correct snaps and materials.

To finish these kits off I will be making new tonneau covers for both cars and supplying all the necessary hardware kits and jute under felt required.

Austin Healey owners take note -  I'm now geared up and producing all of this interior trim for anyone needing it - only available in any of the original colours!
As many of you know, I've built my name on being a purist who pays close attention to getting the details right. Other companies have failed to reproduce the subtle variations and details that I have captured with my kits. I am happy and proud to be able to offer these complete interior trim kits for the Healey 100's at least for now. There will be more Healey trim available as I perfect my patterns for the rest of the various marques.

Available now through:

Rightway Heritage Trimming

Until next time -