1979 Kingswood: Our shed

Date: 28.08.2014

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

The Allens' 1979 Kingswood goes in for a retrim...

Our shed: 1979 Kingswood

1979 Kingswood

THE KING'S NEW CLOTHES

It’s one of the risks of living with a car for so long – the decline in its condition becomes invisible to the owner, because degradation happens at a gradual pace. As a result, what you still imagine to be a reasonable interior looks (to less sympathetic eyes) as though something large died a horrible death in it. Such was the state of my mighty Kingswood, which celebrates its 35th year on the planet. It’s been in our shed for 32 of them.

Ms M and I were a little outraged it had fallen into disrepair – after all, we’d retrimmed it once. Then the awful realisation came: that was probably two decades ago.

Given that it’s a family pet, and the fact we’re hanging on to it, we’ve decided to go mad and get it done in the only material which really lasts – leather.

From there, the only choice was to see Chris Takos at Blackman’s Leather in Geelong, who seems to have become the unofficial staff car trimmer for this fine publication. He did a great job with Project HG some years ago, again with Leech’s XY Falcon wagon, and now he’s lumbered with the HZ Kingswood. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

Somewhat courageously, we’ve given young Mr Takos a free rein. Next thing we know, he’s talking about heated seats, exotic designs and lining the roof with the same gear they use in Lambos. "Lipstick on a pig," was the rather unkind comment from one of my offspring, who should know better. Luckily for her, it was out of earshot of her mother, who regards the car as a blood relative.

It’s all a bit depressing to watch. With no ceremony whatsoever, the old interior was ripped out and cast aside. Takos used one of the front seats as a sketch pad to work on a new upholstery design, shortly before consigning its cover to the dumpmaster.

Meanwhile, the battery has gone flat, the car has got covered in workshop dust and it’s all looking a bit forlorn.

Then, out of the blue, he sends us a pic of the door cards, with the message, "Whaddya think?" I’m pretty easy to please – it was Ms M he really had to worry about. Fortunately, he’s been given royal assent and now we just have to wait for assorted folk to get busy on the sewing machines.

Wish us luck…

 
*****

 
More reviews:

> Our shed: Scott's 1979 HZ Kingswood

> Reader resto: HZ Premier

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