Quote:
Originally Posted by rsk289
Obviously, I concur with Dan's remarks - as I have gained pretty much all of my information from him! CSX2310 and COB6029 are fantastic resources, being (I think) pretty much the closest things to an unrestored Cobra available to us.
From what I've seen on COB6029, not all the leather is skived, some is full thickness - for example that used in the various straps and stays etc. Dash and rear wheelarches certainly are, basically I think anything that had to fit around a complex curve. As Dan has noted, original Cobra leather is not the same as used these days, but has a much 'coarser' crease pattern, and seems to be slightly glossier. I don't like it as much, but as it's not available anyway (or at least not in the UK) that's academic.
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It is not just leathers, but the vinyls, heel pads, and carpets are long obsolete commercially.
The leather grain was created, per family friends of the Hurlock brothers who owned AC Cars, to be unique to AC Cars vehicles. When the original Thames Ditton works stopped making ACE and Cobra type vehicles that pretty much ended that supply chain.
The carpets in black and red were not rare in the 1960s but the automobile industry moved on to more durable designs and materials. The last commercially available stock in black that I know of was bought out by one high end restorer circa 2005-2006. Subsequent trips to England failed to find anymore and the manufacturer declined making anymore just like AC Cars used so that supply chain seems dead.
Ditto rubber heel pad material. A restorer traveled to England and bought up everything he could find at major supply houses. (It is said that the English businesses hardly ever discard anything new, obsolete or not, as long as there is any chance someone might come in and buy it. Roger does that sound about right?)
How about the vinyls, I know owners and restorers that have hunted new stock since the mid 1980s and never found anything close enough to call a great match.
Today it you want to get an excellent match to these materials AC cars used you have to find a manufacturer and have them made. That is not a cheap or fast process but it is being done especially for cars intended for events like Pebble Beach.