Interior of a 1949 BL

Hi Larry

Mine is a 1950 BL and the interior was totally original when I got it, just stained brown with Gauloise smoke! The section above the windscreen is in the striped material – I’ve just re-covered it. Alongside the seat and over the wheel arches is also done in the striped material in mine (I’m just about to start that work myself – it had a period cover over it as well – also striped but wider stripes which matched the seat covers. I can send you some pics if it would help.

I also used Renel – very obliging folks.

Paul

Hi Larry,

Sorry for the quality of the pictures but hopefully you can see what I mean. The line across the lining by the side of the seat is the result of having been protected by the rather nasty looking piece of material in the last picture which was actually part of a set of period covers which matched those fitted to the seats. Having recovered all my seats I’m now forced to do all the interior but I think I may get some professional help with the headlining which frightens me to death…I’m still struggling with having to nail everything in.

The car spent 25 years sitting in a basement garage in the south of France having been owned by father and then son until it was laid up when he bacame 65. Hence the original interior.

Out of interest, did you purchase Renel’s ready covered door panels? When I came to fit mine I discovered that the clip holes in the new panels did not line up with the holes in the door – bummer – took a lot of work to sort out.

Hope this helps

Paul

Hi Larry

The original sun visor in my car on the driver’s side was a nasty cardboard thing which had suffered from the damp so I’ve fitted the ones you can see. Yes, the side panels have a card backing the whole way up to the headlining and there is an angled stitched join in the material right on the corner on the narrow section just where it starts to widen. You can just see it if you enlarge the pic There is no join higher up, that’s just discolouration from where the lower part was covered up. It’s all striped material. The separate part over the inner wing has some kind of thin felt underneath it.

I also used staples for the windlace where I could. On the door panels I found that the clips provided by Renel would not hold in the existing holes. The pic is the back of the section between the doors – I think this is the top.

Paul

Hi Larry

Not many screws, just about everything is ‘nailed’ in with gimp nails but I can’t see any nails on that single side panel (yes, all one piece) – haven’t tried taking mine out yet, mind you. I found with some other bits that they used panel pins, so you may find the side panels are nailed in but you can’t see the heads. Don’t know about your car, but in mine the whole of the floor, front and back,was covered in a layer of tar and then the felt must have been laid on top of that while it was still wet, in the front I scraped it all off and replaced it with Dyna-mat rolled on with an old wallpaper roller and then a layer of modern insulation on top.  Have you discovered the two gaps they left right in the corners where the rear axle mounts come through into the car in the back with just a little piece of rubber over? I think I may use some DumDum putty here as it stays flexible and I can’t see the sense in leaving a gap for water to come in.

Paul

When I bought my car it was in the UK and the man who brought it across from France only kept it a short while before I bought it from him. Unfortunatelly for me he had decided to respray it! Unfortunately it left the car with large areas of ‘orange peel’ and the work involved to polish it out has been exhausting to say the least. That sounds like a good idea with the seats – I am 6′ 2″ and find that I am rather close to the pedals.

All the best

Paul

You can see in that pic I sent that the centre piece has a small piece of plywood at one end as some kind of strengthener. You could use your masonite again On mine its the same kind of thick card as used for the side panels. By the way what was the link for your photo collection? – I seem to have lost it

Paul