Leather
Acecas were trimmed in leather (traditionally Connolly-type hides). Looked after it lasts generations; neglected it dries, cracks and splits.
Cleaning: use a dedicated pH-neutral leather cleaner and a soft cloth, gently. Avoid household cleaners, all-purpose sprays and excess water, and be cautious with saddle soap on fine automotive hide. Always test on a hidden area first.
Feeding: a good hide food keeps leather supple and slows cracking. Clean first, then feed sparingly, about twice a year suits a used car; over-feeding leaves a sticky film. Keep leather out of prolonged direct sun.
Cracks and wear: light crazing can be cleaned, fed and recoloured; deeper cracks need professional recolouring, and perished panels reskinning. On a rare car, think carefully before recovering a sound, original interior, honest patina is desirable and often worth more than a fresh retrim, and any work should match the original specification.
Seats and upholstery
Beneath the covers sit padding on webbing and springs. A sagging base or a "hammocking" backrest usually means tired webbing or broken springs, not just worn foam. Recovering is a skilled trimmer's job, matching hide, grain, piping and stitch to the coachbuilt original is what separates a good retrim from an obvious one. If the covers are sound, focus on cleaning, feeding and supporting the structure beneath.
Seat runners and mounting
The seats slide on runners, and the runners in turn sit on separate top hat sections that bolt to the floor. It is a two-part arrangement, and the two parts do not wear out together. An owner can find the sliding runners sound while the floor mountings have gone, or the reverse.
Two details are worth knowing before the seats come out. The strips of wood carried on the runners were fitted on the outer door side only, where they gave something to pin the carpet side pieces to, and the tunnel side appears to have gone without. The adjuster lever sits on the left of both seats rather than being mirrored left and right. Both points come from a single account by an experienced restorer on the AC Owners' Club forum rather than from a factory drawing, so check them against your own car before committing to a pattern.
Replacement is the hard part. The specialist who supplied reproduction runners has died, according to the same forum thread, and the archive knows of no one who has taken that work on. That leaves a second-hand set through the club, or having a set made. Copying the opposite seat's top hat section as a pattern has been suggested on the forum, and the material is heavy-gauge steel that not every fabricator will bend, but the archive has not seen an account of anyone completing that job. Treat it as an idea worth pricing rather than a proven solution.
Whether the Ace and the Aceca use the same runners was asked on the forum and never answered. The archive cannot establish it either way.
Which seats, and telling the right ones apart
Seats go missing from these cars more often than you would think, usually into a trimmer's workshop during a restoration that stalled. If you are buying a replacement pair, there are a few things to know before money changes hands.
The clearest test is the back of the seat. Ace and Aceca seats have a flat rear panel. Cobra seats have a curved rear contour. Cobra seats turn up for sale and they are not the same thing, so look at the back before anything else.
The rear face of the seat back is finished in carpet rather than in hide, which is worth telling a trimmer before the work starts.
Ace and Aceca seats are not the same either. The Aceca seat has a flatter side bolster to the bottom cushion, where the Ace seat is more of a bucket, and later Aceca seats have differently shaped side panels to make getting in and out easier. So there are at least three shapes in circulation and only two of them belong in an Aceca.
Cars were not always consistent. The owner of a 1957 Aceca reports that his car was originally fitted with an Ace seat on the driver's side and the Aceca seat alongside it, because the car's first owner raced it and wanted the extra support. Some Acecas also carried a padded cushion or armrest on the central tunnel between the seats. Whether the seat style could be specified when the car was ordered is not established. One member believes the lower sided seat was the norm on the later Aceca and that a buyer could probably ask for either, but he hedges it himself and the archive records it as his belief rather than as a fact.
If no original seats can be found, they can be made. A fabricator in Hertfordshire produces correct aluminium seat buckets complete with metal frames, supplied ready for the owner to paint and pass to a trimmer for padding, hide and carpet. Hawk Cars supply new seats in leather, described on the forum as made to AC specification, though the member reporting that hedged it and the archive has not confirmed it. One owner rebuilding a car without seats borrowed aluminium bucket parts, an old foam base and an original cover from them to use as patterns, and had new aluminium work made to match.
Carpets and mats
The Aceca uses wool carpet. Damp is the enemy: wet carpet holds water against the floors, and on an alloy-over-steel body that means corrosion, while leaks reaching the doors or hatch can threaten their ash framing. Lift the carpet to check and dry underneath, treat any moth, and never leave the car with damp trim. Correct-colour wool carpet sets can be made up to transform a tired cabin. The body and coachwork guide explains why trapped damp is such a serious threat on this construction.
