1960 Jensen 541R

Things Are Happening

The near side lower corner of our 1960 Jensen 541R has been repaired by Alan. He also replaced both quarter-panel window rubber holders. Once all

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Seat Strip Down

Lydia has been stripping the seats of our 1960 Jensen 541R ready for new covers once the fabric has been chosen.

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Repairing Old Repairs

Since the chassis of our 1960 Jensen 541R has returned from sandblasting, classic car technician Rob has found some old repairs that need to be

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Prep For Sandblasting

Our 1960 Jensen 541 is back in the workshop and in the very capable hands of classic car technician Rob. In preparation for sandblasting, Rob

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Good As New

Our friends at Wyatt Polishing recently completed some restoration work and zinc plating for a number of seat runners and bonnet struts for the Jensens

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Jensen Bonnet Strips

Our classic car technician, Clinton, has been making parts that will ultimately go on to be fitted into one of our ongoing Jensen projects. The

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Lilac Jensen Update

Ady has taken apart the lilac 1960 Jensen’s rocker shaft to be cleaned out and rebuilt to ensure it works as it should. Brian has

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Door Skins

The door skins of our 1960 Jensen 541R have been painted in DTM black.

Things Are Happening

The near side lower corner of our 1960 Jensen 541R has been repaired by Alan. He also replaced both quarter-panel window rubber holders.

Once all the repairs on the underside of the body were complete, Alan masked out the parts that need sealing when they are attached to the body frame. He then blacked the whole underside of the body.

While this was happening, Christian fabricated a boot latch bracket.

Body Removal

The body of our 1960 Jensen 541R has been removed ready for work to begin on it.

Seat Strip Down

Lydia has been stripping the seats of our 1960 Jensen 541R ready for new covers once the fabric has been chosen.

Rebuilding A Classic Jensen

Since the chassis of our 1960 Jensen 541R returned to the Bridge Classic Cars workshop, classic car technician Rob has been completing repairs.

However, recently, Rob progressed to starting the long process of putting our 541R back together again. The main body is now back on the chassis and the whole thing is starting to look much more car-like.

There is, of course, still a long way to go before the car is anywhere close to being ready to leave us but, it’s always great to see progress being made on restoration projects like this.

The Welding Continues

Classic car technician Rob has, once again, been working on our 1960 Jensen 541R. One of the areas he has been focused on is the right-hand side rear body frame and B post. These were both made and welded into place.

Rob then went on to repair and weld the front bulkhead and A posts on both sides before clamping the newly made boot floor ready for welding. The new boot floor was made by Monty to help in the restoration of our rare Jensen 541R.

More Fabricating And Welding

Classic car technician Rob has continued his work on our 1960 Jensen 541R.

Rob has made new door steps and fitted these. He has also made the left-hand B post and welded this in before doing the same for the left-hand rear body frame parts.

The rear floor mounting panels were replaced too.

Work Continues On Our 541R

Our 1960 Jensen 541R has stayed under the care of classic car technician Rob.

Rob continued his work making and welding panels for the right-hand rear wheel arch. Once this was finished, he began the process all over again on the left-hand side of the chassis. This involved more cutting and welding.

Like the right-hand side rear wheel arch, the left-hand side also needed to be fabricated and welded into place.

The chassis of our 1960 Jensen 541R is still undergoing work and, with more repairs needed, it is likely to stay with Rob for a bit longer before its able to move on with its restoration.

Repairing Old Repairs

Since the chassis of our 1960 Jensen 541R has returned from sandblasting, classic car technician Rob has found some old repairs that need to be cut out and corrected. These repairs have clearly been done at some point in the car’s life before it found its way into the Bridge Classic Cars workshop.

Now that it is with us, and in Rob’s capable hands, the old repairs will soon be rectified and the chassis will be in much better condition.

Rob started with the right-hand rear wheel arch. He has been cutting out the bad repairs from previous work so he can then return the car back to its original condition.

A new wheel arch was made and welded in before more bad repairs were cut out and removed.

