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.
We’ve fitted a new grille, manufactured by Bride Classic Cars on tooling disigned in house. Made from stainless steel rather than the soft alloy that Jensen made from new.
The spotlights that are notorious for coming loose have been re-secured.
Air vent grille screws were loose due to worn fibreglass body sections. Area has been fibreglass re-matted and re-drilled to the correct size to ensure a tight fit.
Bonnet catch release suffers from fibreglass cracking due to the incorrect opening of the bonnet.
This are has been remitted, strengthened and hardware refitted to ensure longevity of the repair.
The front section has been totally resprayed as incorrect front bumper alignment lead to the bonnet rubbing against the bumper skirt causing damage to paint.
Both horns were faulty and we have fitted original, refurbished horns from our stores.
Front bumper skirt has been moved forward. Non-standard rubber protection has been removed to ensure that the front skirt sits away from the bonnet valance to elevate rubbing causing paint damage.
We’ve also removed the clock, refitted new batteries and replaced.
Re-alignment of bonnet and inner wings to stop bonnet rubbing on inner wings and damaging the black paint.
Dave has started work on our beautiful 1962 Jensen 541S. The vehicle is in for some small, remedial tasks. A new front grille is on the list to be fitted and here at Bridge Classic Cars we have manufactured the tooling to replicate the S grille and have been one of the main suppliers of the Jensen 541S grille.
The bonnet latches also need adjusting and the engine is not running anywhere near as beautifully as it should be.
Chris has been working on our 1958 Jensen 541R. He’s now finished off the last fibreglass repairs on the underside of the bonnet and completely stripped down the body panels for painting. He’s begun the first layers of filler primer on the boot, bonnet and side-skirts. It’s crucial at this phase to ensure the surface is absolutely immaculate before colour paint is applied. It’s only by taking extreme care now that we achieve the perfect finished product. Great work, Chris.
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.
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!
Chris has been working on re-fitting the chrome around the windows and door tops. This exercise is done to ensure all lines and re-shaping work has been carried out perfectly and that all components will once again fit as they should when it comes to rebuilding the car after paint.
All panels around the car are now lining up beautifully so we are now very close to carrying out the paint preparation.
Dave and Chris are hard at work on our 1957 Jensen 541 R. Dave has perfected his custom built B posts. He’s let in new metal where necessary to ensure the vehicle’s structure is perfect.
Chris is now fitting up the body panels, ensuring the fitment, gap and shape of the panels is spot on. It’s now going into the paint shop for paint preparation.
Now that the panels are all fitted perfectly, Chris has been removing them in preparation for paint. We ensure the fitment is spot on before it goes into paint incase any tweaking or bending needs to be made which cannot be done once the paint is applied.
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.
Kath has begun stripping down our Jensen interior. She will carefully clean and then mark out all interior fabrics and use these as reference for the new leather. Once the seats and interior trim is all stripped down, we can then work on building them back up with brand new foam and leather.
Dave has done a wonderful job fabricating new hinges for our Jensen 541R. He’s had to weld in a box section in order to extend the Jensen’s ‘A post’ towards the rear of the car. This has allowed to doors to sit in their correct position. The Jensen will go to our in-house paint shop for bodywork to ensure the door sits perfectly flush. Great work, Dave!
Customer, and friend of Bridge Classic Cars, Joerg has sent us these wonderful photos of his beautiful Jensen.
Built in 1935, this was the first vehicle ever produced by the Jensen brothers. They named her the White Lady and that name has stuck with the vehicle to this day.
A truly special automobile, This prototype (Chassis number S1/3799) is powered by a 3.6L Ford V8 which is mated to a three speed manual gearbox. Due to the dual-ratio rear end the white lady effectively had six gears.
What a stunning piece of history! We’re pleased to see this vehicle in the hands of such a huge Jensen enthusiast.
Kath has been hard at work on our Jensen interiors. For the convertible roof she has tackled the following stages
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.
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.
Dave has been working on our wonderful 1957 Jensen 541R. He’s had to convert the door hinges to allow the doors to correctly fit.
To do this Dave has cut out the old door plate and fabricated a new door plate, using our 1960 Jensen door as reference to match it perfectly.
He’s then had to modify the ‘A Post’ on our Jensen to sit 4 inches further forwards towards the front of the vehicle.
In order for Dave to check the fitment on the vehicle, the new hinges have been temporarily tacked together with a mild copper. This is strong enough to take the weight of the door during the test fitting process, yet also easy to remove when we undertake the final welding.
Only once we have the perfect fitment will Dave fully weld up the door hinges and get the panels ready for painting.
This lovely ’62 Jensen 541 S has been collected and brought back to the Bridge Classic Cars workshop. It’s in for paintwork correction and a other remedial works.
Our classic car technicians have a wealth of well experience with Jensens. As such, we’ve picked up a lot of Jensen restorations over the years with clients eager to have their cars seen to by Jensen experts. They are beautiful cars, but also present many demands and challenges in order to restore with the finest quality. Rest assured, this Jensen is now with our expert technicians who will see this lovely 541 S back on the road, ready to be enjoyed soon.
