Brian has fitted weather strips to the top of the doors, adjusting the ends of the door cappings to let the doors close properly./ He has cut out door panel insert panels and covered in leather. He has fitted insert panels into door panels, fitting door panels back on, fitting top and bottom sections of the glovebox into dashboard.
The Jensen 541 was a car produced by Jensen Motors. Each one of these cars has an individual story to tell, but the story of the Jensen 541, in general, is one that many car enthusiasts should be keen to hear.
If you want to know more about these truly iconic classic cars, then this brief history of the Jensen 541 can give you a good idea of how special (and rare) these cars really are.
At the Earls Court Motor Show of 1953, the Jensen 541 was shown to the public for the very first time. It would be another eight months before production properly started but, this was the date when the world was officially introduced to the 541.
Up until the 541, Jensen had mostly been using aluminium for the bodywork of their Interceptors (there were restrictions on the use of steel still in place as the world recovered from the second world war). When it came to making the boot lids of the Interceptors though, Jensen played around with a new material of the time – fibreglass.
When working on the idea for the 541, Jensen wanted to do something big, so they decided to make a lot more of the car from this new wonder material.
In June of 1954, production of the Jensen 541 began. At the time, you could buy your very own 541 for £2146.
A little over 2 years after production of the 541 began, the 541 Deluxe was introduced. As this was a more luxurious car that featured all disc brakes, the price of the car increased to £2626.
Only 53 Jensen 541 Deluxes were made in total.
A year later, the 541R was introduced. When first released, these were fitted with Austin Princess (DS7) twin-carb engines, and an overdrive gearbox. The price tag for a 541R, at the time, was £2866.
At the beginning of 1958, the very last Jensen 541 was made.
Two years later, the Jensen 541R was pulled from production too. At this point, less than 200 541Rs had been made. Jensen had now moved on to the Jensen 541S which had a larger interior, and automatic transmission as standard. Due to these upgrades, the 541S cost £3195.
At the beginning of 1963, production of the Jensen 541S ended. Less than 150 had been made before being replaced by the Jensen CV-8 which had been introduced the previous year (1962).
Jensens have had a strong presence in the Bridge Classic Cars workshop for a long time. Our team of classic car technicians have restored multiple 541s and some of our current projects include a few more too.
Considering only a few hundred of these classic cars were made, we love seeing them in the workshop. We love working on them, and we love getting them back on the road for everyone to enjoy.
October 4, 2022 9:43 am
The 1958 Jensen 541R has already come a long way since its arrival at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in Suffolk. With recent work being completed on the front and rear seats, attention turned to the leather that would be covering the interior bodywork.
The material selected perfectly complements the dark blue interior that the finished 541R will have. This also pairs nicely with the metallic body and lobelia blue roof that the paint team gave the Jensen a few weeks ago.
Skilfully cutting out the templates to ensure the leather was ready to be installed before glueing them into position takes a bit of time and patience – something that our classic car technicians have in vast quantities.
The finished job has an impressive look and perfectly fits in with the work completed so far on this classic car.
In the workshops right now, we have 6x Jensen 541’s in various states of repair or restoration. We have 3x Jensen 541’s and 3x Jensen 541R’s.
Sometimes, when fabricating parts it is much more time and cost effective for Clinton to produce more than one item. In this instance, Clinton has been working on re-producing the rear demisters and vents as well as bonnet stops and clamps.
With so many successful Jensen restorations now complete, we have the tooling for a lot of the parts that are required on the Jensen. If you are looking for Jensen parts for your own car or need assistance with fabricating certain parts for your classic car feel free to get in touch and we’d be more than happy to assist.
September 16, 2022 9:51 am
The roof bars have now been removed to make way for the new foam to be glued and fitted. The bars, covered in the correct material are then screwed back into position. The headlining is then positioned and carefully glued around the edges before being tightened and secured. Finally, access is gained in the new material for the interior light wiring.
The vinyl interior section are now being templated, cut out, glued and shaped into position on our 1958 Jensen 541R.
The dash, A posts and parcel shelf are now all in position.
Some of the peripheral parts belonging to our 1959 Jensen 541R are currently being cleaned up and prepared for refit. Once they are ready to go back on the car they will get packaged and stored away and await refit.
