Rare Interiors

C

chrisyork

Active Member
Time to start another hare running I think. What is your favourite rare interior option?

To start us off here is a TC that's just appeared on ebay with the ultra rare brushed nylon interior option. As a series 1 1/2 this option would have been a carry over from the S1 option list (S1 1/2's had S1 seats) and predated the more usual cloth interiors.

Red TC

Chris
 
I wondered about that too, Chris.

I saw a good sandalwood interior ('herringbone cloth'?) in a scrapper once - wish I'd got it as it was great. I was thinking, though, would it be nicer to have that because it's rare, or the almost-standard leather because....it's leather? Somehow it wouldn't seem right to have a good leather interior in the loft to put a cloth one in the car!!

Makes a nice change though.

Phil (undecided!)

:)
 
I think the bronze leather boxpleat looks nice when combined with the white exterior. There is something really classy about the bronze, although you don't tend to see this too often.
 
I really like the appearance of the herringbone cloth available as an option on early cars, although I've only ever heard positive sightings of it in Sandalwood (as per the one Phil Robson saw). If I was to do a resto of an S1 I'd be very tempted....

I've actually done my own interior in the Thai car, using a set of box pleat seats as the start. Instead of the box pleat I've had them reupholstered in flat pleat, but with the pleats extending to the top and front edges of the cushion. Makes them look slightly more vintage. Colour is a slightly creamier version of Bronze and they look stunning!

Chris



Edited By chrisyork on 1212688463
 
I was actually intending to see what other rare interior options you chaps would like on your own P6's.

My favourite is the very early production interior lights at the front of the car - the rear view mirror with the light down the back of the stem combined with the lamps hidden at each extreme end of the dash rail. The latter in particular are extremely rare, lasting only around 9 months in production.

Other options that were available included:

# Grab Handle on the passenger side dash rail
# Elasticated Front Door Pockets made to fit below the grab handles
# Reading Lamps in the back of ET headrests
# Rear Headrests
# Electric Windows
# Rover-Delanaire A/C (2000TC)
# NADA style A/C
# 17" Wood Rim Steering Wheel (actually grained and stained plastic) on non power steered cars
# Wood Gear Knob
# 16" Leather Rim Steering Wheel in two varieties - steel spoke for 3500S with 3500S logo centre and leather covered spoke with Rover shield logo centre for 3500 Auto

Another one to watch out for is through flow ventillation along the lines of Mk1 Cortinas. It was always intended to fit this and the Talago prototypes even had a slot vent with a chrome finsiher in the outside of the rear 1/4 panel. The P7 prototypes had another variation with a Mk1 Escort style set of slots in the rear decker. It is more difficult to spot in production as the air was allowed to make its own way out between the panel gaps. BUT not all cars had it. It's easy enough to see once you have the outer 1/4 panels off - there are three diamond shaped vents with cardboard flap valves to stop air getting back into the interior. All base units seem to have the lump pressed in to take the vents but only certian model years have them pierced and the vents installed. All NADA's have them and UK '69 model year has them - both with the rear opening 1/4 lights fixed shut as a result. Other model years definitely had them but with opening 1/4 light windows as well, but I'm not clear which. Anybody out there got them in their cars?

I've actually created a further "Rover" option of my own by fitting the P5 style (and early 2000 above the centre of the back window) interior lamps to each rear 1/4 panel.

What are your favourites - any body know of any I've missed out?

Chris



Edited By chrisyork on 1213090727
 
My car has the Optional twin speaker and balance unit. Which is just a varible resister and a second speaker in the parcel shelf. Made me chuckle when I saw it was fitted as an option and not something a previous owner had cobbled together. :)
 
Hi Chris,

my car has the through flow ventilation system and fixed rear quarterlights.

I also had the same idea with you about the lights in the rear inner quarter panels. I do have the lights, but no time to fit them. I am spending too many hours under the car :(

Demetris
 
I've got a 1970 2000sc Auto with the fixed rear 1/4 lights and two tone grey brushed nylon seats,
Ithink the interior has been changed at some point because the front door cards are from a series 2,
The car is suprisingly sound underneath and doesn't need any welding,
All it needs to put it on the road is a brake overhaul,both front wings and a respray,
Oh,...and a rear 1/4 glass,......anybody got one??

[img=http://img260.imageshack.us/img260....th.jpg]

[img=http://img260.imageshack.us/img260....th.jpg]

[img=http://img340.imageshack.us/img340....th.jpg]

[img=http://img261.imageshack.us/img261....th.jpg]

[img=http://img364.imageshack.us/img364....th.jpg]

[img=http://img379.imageshack.us/img379....th.jpg]

[img=http://img379.imageshack.us/img379....th.jpg]
 
Slightly off topic but I was in a scrap yard the other day and found some lovely seats which I was thinking I might use in my coupe project, in the late model Rover 45, these were black but they also did cream.

