Rear bulkhead trim

[rsk289]

Yes Larry, that was my research from a few years back, for which I also received a lot of very helpful notes and photos from DC.

As far as I know, for a leafspring 289 (specifically a COB car, but I doubt it makes a lot of difference):

The inner wheelarches were finished in black skived leather, of a coarse grain that hasn't been available for some time (apparently the Hurlocks had fallen out with Conolly, and refused to use their leather). On a stepped bulkhead, the top and front of the step have Karvel carpet glued on, with no binding at the edges. Karvel was the 'standard' level carpet fitted to millions of cars in the sixties. As Larry notes, the current version is not the same as the original but Woolies' offering is very close (and they're not far from you, Lee). In service Karvel used to look tatty pretty quickly, but hey, if it's correct... think of it as instant patina.
The upper panel of the rear bulkhead was covered with a coarse grain vinyl - again, Woolies is your best bet as the older types of material are not reproduced. This could have been Rexine originally (think of the Morris Minor trim panels of your youth), but I tend to think it was more likely a thinner leathercloth. Then there was the elasticated 'curtain' to retain the sidescreens, of which I have photos if you need them along with fastener specs, courtesy of DC.
Dan has also given me a lot of extremely useful guidance on the way the carpets were trimmed. The biggest mistake seen these days on replicas and restored originals is the overabundant used of edge binding. Original cars had very little of this from the factory - there should be none on the trans tunnel carpet and just a strip edging the door shut and another section at the rear section only of the footwell carpet. That's pretty much it, although I believe 427s had the aluminium strip around the doorshut to stop the binding being damaged easily, something many 289 owners later copied.
I suspect Dan will give the authorised version of this sometime soon!
Roger

Forgot to mention - on COB cars at least, the ashtray was an option, and the position seems to have varied. COB6029 has its original transmission tunnel and there is no ashtray - I don't think Asshelton Cross's car had one either. If you do want to fit one (why would you? In a Cobra, the whole world is your ashtray), they are readily available from all the usual Healey outlets - e.g. AHSpares MSC101