1960 Jensen 541R

Jensen Dash Wiring

Bob, Bridge Classic Cars’ electrical specialist has been working on our gorgeous rare 1960 Jensen 541R. He’s connected the wiring loom through the bulkhead and

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Jensen Dash Trimming

Kath has been working on both of our Jensen 541 R’s within the Bridge Classic Cars Trim Shop. She has been simultaneously working on interior

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Both Jensen Interior Projects Continues

Brian and Kath have been flat out the past few weeks since returning to our workshop. They’ve been tackling the interior on our two Jensen 541R’s.

Brian has been mainly working on creating the bespoke wooden panelling and Kath has been working with our leather and fabric.

The old interior has been used by Kath as a template to cut our fresh leather to. She has then fitted the new leather to Brian’s bespoke built wooden panelling.

We’ve now finished work on the front two seats and the rear seat base and back swab of our black 1960 Jensen. The next stages will be to fit the headlining which will be a gorgeous cream colour. This should offset the black leather and black exterior paint wonderfully!

Our Jensen 541R Interior

Our 1957 and 1960 Jensen 541R interiors have completely taken over our trim shop as Brian and Kath return to work.

They get straight into the rebuild of our Jensen interiors and as you can see, a lot of the original components are beyond repair so many new templates are being made using the original patterns.

The Jensen rear quarter are being remade using new boarding and foam padding before being recovered in black leather.

The original leather work has been stripped, removed and being replaced with brand new material.

1960 Jensen 541 R Seatbelt Mounts Fitted

Dave, one of Bridge Classic Cars’ skilled Classic Car Technicians has custom fabricted mounting bracket for our Sabelt racing seatbelt setup.

He’s fabricated the centre seatbelt point for the three point seatbelt harness and mounted the seatbelt point to the chassis. Wonderful work, Dave.

1960 Jensen Sets and Seatbelts go in

Dave has been installing the newly trimmed seats into the car. They really do look wonderful in position. He’s currently fitting the driver side seat. Firstly, Dave installed the seat rails before mounting the seat onto the rails.

The four point racing seatbelts are being custom fitted to the chassis.

1960 Jensen 541R Interior Trim

Kath, Bridge Classic Cars’ in-house trimmer is working hard on our Black 1960 Jensen 541R interior. Kath is now working on the second Jensen seat from the black leather hide. She begins by marking out the new parts, using the old components as templates. The old seat tub, base and squab has also been prepared and refurbished, ready for the new leather to be sewn on. Lovely work, Kath.

The black interior to match the black exterior will look absolutely stunning when complete. The chromework is sure to look incredible when paired with the all black colour specification.

Jensen Dash Wiring

Bob, Bridge Classic Cars’ electrical specialist has been working on our gorgeous rare 1960 Jensen 541R. He’s connected the wiring loom through the bulkhead and connected up the dashboard instrumentation.

Jensen Interior Restoration Update

Kath, Bridge Classic Cars’ interior trim specialist has been making wonderful progress on both of our Jensen interiors.

Firstly, Kath begun by sewing up the new black leather seat covers before moving on to refurbishing the upper panels near the headlining. She then began assembling the front and rear seat bases, the rear seat middle section also required trimming in fresh leather.

Kath then began stripping the interior side panels and centre console, ready for reconditioning.

The seats are now complete and ready to be fitted back into the cars. They have been refitted to the highest quality and will look absolutely stunning fitted back into the vehicle. Great work, Kath!

Jensen Perspex Ready for Fitting

The perspex is now ready to be fitted to both of our Jensens. Using the old perspex as a template, the fresh perspex was made to the exact same shape as the original was.

These are now ready to be fitted to both cars.

Jensen Components for Chroming

We’ve got a few more Jensen components that are ready to be chromed. We can’t wait to see the A pillar windows fitted to the car and shining once more.

1960 Jensen 541R Interior Trim

Kath has been making great progress on our Jensen 541R interior.

She’s been carefully stripping down the original interior. The original material is then used as a template for fresh material to be cut to. When cutting out the material its crucial to leave enough spare material for the seam, whilst also making the most out of each roll of the expensive leather.

These Jensen interiors are far more complex than many vehicles of the era. They use plenty of tacs to keep the material in place. This provides a wonderful tight quality finish, but is very time consuming to safely remove. We will upholster the interior in the same fashion to keep everything as original as possible.

The current red interior will be changed to a wonderful rich black leather. This will match the stunning deep black exterior that was recently finished by Chris down in the Paint Shop.

Next up, Kath will be reupholstering the interior in the freshly cut new black leather.