Work continues to bring our 1960 Jensen 541R back to life. The poor past repairs have provided an additional challenge to Rob and the rest of the workshop team but, once resolved, progress will continue to be made on this beautiful classic car.

Back From Sandblasting

The chassis and body of our 1960 Jensen 541R has come back to the Bridge Classic Cars workshop after their trip to the sandblasters.

Now they are back with us, the restoration of our 1960 Jensen 541R can continue.

Prep For Sandblasting

Our 1960 Jensen 541 is back in the workshop and in the very capable hands of classic car technician Rob.

In preparation for sandblasting, Rob has removed the body and the roof frame.

With a history like this car has, it is exciting to see it progress through its restoration journey and be one step closer to being back on the road (even though there is still a long way to go yet).

Good As New

Our friends at Wyatt Polishing recently completed some restoration work and zinc plating for a number of seat runners and bonnet struts for the Jensens currently in the Bridge Classic Cars workshop.

When components like this look as good as they now do, you can tell that the fully restored cars they become a part of will be as beautiful as ever.

Jensen Bonnet Strips

Our classic car technician, Clinton, has been making parts that will ultimately go on to be fitted into one of our ongoing Jensen projects.

The bonnet strips he made can be seen in the photos below.

A Brief History Of The Jensen 541

The Jensen 541 was a car produced by Jensen Motors. Each one of these cars has an individual story to tell, but the story of the Jensen 541, in general, is one that many car enthusiasts should be keen to hear.

If you want to know more about these truly iconic classic cars, then this brief history of the Jensen 541 can give you a good idea of how special (and rare) these cars really are.

October 1953 – The Launch Of The Jensen 541

At the Earls Court Motor Show of 1953, the Jensen 541 was shown to the public for the very first time. It would be another eight months before production properly started but, this was the date when the world was officially introduced to the 541.

Up until the 541, Jensen had mostly been using aluminium for the bodywork of their Interceptors (there were restrictions on the use of steel still in place as the world recovered from the second world war). When it came to making the boot lids of the Interceptors though, Jensen played around with a new material of the time – fibreglass.

When working on the idea for the 541, Jensen wanted to do something big, so they decided to make a lot more of the car from this new wonder material.

June 1954 – Production Begins

In June of 1954, production of the Jensen 541 began. At the time, you could buy your very own 541 for £2146.

October 1956 – Say Hello To The 541 Deluxe

A little over 2 years after production of the 541 began, the 541 Deluxe was introduced. As this was a more luxurious car that featured all disc brakes, the price of the car increased to £2626.

Only 53 Jensen 541 Deluxes were made in total.

October 1957 – Here Comes The Jensen 541R

A year later, the 541R was introduced. When first released, these were fitted with Austin Princess (DS7) twin-carb engines, and an overdrive gearbox. The price tag for a 541R, at the time, was £2866.

January 1958 – No More Original Jensen 541

At the beginning of 1958, the very last Jensen 541 was made.

October 1960 – From R To S

Two years later, the Jensen 541R was pulled from production too. At this point, less than 200 541Rs had been made. Jensen had now moved on to the Jensen 541S which had a larger interior, and automatic transmission as standard. Due to these upgrades, the 541S cost £3195.

January 1963 – The End Of The Road

At the beginning of 1963, production of the Jensen 541S ended. Less than 150 had been made before being replaced by the Jensen CV-8 which had been introduced the previous year (1962).

Bridge Classic Cars And The Jensen 541

Jensens have had a strong presence in the Bridge Classic Cars workshop for a long time. Our team of classic car technicians have restored multiple 541s and some of our current projects include a few more too.

Considering only a few hundred of these classic cars were made, we love seeing them in the workshop. We love working on them, and we love getting them back on the road for everyone to enjoy.

More Parts For Our Jensens

There are quite a few Jensens being restored in our workshop at the moment (7 at the last count including 541s, 541Rs, and an Interceptor MK3).

