OK guys....I visited the trimmer this afternoon. He is quite an interesting man.
He did his apprenticeship at the BMC plant, and spent 10 years there in total before it was shut down. He told me all about production of the P76, and the prototype '47'. Apparently you can blame Gough Whitlam for the end of the Australian produced Mini. He told me about some deal that Gough did with the Brittish Government......When the OZ plant closed, they sent the prototypes of the '47' to Sims Scrap metal, but some were retained and still exist.....
Anyway, I digress......
He has original Mini fabric in blue, beige, brown and black. Red I will have to ask about...and guess who got the last of the black dot fabric.....
He was amazed at the condition of my seats, and said it was a shame to recover them
They are brown for f's sake!!
The price was right so I have booked them in for retrim in black vinyl and original black dot fabric. I highly recommened this guy for quality trimming, and a good story or five.
PM me if you want his contact details.
This is one of my seats as they were when I bought JAM. It was perfect till I sprayed the fabric at the top with armourall.....
I'll put a pic up of the finished product in a few weeks