riley interior

Got it Covered – Repairing the Tourneau Cover of the 1934 Riley Lynx

The Bridge Classic Cars in-house trim shop have been working the magic on the 1934 Riley 12/4 Lynx. With the rest of the car in the workshop with our restoration technicians, some of the interior pieces have been handed over to our very own Kath to do what she does best.

First across the trim table is the Tourneau cover. This piece needed a few repairs doing to it which Kath has managed to get done by combining traditional techniques with modern materials and approaches. The edges of the pieces had become heavily frayed so Kath created all new edging to surround the deep back cover. Also, several small leather pieces inside the cover had deteriorated, which Kath managed to create a template for and replace with new material.

Kath also replaced several of the tin snaps which fix the cover to the body when the soft top is folded down and stowed. So, with that completed and pressed. It was time to get it back into the car and on to the next job for this beautiful 4 door tourer.

1939 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs Body – Interior Trim

Brian and Kath have both been working on the rear bench seat of our ’39 Riley Merlin Nine.

They have superbly trimmed the rear seats in matching blue leather. The seats just need to be sat in a few times for them to shine in a similar way to the front seats.

There was some leftover leather, so Kath has also made a brilliant tool pouch which fits perfectly into the boot storage space.

Continue reading below for the full process.

Lovely work, Brian and Kath.

The first job was to re-foam the front seats for additional padding. Brian stripped down the seats and added extra foam toppers to pad out the old foam.Brian then glued new leather to the wheel arch top panels. He then added new new wadding to the wheel arch panel and stapled new covers onto the panel.

After stripping out the rear bench seats Brian has added new foam toppers onto the original Riley rear base foam. He then glued the rear base covers made by Kath onto the foam.

Brian has then added chrome fasteners to the cover which will allow it to be clipped into place. He has then fitted the base back into the vehicle before we moved onto repeating the process on the swab.

Kath handled the sewing and stitching parts of the build. With some of the loft over leather Kath has made this lovely little tool bag as an added surprise for the customer.