As there is a lot of work to get done on these classic cars, it’s usually very beneficial to bulk produce some of the smaller parts so they are always available if and when our classic car technicians need them.

Clinton has been busy handcrafting several components that will eventually go on to be part of several of our Jensens. As you can see from the photos below, he has been making bonnet hinges and rear seat location pins. Even small parts like this play a big role in classic car restoration.

Fabricating a bulk load of Jensen parts

In the workshops right now, we have 6x Jensen 541’s in various states of repair or restoration. We have 3x Jensen 541’s and 3x Jensen 541R’s.

Sometimes, when fabricating parts it is much more time and cost effective for Clinton to produce more than one item. In this instance, Clinton has been working on re-producing the rear demisters and vents as well as bonnet stops and clamps.

With so many successful Jensen restorations now complete, we have the tooling for a lot of the parts that are required on the Jensen. If you are looking for Jensen parts for your own car or need assistance with fabricating certain parts for your classic car feel free to get in touch and we’d be more than happy to assist.

Various Jensen parts being prepared

Mauro spent the afternoon in the booth preparing parts for a number of our Jensen projects. Blasted parts have been prepared and painted and will now be wrapped up ready for reassembly.

Check Over – Inspecting the Subframe from the 1960 Jensen 541R ‘Lilac’

The subframe from the 1960 Jensen 541R has arrived back at the Bridge Classic Cars workshop after being sent away for blasting.

The team sent away the subframe for blasting to get a better look at the condition of the piece. Once it arrived back, the team have noticed that several of the mounts and brackets are heavily bent and misshapen while the bottom of the subframe has some areas of corrosion.

The subframe will be taken over to our in-house fabrication shop to be repaired and further checked over.

Watercolour – Artwork of our 1959 Jensen 541R From Helmingham

Local artist Paul Seymour has sent us in this beautiful watercolour painting of our 1959 Jensen 541R that he sketched at our stand at this years Helmingham Hall Classic & Sports Car Festival.

We brought along the 541R which is in the early stages of its restoration with us.

We’ve even got some photos of Paul at work while he roughed out the sketch which you can see below and head over to his website and check out some of the other amazing artwork he has done and the tuition courses he offers.

Inspect & Assess – Inspecting the Chassis for the 1960 Jensen 541R ‘Lilac’

The Bridge Classic Cars team are currently in the process of stripping back and inspecting the chassis for our 1960 Jensen 541R, Lilac.

The team have been looking into the depth of any corrosion and also to the extent of previous repairs to the chassis which will need to be rectified and corrected by the team to bring this frame back to better than new.

Keep a look out on the Bridge Classic Cars news page soon for more updates on the 1960 Jensen 541R.

Going That Bit Further – Continuing the interior on the 1960 Jensen 541R

Work is continuing on the interior of this in-house handmade interior of the 1960 Jensen 541R we have in with us for restoration at Bridge Classic Cars.

This entirely bespoke and fitted interior being made by our in-house trim shop shows the level of detail needed for such a unique and classic car. The foams are individually cut and refind to make sure that the seat fits the owner well but also follows the classic, following lines of the original interior trim.

The Jensen 541 family are all so unique and entirely handbuilt that the interiors are as individual as the car. This particular car is a very special project to us here at Bridge Classic Cars so keep an eye out on our news page for more updates on this fantastic example of the marque.

In Pursuit of Perfect – Retrimming Seats for our 1960 Jensen 541R.

For a handmade classic car, only a handmade interior will do. This is much the story with our beautiful 1960 Jensen 541R we have in the trim shop here at Bridge Classic Cars for one of the incredible owners, Gordon.

Our beloved Lilac has been in the trim shop recently to have our in-house trim experts begin work on upholstering the seats for this truly unique car. Starting from scratch, our upholsters began laying out the original frames and foams to ensure that the new set, which are handcrafted in-house, would fit. They also had to suit the cars classic but also quite contemporary lines.

