Bernard Newbury

Back Once Again Like A Renegade Master !

Back in the summer we converted a T5 panel van into a luxury day van which was featured in Ultra VW. Well, not long after, it was sold on to make way for a new project. What was even more suprising is that the new owner, DJ John '00' Fleming, brought it back to us for some more work. He wanted us to take out the rear triple seat and replace it with 2 Porsche tombstones and a small sleeping area. As well as this, he wanted a heater, fridge, table and a smaller cupboard fitted. We also had to fabricate the seat frames so they tilted forward to access the sleeping area.

Tags: Day Van Gallery Leather T5 Tweed VW Van Volkswagen

14 Dec 2011 / 0 comments

Nigel Fleet's '58 Ragtop

More fat biscuit action with Nigel Fleet's stunning '58 ragtop. Orginal front seats and door panels trimmed in beige pvc with beige cloth inserts. The rear seat has been omitted for that slick race look. 1200 style headlining and ragtop inner in beige West Of England wool cloth with black Mohair ragtop outer. Oatmeal square weave carpet completes the overal look.

Tags: Beetle Carpets Door Panels Fat Biscuit Gallery Headliners Ragtop Seats Ultra VW Volkswagen

23 Oct 2011 / 0 comments

Purple Ragtop

Stock seats and door panels trimmed in cream leather with beige pipping and polished aluminium door panel trims . Carperts, parcel shelf and under bonnet in beige square weave. Headlining and ragtop inner in beige West Of England wool cloth. The glove box is custom trimmed in matching West Of England to house the stereo head unit, and the parcel shelf features hidden speakers trimmed in beige speaker cloth.

Tags: Beetle Carpets Door Panels Gallery Headliners Leather Ragtop Seats Ultra VW Volkswagen

22 Oct 2011 / 1 comment

'53 Ragtop Oval

Beard Super Seats trimmed in tan leather, brown piping and fat biscuit cloth inserts. Rear seat and door panels have matching leather and fat biscuit cloth combination. Oatmeal square weave carpet throughout with herringbone cloth binding. West of England cloth takes care of the full headlining and ragtop inner, while the ragtop outer is finished in black mohair.

Tags: Beetle Carpets Door Panels Fat Biscuit Gallery Headliners Leather Oval Ragtop Seats Sunroofs VW Volkswagen

13 Sep 2011 / 1 comment

Luxury T5 Day Van Conversion

Feautred in this months Ultra VW, Gordon Chrystie's luxury T5 day van was brought to us as a bare panel van with just a set of Audi A8 seats.
We set about soundproofing throughout with Dynamat, then making the interior panels from birch faced ply with sculptured inserts. This was then trimmed along with the headlining with black tweed after we had laid all the wiring and electrical work for the split charging system, 240-volt hookup, 12 & 240-volt sockets throughout the van, 12-volt halogen down lighting, LED mood lighting and hidden speakers for the 24-inch LCD TV/DVD screen. 2 tone grey leather features on the retrimmed Audi seats up front, a retrimmed T4 Caravelle seat in the rear, headlining centre panel and rear over head speaker & down lighting box. This is finished off with a Piano-black gloss cabinet and black Wilton carpet through out.

Tags: Camper Day Van Gallery Leather T5 Tweed Ultra VW VW Van Volkswagen

01 Sep 2011 / 0 comments

Greg Howell's Golf R32 Recaros

Trimmed to match the original rear seats in genuine hide direct from Recaro's supplier in Austria.

Tags: Gallery Golf Hide Leather Mk5 R32 Recaro Seats Sportster

24 Jul 2011 / 0 comments

Inch Pincher & Lightning Bug

Just a couple of the Nostalgia Bugs at EBI 4 this weekend in Chimay, Belgium that we've worked on.

Tags: Door Panels Gallery Gasser Nostalgia Seats VW

05 Jul 2011 / 0 comments

Hand Fitted Removable Race Seat Cover

A couple of recent magazine articles have acknowledged that trimming is an unappreciated dying art that requires extreme skill. None more so than hand fitting a seat from scratch with just a fibreglass shell without any patterns.

Below is a step by step pictorial of a race seat we've recently made with the brief being the cover must be removable. To be honest, we're not a massive fan of removable covers as a lot we've seen look like a sack of potatoes. But with a bit of skill and a lot of time & effort, you can get a cover that looks just as good as a fitted one.

1. The fibreglass seat shell with no patterns

2. A paper pattern is made of the base and upright cushion, then transferred to 1" foam

3. The foam is inserted into the fibreglass shell to make sure it fits correctly

4. Vinyl fabric is laminated to 1/2" scrim backed foam, deep fluted, cut to the same size as the 1" foam cushions and sewn together

5. Using off cuts of left over fabric we have in stock, a pattern is made for the wings of the seat by marking out, cutting and sewing many times and until it fits correctly.

6. Once the pattern is right, it's taken apart marked out on the material of choice, sewn together and offered up to the seat for final fitting

7. The completed cover ready for fitting where...

8. ...Durable dot fasteners are used all round to hold it in place.

9. The cover fitted ready for some 1/4 mile action

Tags: Race Seat

10 Jun 2011 / 0 comments

We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

It's not often you see a Wizzard Roadster these days. The owners have had this for nearly 20 years and have taken the last 10 years restoring it. We were given the task of putting the finising touches in terms of fitting it back up and trimming it.The interior features hand fitted bucket seats in Burgundy Brookland UK Hide plus matching rear rear seat & door panels, with hand fitted carpets in grey square weave through out.