The 'E' Type Forum

Today I had the opportunity to visit Stan Swan at GB Classic Trim who did the interior of my FHC for the previous owner and everybody comments on what a superb job it is. Stan started working for Jaguar in the trim shop at the age of 15 and continued there into the 1980's. He has a wealth of knowledge about all things Jaguar and has some fascinating stories to tell. For example all cars initially went down the line with the customer name on the build docket until Sir William discovered the workers were upgrading and adding freebie extras to cars destined for their friends! The practice was immediately stopped apart from on one car, destined for Sir William himself.

Stan left Jaguar after becoming disillusioned with the way the company was running and set himself up as the 'The Trim Centre' until selling the company and retiring 10 years ago. He found retirement a bore and was encouraged by a fiend to set-up again, so he founded GB Trimming Ltd of Nuneaton. They always try to have four cars in the shop with one nearing completion, one mid way through, one just starting and the fourth next in line.




When Angus and I were up with Ken Verity we were both hugely impressed by the hood on an OBL OTS he was working on because it is one of the few we have seen that fits properly - the decorative chrome trim on the hood perfectly covers the windscreen top surround just as intended. Stan did that work! Stan reckons an E-Type takes 145 hours to trim to the standard he wants. and has things like the hood bow made to his specification so he can trim it down to size. He said Jaguar had three sizes of hood available and simply found the one which best fitted each individual car. The vinyl roofs and hood bags were introduced for the American market because of complaints the mohair was fading in the sun. We also talked about the new Connolly Vaumol leathers which are now available, albeit at a price - ?600 per hide, about 2.5 times the cost of a normal hide. When you see, touch and smell it side by side with the normal leather though you realise it is worth every penny.


If you are in need of a new interior, a hood or some interior parts (Stan does not sell trimming 'kits') : http://www.gbclassictrim.com/

I can also recommend GB Classic Trim (as I have previously posted). Stan rebuilt my front seats and re-trimmed them, plus he retro fitted authentic headrests in the seats. He has had some new headrests made up to the original specification, and he welded in new brackets to the seat back frame (all of which, I thought, came at a very reasonable price). I'm going to get him to do my rear seats and centre console next (mainly because they look so rubbish compared to the front seats!).

Dropped by to see Stan today and watched the black XK150 being loaded onto a transporter. The finish of the interior and the hood fit was absolutely superb. He also had a MGTC and a Ferrari 365GTS in for work along with an E-Type which has suffered fire damage and is missing the entire interior apart from the seat bases. My favourite is the cream XK120 which you can see in the second picture above. It belongs to a musician with a well known rock band and he wants an interior made to match the highly patinated exterior. This is the sort of car I would love to own - dull, cracked cream enamel, worn chrome with nothing done to the car for years other than using it and keeping it running. The leather had cracked and torn so Stan is reclaiming what original bits can be used and matching them with distressed pieces so the whole car looks aged. This includes the carpets and hood! Incredible workmanship.

Great firm, just had a set of trim done for my OBL roaster. Nothing is too much trouble for them.

Seen some beautiful interiors finished by them out and about. Very impressive job.

On another note, following a conversation at XK70, Graham Watkins was also kind enough to provide me with some biscuit leather offcuts (all I really needed) for my roadster model FOC. This was particularly good of them, since other companies were only interested in selling me half a hide!

Another huge plus for Graham Watkins and his team at GB Classic Trim Nuneaton. I had my 1962 roadster seats, centre console and radio console trimmed by them and collected two weeks ago. Superb quality.

I timed my visit to view an early silver flat floor roadster which had just received a total retrim including hood. I could only drool at their faultless workmanship. It was fantastic. I had planned to attempt the rest of the trim for my car over winter and consider myself to be a bit dogmatic when it comes to getting things right which is part of the reason for probably being pretty high up the league table for the longest restoration (25yrs haha). As I travelled back to Norfolk, self realisation hit me!! I could spend another 25yrs and still not get the trim that good. The car is now booked in for its total retrim early next year. Good chance I will make the 60th anniversary.

I would also add that Graham is always very helpful, prompt with communication and just a really decent bloke to do business with. Highly recommended.

Graham