The webs for the rear seat needed to include the signature rear hump. This had to be taken into account when making this one-off interior. The rear is a masterpiece of flowing lines that finish in neat and crisp corners that perfectly suit a car of this calibre. The padding was selected to give the most amount of support for the driver and passengers whilst out there enjoying the gorgeous 541R.

Our in-house team of automotive upholsterers took their time to make sure that the front seat also was given the same treatment as the rear. Skillfully matching the compound shapes and curves that make up the best seat in the house when it comes to enjoying a truly unique classic car.

Jensen 541R Interior Update

Brian has been working on the interior for the Lilac Jensen 541R recently. He is currently gluing the front cover to front seat base tub in these pictures. The original and very first owner certainly hoped to make a very bold statement. This car left the Jensen factory finished in Lilac with white interior so we are restoring back to the factory specifications.

If a new owner is found prior to the project completion and wishes for the specifications to be altered in any way this is perfectly acceptable and can be arranged.

Front squab fitting for the Lilac Jensen!

In the trim shop, Brian has been fitting the front squab seats of the 1960 Jensen 541R to their foams and frames. These seats were created and sewn by Lydia a little while back. You can read about the process here and here.

Brian started the fitting process by glueing and stapling the front squab “faces”/fronts to the frames, making sure the leather was nice and tight with no wrinkles. The staples went around the back of the wooden frame. The back of each seat was then attached with staples that went into the piping flange. 3mm plywood was cut out to the correct shape using a paper template for the bottom of each seat, this was wrapped in the white leather/glued onto the wood. This plywood was nailed onto the bottom of the seats with tacks and does the job of hiding the staples and raw edges of the leather.

Jensen Journaal – July 2021

It is lovely to receive a copy of the Zomer 2021 Jensen Journaal in the post this week.

Several of our Jensens that we have restored have been featured in this month’s copy of the Dutch magazine, Jensen Journaal! https://jensenholland.nl/ It’s an absolute privilege, so thank you.

The magazine talks about our 1957 Jensen 541R, the 1958 Jensen 541R, the 1960 Jensen 541R and the 1960 Jensen 541S (The Prototype).

Here are our website links to the cars that were featured to find out more information on each of the restoration projects.

https://bridgeclassiccars.co.uk/category/projects/completed/1958-jensen-541r-navy/

https://bridgeclassiccars.co.uk/category/projects/completed/1957-jensen-541r/

https://bridgeclassiccars.co.uk/category/projects/completed/1960-jensen-541r-01/

https://bridgeclassiccars.co.uk/category/projects/completed/1960-jensen-541s/

Bespoke Jensen book bag!

We call it the Jensen bible and in order to protect it Kath has made a bespoke leather book bag.

Jensen Genome Richard Calver July 2019 Edition

She started the process by drawing, measuring and working out the dimensions and design for the bag. Black leather was cut out to the required shapes and measurements and then mounted onto 3mm foam. She then sewed around the edges of the mounted pieces to make sure they were secure.

The first step in putting it all together was to sew a zip between two pieces of mounted leather with a zipper foot. Red topstitching went down either side of the zip as a finishing touch. Kath attached the zip and sidebands with clips onto the front of the book bag, to make sure it all fitted together, before sewing in place. She checked the book fitted inside, before sewing the back of the bag on. Red topstitching running around the outside edges of the front and back matched the zipper.

Jensen Update

Our soon to be Lilac Jensen is currently sat in our workshop awaiting its next stage.

Lilac Jensen Fibreglass Repair

Our 1960 Jensen 541R is undergoing some fibreglass repair in our paint shop. Matt is currently working on the boot lid that needs to be repaired with filler, shaped up and smoothed down.

Lilac Jensen Seats And Fibreglass

Lydia has been working on the 1960 Lilac Jensen that our director, Gordon, is having restored.

