Color Dormatic seats

[sempex]

Hello,

My name is Jan and I am rebuilding a 1964 Dormobile. I would like to give the seats the right color, so
does anybody know the color for the seat frames, or was it different depending on the customer?
The rear seat frames are black and the front seat frames are beige brown at the moment.

Best regards, Jan

[MrJones]

Hello Jan , mine are grey , it’s a 1970 model with elephant trim (grey also)

Michel

[Jabbawocky]

Hi Jan

The early Land Rover Dormobiles had Grey elephant hide seat cushions, with white frames to match the white piping on the seats. The Later seat were black vinyl, with black frames. Not sure when they changes in Dormobiles, but Land Rover changed seat material about 1969. My 1971 has the later type seats, but I cannot guarantee they are the originals, as most of it came in bits.

Where about’s on the planet are you?

Any pictures?

Cheers Mick

[sempex]

Hello MrJones and hello Mick,

thanks for the quick reply. I will paint the frames white then and try to get the elephant hide seat cushions. Does the Retrim kit from exmoor have the right color for the early seats?

The car is the second from the bottom.

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/Dormobile/pictures4.html

Best regards from Germany, Jan

[Jabbawocky]

HI Jan

I have never seen the Exmoor Dormobile covers, but I have seen the material they have had manufactured. It is grey, but the pattern is very different. If you are replacing all the covers, it is the best you can get. If your only replace a single cushion, it would be very obvious.

Cheers Mick

[ant]

Hi Sempex

The frames are more gray than white – and the Exmoor ‘elephant hide’ vinyl doesn’t have the same texture but is about as close to the original as you can get these days.

[malcolm]

Hi

The frames would have been an off white/cream colour, if you have the fittings for the bunk beds you will see the colour.
An upholsterer will have vinyls with a grain, not as good as the original Elephant hide but as good as you will get,If you are restoring the whole car you will want the door cards to match the seats.
I imagine Dormobile would trim the vehicles with whatever Land Rover was using at the time.The vehicles would be sent as bare shells to Martin Walter with the Station Wagon door cards fitted this would dictate the seat colour.

Regards
Malcolm

[MrJones]

Hello , what you see on my seats is new Exmoor trim material , it is not really like original , you can see on this pic the old one on the right and the new on the left .

the piece for underneath the back seat is not provided , so I left the old one that was always in good condition
Anyway , my car was fitted with elephant trim on the seats as the door are black , and like the grey color of the frame of seats and bunks , I could certifie that it was original .
Michel

[maldonmud]

Just to confirm that the original elephant hide, as per Michels picture, is lighter grey and more heavily embossed

We are fitting exmoor trim to our second dormobile, a 1963 as the elephant hide was too poor and the door cards had gone but on the the 1966 both the seats and cards are elephant hide:

On both the seat metalwork is painted off white

Best wishes

Paul

[DanC]

Just to add to this, I am about to replace mine with the Exmoor kit as I have been down several routes and it is actually the most cost effective without entirely changing the vinyl. You can get another close match http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk 25-E-GRY I have seen a sample and it isn’t half bad, it is £25 per m2 though so not the cheapest. Some will now me from the Series 2 Club and I deal with a lot of suppliers, I have been discussing things with them and for those with the black seats it looks like this option will be added to there products shortly (cheaper than the EH of course).

I will update when I get my covers, I would have loved to keep the original but it has gone pretty hard now and the padding has died… I am advised that it wouldn’t survive the removal and re-padding process although I will store them for reference.

[Author]

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