Interior details
What were the interiors of a B20? They appear not to be standardized, especially not the early ones. Later ones (from 4th series on) are more regular, with the later 6th series being the most predictable, according to the literature.
Did the interiors of the earlier cars have door panels in cloth or vinyl? Most think they were cloth, maybe some vinyl along the bottom.Thus, an early car would be cloth around the driver, not only on the seats, the door panels but also the headliner. Two s.2 cars were examined, one having the seat “buttons” which were sometimes installed. Note the it also has vinyl on the seat sides, where the other one has cloth. Vinyl on the seat backs was common.
Here are some pictures of redone door panels with vinyl on the top and bottom and cloth in the middle. This is fairly practical.
- redone 2nd s. panel, vinyl on bottom
redone 4th s. with vinyl trim and bottom
very well done 2nd series, with vinyl on bottom
The real trick was to find unrestored cars, however. And they tell a different story: an original 1st series interior shows use of the vinyl detailing was original:
original s.1 B20 panel – note the vinyl
Then there are some panels from a 2nd series interior, also unrestored, which show all vinyl (I believe) on the rear quarter panels and heavy use of vinyl on the door panel:
- unrestored rear quarter panel from original s.2 B20
Lastly, a s,4 B20 was found with an original all leather interior. While uncommon, it did look nice.
This car used to belong to Bill Shakespeare, in southern Illinois, of Bugatti fame. The car was originally a two tone green car (when I saw it in 1980) but is now been repainted to a single green. Some “speciale” cars had their interiors in full leather, nice to see how they looked.
full leather interior, unrestored s.4 B20
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