She has perforated the leather which arrived and then made fluted faces for the front squab and base seats with it. Then, she marked out the lines on the back of the leather and onto scrim foam to use as guides. Next up, Lydia could sew in the flute lines to complete the front squab and base flutes. Lydia had to create a seam in the base of the flutes as well as attaching calico to the seams. The seam and calico then get pulled tight on the foam. Lydia’s next challenge was to sew in sidebands onto the front base seat as it wasn’t in the original design. Once confident with the patterns, Lydia could cut them out. She sewed piping down the sidebands before attaching to the sides of one of the fluted base “faces”. Then she piped around the outside of the whole thing and checked to see if the foam would still fit. Lydia then worked out the front squab seat next. She piped the sides of the fluted “face” again. She then lay it on the frame because she had to mark where to trim the sidebands, these had to be adjusted slightly because of the new design.

Lydia then made cuts in the foam for the piping to sit into and to give a good shape. She then glued the piping down into them. She then stapled around the back and the bottom of the frame to hold the front squab in place.

Next up, she marked out the leather for the back pieces for one of the front base seats that she started on before. She then clipped them around the piping of the “face” to check the fit before sewing on.

Below you can see the original foam for the seats. Lydia took this off as the old wadding that was falling apart. She then covered the front and sides of the original foam in new scrim foam. The back has a wooden and calico frame attach to it so she didn’t need to put any on there.

Lydia then moved one to making the second front base seat. She did this in the same way as the other one. She made a fluted face with a seam in the middle, then piped the sides, attached the sidebands and piped around all that. Then she marked out the notches to match the back pieces on.

Matt has been working to repair the fibreglass side panels by applying glass matt repair. Once repaired, the wings, panels and sills can be prepped for primer. They also need to be shaped up after each stage of filler.

Lydia has continued to make the base of the seats on the Jensen. She has marked out the leather and foam with flute lines as a guide for sewing. She has then sewn the flute lines and attached them to the foam. The fluted are now faces finished. Next up, Lydia is set to work out the middle section as this needs to be altered from the original. She began by making a paper pattern on the new middle shape and making it longer and wider. Lydia then sewed the seams across the middle of the fluted faces and made paper patterns for the top sides to attach to the fluted faces. Then she cut leather versions out from the pattern as well as cutting out the middle section using the new middle section pattern she made.

Lydia then piped the sides of the middle section and sewed the fluted faces to this. She followed by piped the other sides of the fluted faces and attached the top side pieces. Next up Lydia marked out and cut out all the pieces for the skirt and sides. She then measured, marked out and cut out strips of calico and sewed all the pieces together for the sides and skirt. She then sewed a strip of calico to the curved piece and sewed calico to the inside seams of the faces. This helps when fitting on the foam. Then Lydia clipped the skirt and sides piece to the main face piece to check the fit.

Lydia has continued to make the rear squab by cutting strips of leather for piping, clipping the pieces together for the sides and bottom and then sewing them together. She used the piping she’d made before and sewed them around the outside of the face. Lydian then sewed the sides and skirt onto it to finish.

Lilac Jensen Update

Ady has taken apart the lilac 1960 Jensen’s rocker shaft to be cleaned out and rebuilt to ensure it works as it should.

Brian has been gluing foam onto the front face of the rear quarter seat panels. He then stapled the cover to the top of the wood and glued the cover down over the lower mill board section. Once the rear quarter panel of the seat was finished, he could then get started on the others by following the same process. The next step was to glue the front flap to the seat base and add foam and wadding to the inside and outside of seat tub. By pulling the cover around the tub and gluing the edges, the cover can then sit taught to the seat, giving it a fitted and tight finish. The excess leather is then trimmed and the seat tub is finished.

Lydia has also been working on the lilac Jensen by cleaning up the metal frame for the front base seat and then covering the front of it in calico and wrapping it around the frame. She then drew out the flute line patterns for the front squab and the front base seats. Jensen’s don’t usually have fluting around the front squab and front base of the seats however this is something Gordon has requested. Lydia then cut out the leather for covering one of the front seat tubes. Then she clipped the front to the back for dewing and then she sewed all the pieces together.