I am trying to slowly restore my rather modified mini back to its original look. When I bought it in 1995, it was a Cooper S look-a-like, with twin tanks and disks on the front. Strangely enough it even had a kmph speedometer, but it looked like a normal Mk1 dial.
I know the car was originally grey, and it appears to have dark brown back seats and door cards - not sure if brown is the right colour as it turns red after 'severe' cleaning. Havent pursued this as afraid to muck on the upholstery.
My 9 year old daughter, who is getting into the mini too, has convinced me to repaint the car light blue (i guess as close to the original grey as possible).
My question is:
1. what colour was the cards in the dash shelf? At the moment it has black carpet material covering it.
2. what colour was the rear seat shelf (directly opposite the rear windscreen)?
3. what colour carpets would it have had?

Thanks in advance,
marc

I think that they would have been vinyl, the same colour as the seats.
I think it would have been white vinyl.
It would not have had carpet, it would have had vinyl mats in a similar colour as the seats.

Thanks for the very quick reply Morris 1100.
Any ideas where I'd source brown vinyl for the dash shelf and rear shelf? I might think of replacing the carpet later.
I live in Sydney.
Thanks
marc

I can't ever recall seeing brown vinyl in a Mini. I would have thought it would have been red. Can you get an un-faded bit from under a seat?

I thought the seats in my 66 Morris 1100 were light green/grey but they were cream underneath.

Yep my 'brown' upholstery would be red then. A few years ago I happened to use a little methylated spirits on hidden sections and it came up red. Wasnt sure if I was destroying something so I decided to stop and leave it. The metho spirits appears to remove a top layer on the upholstery. Anyone come across this too?
What is the current practice for restorations? I notice people nowadays tend to revel in originality ie. original paintwork etc.
Should I leave the brown colour on the seats as is, because it is part of the aging process.
marc

With my 68 deluxe which was also originally grey with red interior, It has red vinyl on the dash cards and also rear parcel shelf... all red vinyl. The floors have red rubber mats front and back

As for leaving the seats brown... well do you want a car that looks as it did from the factory, or ones thats spent 43 years going old and crusty? Entirely up to you

Me personally, I could not tolerate that, I prefer things looking pretty.

Also, I have attacked my seats with various chemicals namely thinners, metho, prepsol.... Yes it takes a little off, I found with the particularily dirty areas where I had to scrub harder, i did find some red on the rag i was using... not a concern, just stop scrubbing once its clean! Best thing you can do once its clean, is use an upholtery cleaner to remove the chemical, then a conditioner like armoural to protect it. Good as new! This is what I did, and mine came up a treat, no damage done.

As for the current trend with restos... well I guess its really up to the individual.. It seems to me the rarer the car the more people like to see them restored to original specs... I am still struggling with this decision for my Deluxe...

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Size DOES Matter!!!

Thanks Trixitrine
Will seriously consider cleaning it up.
However I still need the extra vinyl material to make up the dash cards and rear shelf. Does anyone know where to get this stuff?
marc