My BJ8 still had the original leather (Hide, as it is called on the
documentation) interior until 18 months ago. It still has the original leather
rear fold down rear seat/ parcel shelf.
As Steve said, it has the square embossed Vinyl rear side panels.
See the original body production windscreen card
http://www.myaustinhealey.com/histintro.html
Sent from my iPhone
On 23/11/2013, at 8:30 AM, "BJ8 Healeys" <sbyers@ec.rr.com> wrote:
> Hi, Earl -
>
> A couple years ago I got an e-mail from Kaye Kovacs of Fourintune. They
had
> received a car without upholstery for restoration that originally had been
> equipped with leather and were asking what the original BJ8 leather
interior
> configuration was. I had not looked into that issue before, so I did a
> survey of all BJ8 owners in the registry with cars that still had the
> original factory leather interior. As stated earlier, North American cars
> with leather were rare so most reponses came from Europe (I got one from
the
> USA). Kaye specifically asked whether the rear side panels had the
squares,
> and the answer I provided from the survey was: "Yes." May I point out
that
> this is another example of why a complete and accurate registry is a useful
> tool for the Healey and BJ8 communities?
>
> Based on the survey responses, and photos that some sent, I replied as I
did
> to Jeff's question about the various items of upholstery in the cockpit.
> Under separate cover, I will send you the photo of an original
> leather-equipped car's back seat area. As you can see, the rear side
panels
> (vinyl) have the typical square-embossed pattern. If you want to see more
> photos, let me know. It's true that the leather pleats are wider than the
> vinyl pleats.
>
> Steve Byers
> HBJ8L/36666
> BJ8 Registry
> Havelock, NC USA
>
>
> Gentlemen:
>
> I recall many years ago seeing a BJ8 with the factory leather seat option.
> I seem to remember the seat 'flutes' being much wider than the normal ambla
> trimmed Bj8's - this was done on the rear seat pan inserts, as well as the
> front facing part of the seat back. Can anyone comment on what the very
few
> factory leather equipped BJ8's looked like?
>
> Another point - something that I recently learned: the leather equipped
> BJ8's had plain vinyl on the rear quarters, rather than the square
patterned
> material on the rear portion, which I assume was that way to match the
> smaller square pattern on the seat inserts / seat back on the ambla trimmed
> cars. The gent that trimmed my recently restored BJ8 - in leather (using
> the narrow 'normal' inserts), used plain vinyl on the quarters. He is a UK
> trained trimmer, and is certain that it was more correct without the
pattern
> on the quarters.
>
> Again, can anyone comment?
>
>
> Earl Kagna
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