Jensen 541R Interior Restoration

Kath has been hard at work on our Jensen interiors. For the convertible roof she has tackled the following stages

  • Dismantled the headlining
  • Marked out new material patterns onto the new fabric
  • Cut out and numbered the fabric pieces
  • Measured out a strips of calico for the convertible loops
  • Cleaned metal bars
  • Sewn headlining back together
  • Inserted metal bars

Kath has also begun stripping down the Jensen seats. They actually sit on a fibreglass base that attaches to the car. The seats are currently still being prepared to be reupholstered.

Jensen Dash Trimming

Kath has been working on both of our Jensen 541 R’s within the Bridge Classic Cars Trim Shop. She has been simultaneously working on interior components for both of our Jensen 541 R restorations.

The Jensen dials have also arrived in to the workshop, ready to be fitted and wired in to the newly trimmed dash.

Great work, Kath! These new interior pieces will shortly be installed into both cars.

Jensen 541 R Electrical Update

We’ve made great progress on our beautiful 1960 Jensen 541 R. Bob has installed the wiring harness, front and rear lights and indicators. Paul has fitted the bonnet and bonnet support struts.

This restoration is now really starting to come together. The next stages will be to fit the freshly trimmed dashboard and wire in the dashboard instrumentation.

The wiring harness is labeled by Bob before permanent install.

The bonnet in position before being mounted to the bonnet support struts.

Wiring has now been installed and the lights are tested at this stage.

Jensen 541 R Wiring update

Bob, Bridge Classic Cars’ electrical expert has begun installing the electrical wiring into our 1960 Jensen 541 R.

Jensen 541 R Chromework

Chromework has arrived back at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop for our two Jensen 541 R projects.

Pictured below is a selection of some of the chrome components that will be fitted to the completed restorations.

1960 Jensen 541R Engine and Gearbox go in

This morning the engine and gearbox have gone into our Jensen 541R chassis. See below for a timelapse of John and Paul guiding the engine into place.

Bridge Visits Denis Welch Motorsport

We had a wonderful time visiting Denis Welch Motorsport. They’ve carried out work on the Jensen 493 Engine that will soon be transplanted back into the freshly painted chassis. It’s now been mounted to the fully refurbished gearbox. It was truly a pleasure to visit the wonderful workshop!

1960 Jensen 541R completed paintwork

Our Jensen has emerged out of the paint shop and can be seen gleaming in the sun. Chris has done a fabulous job on our Jensen 541R. Black is arguably the hardest colour to get just right, however Chris has worked wonders, firstly preparing the panels to be perfectly smooth, before then applying this stunning deep black paint.

1960 Jensen 541R in paint

Our beautiful 1960 Jensen 541R paint is currently setting in our paint booth. As the shall is made of fibreglass, the paint cannot be cured at regular ‘baking’ temperatures. Instead, it’s cured at a less intense 20 degrees. This will mean the car won’t be able to be perfected and polished until next week, but we’re sure the perfect finish will be worth the wait.

1960 Jensen 541R Paint Preparation

Chris has been getting our Jensen 541R ready for paint. He’s been rubbing down and priming the surface to be smooth for paint application. He’s also applied Raptor Coating to the back of panels in order to protect the bodywork form the elements. Now that the car has been masked up, the next stage will see the car finished in a stunning deep black paint.

1960 Jensen 541R Bonnet Repair

Our Jensen bonnet has been in the paint shop. The fibreglass structure has a large crack and so will be repaired to a completely smooth surface ready for repainting.

1960 Jensen 541R

The Engine on our 1960 Jensen 541R has undergone a complete rebuild.

Our Jensen chrome work arrives…

Our heavily pitted hinges Jensen 541R hinges made their way down to London to be assessed with a view to repair by the guys at Douglas Metal Finishing . The results are outstanding…

Douglas Metal Finishing is one of the leading UK Chrome Platers with their established factory set up in South East London. They have the ability to Chrome pretty much anything you can think of.

Whether you want to chrome your classic car or your old scooter we can do the lot. With over 80 years experience we have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in chroming to ensure a top quality end result.

Massive investment in the latest technology enables Douglas Metal Finishing to offer a wide range of finishes. Their up to date satin plant means they can offer satin or bright finishes in nickel, chrome or any of their four shades of Gold.

Jensen (#493) 541R in primer

We are now aligning the doors, boot lid and bonnet and completing the primer stage of our 1960 Jensen 541R.

We will soon be able to enter the paint room for Chris to carry out the full re-spray.

Manipulating the ill-fitting Jensen 541R doors

Dave has been battling with the mammoth task of encouraging the Jensen 541R doors to fit as they should.

The initial fit out was a long way from where they need to be with the expected perfect lines being far from perfect.

This unexpected task, although very time consuming and labour intensive has been very successful and resulted in the doors now fitting beautifully.