45seats1.jpg


45seats2.jpg


They're very similar styling to early P6 seats, the scrap yard wanted £75 for the lot which I thought was pretty good.

I'm quite a fan of the red leather, especially in a white series 1, very nice.
 
The glass looks clear not sundym, so if you make a template, or better still (but far more work) take the glass from the other side and any glass firm should be able to cut one for you, and as its only a small window you could have it done in laminated without any problems.
A friend of mine has had glass sets made this way for loads of 40's and 50's yanks where the glass would be otherwise unobtainable. I should think the fixed 1/4 light glasses are getting fairly rare now.
 
I had the misfortune to have a 52 reg Rover 45 diesel as a company pool car a few years ago. It was the top spec model .Only good thing about it was the cream leather seats which had heaters built in.
 
My '72 3500 has the flow-through ventilation flaps in the rear pillars, the three romboid holes each side are covered with thin vinyl flaps which have curled upwards with age. I'll replace them with new, slightly heavier and thicker vinyl when I get that far with my renovation! There's a second speaker in the middle of my parcel shelf as well.
Those more modern rover seats look great! Buy 'em and let us know if they fit in the P6 without trouble, looks like a much cheaper option than getting my interior re-upholstered.
If I had enough dosh I dare say I would have my P6 interior re-covered in leather. Might yet happen, as my mate's dad is a leather importer and can supply whatever I want at trade price, but a good saddler is still very expensive. I would like to re-do it all in dark grey hide, including the seat backs, door cards and covering the leather-effect dash top panel. Dark red leather with grey carpeting would work too. I like the perforated stuff with lots of little holes in, like '60s Mercedes or the toe-cap on my new trainers! I need to remake my headlining for the steel sliding sunroof I hope to re-use, was thinking about grey 'Alcantara' like another mate of mine has in his new Porsche.
 
Pilkie's given us an excellent photo of the optional grab handle in its correct location on the passenger side dash rail. See it in the item on real wood door cappings elsewhere in this section.

Chris



Edited By chrisyork on 1213025402
 
another option is rubber over mats with the name ROVER embossed on the front pair....A set on ebay at the moment
 
And before the rubber ones were available the overmats came in a much softer, "crinkly" sort of rubber with a foam back and stitched seam edges. The rear ones of this type (which I much prefer to the type Jay identifies) are still available from Steve Walker ("allrovers" on Ebay) and regularely appear in his Ebay listings. It's a very, very long time since I saw a front set though; they were fairly fragile and could be expected to disintegrate under heel pressure! My memory tells me the front drivers side had a heel pad sewn in similar to the carpet runner, but I'm not completely confident of that.

Chris
 
Spotted a mistake in an earlier post of mine in this topic which gave the wrong steering wheel sizes - I've gone back in and amended it!

Chris
 
Even these are rare to find!
I bought a very nice auto front set and sold the very nice manual front set I had.I just about broke even on the sale and buying, at £70ish!
IMAG0194.jpg

IMAG0193-1.jpg
 
While delving in the James taylor book the other day to research the V8 injections (see post in the V8 section) I came across the pictures of "Gladys", the P6 coupe done by David Bache as a future Alvis. Previously I'd only looked closely at the exterior shots, but there is one excellent photo from '67 of the interior. It's identical in every detail (as far as I can see) to that adopted 2 years later for the NADA3500S and carried over (minus nice touches like the door pockets and trimmed centre console) in '71 to the S2 facelift!

Of course the round dial instrument pack and back lit dash rail switches had been around even longer than that. They were originally developed for the 2000S which entered production very briefly in Oct '65 (total of 15 cars built under commission no series 410... for RHD and 413... for LHD). There are a couple of nice photo's in James Taylor's book of the interior of the 2000S prototype 169 JWD which are unmistakeably straight NADA 3500S/S2 facelift!

So all you owners who have fitted later interiors to earlier cars - you've just been replicating what Rover intended to sell in the first place!

The 2000S was of course a major loss - it had the TC engine, but more importantly a sportier set of suspension settings including an uprated front anti roll bar, which transformed the handling. It could easily have got an injected engine as well - 2000 injections were well underway by '66 using the AE sytem (Associated Engineering of Leamington Spa)!

Chris

PS is Gladys still around - James Taylor quotes it as having been restored in the late 80's when it was in it's creator David Bache's ownership.
 
pilkie 0 said:
Even these are rare to find!
I bought a very nice auto front set and sold the very nice manual front set I had.I just about broke even on the sale and buying, at £70ish!
IMAG0194.jpg

IMAG0193-1.jpg
Click to expand...
ebay item number 140239971705 is a set
 
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