Headlining, door trim and panels
The fixed-head Aceca has a headlining and trimmed panels over board backings. Board warps if it gets damp, so a wavy panel usually points to a past leak, cure the leak as well as replacing the panel. Re-covering to the correct materials lifts the whole interior.
The facia and instruments
The Aceca carries walnut around the windows and on the dashboard, with a full set of instruments spread across the facia. Whatever your car's facia finish, keep it clean and protected, and have the instruments restored by a specialist where needed, bezels re-chromed, faces refinished, and mechanisms serviced. Keep the steering wheel out of strong sun. Because facia and trim details varied on these hand-built cars, use your car, club records and the chassis registry to confirm what is correct before refinishing.
The interior's three enemies
Damp, ultraviolet and pests. Damp rots trim board and carpet and threatens the alloy body and the ash-framed doors and hatch; UV bakes leather and fades fabric; moth and mice destroy wool and padding. Fix leaks, ventilate, keep the car dry and covered, and check regularly.
Do it yourself, or use a trimmer?
Cleaning, feeding and fitting a carpet set are within a careful owner's reach. Seat recovering and panel retrimming on a coachbuilt car are specialist skills, and getting them right matters to a rare car's value, a good classic trimmer is worth every penny. Local to Yorkshire, the Classic & Sportscar Centre at Malton runs its own trim shop (Malton Coachworks), the kind of in-house facility that does this work to a high standard.
Interior care checklist
- Clean leather with a pH-neutral cleaner; feed sparingly about twice a year
- Keep leather and the steering wheel out of prolonged direct sun
- Lift carpet periodically to check and dry the floors
- Deal with any damp or musty smell at source, it points to a leak
- Treat any sign of moth in wool carpet or trim promptly
- Is the leather sound, or dried and split? Surface wear is fine; splits mean recolouring or reskinning
- Do the seats sit level, or has webbing/spring support collapsed?
- Do the seats slide freely on their runners, and are the top hat mountings that bolt them to the floor sound?
- Are the seats the right ones? Ace and Aceca seats have a flat rear panel, Cobra seats are curved at the back
- Are trim panels flat, or warped from past damp (a leak clue)?
- Are the floors and framing dry beneath the carpet, with no alloy corrosion?
- Are the instruments complete and working, the facia sound?
- Does the trim appear correct to the car's specification (check against records and the registry)?
Frequently asked questions
Q.How often should I feed the leather in my Aceca?
For a car in regular use, clean it and feed it lightly about twice a year. Always clean first, then apply a good hide food sparingly, over-feeding leaves a sticky film that attracts dust. Kept out of strong sunlight and fed occasionally, the leather will stay supple for decades.
Q.Can cracked leather be repaired, or must it be replaced?
Light surface crazing can be cleaned, fed and recoloured to look much better. Deeper cracks can be professionally recoloured, but leather that has genuinely split or perished needs that panel reskinning. A specialist can advise whether your seats are savable or due for recovering.
Q.Should I recover a complete original interior?
On a car as rare as the Aceca, usually not if it is sound. Honest original leather with a little patina is desirable and often worth more than a fresh retrim. Clean and feed it, support the seat structure, and recover only when the leather has genuinely perished, matching the original specification.
Q.My Aceca's interior smells damp, what should I do?
Damp means water is getting in. Lift the carpet, dry underneath and find the leak. On an aluminium body carried by small steel tubes, with ash in the doors and rear hatch, trapped damp is not just a smell, it threatens corrosion and timber rot, so trace and cure the source promptly.
Q.What leather and trim did the Aceca use, and can I still get it?
Acecas were trimmed in Connolly-type hides with wool carpet. Correct-specification leather, carpet and trim materials can still be sourced, so a sympathetic restoration to original specification is possible, worth confirming against club records and the registry given how the hand-built cars varied.
Q.Can I retrim the interior myself?
Some of it. Cleaning, feeding and fitting a carpet set are within a careful owner's reach. Seat recovering and panel retrimming on a coachbuilt car are skilled trimmer's work, and on a rare, valuable car the quality of that work matters, so a good classic trimmer is the safer choice.
Q.Where can I get seat runners for an AC Aceca?
There is no straightforward source. The specialist who supplied reproduction runners has died, so the realistic routes are a second-hand set through the club's membership list and small ads, or having a set made by copying the opposite seat as a pattern. The top hat sections that bolt to the floor are heavy-gauge steel and not every fabricator will bend them. The archive has not seen a completed account of the fabrication route, so price it carefully before relying on it.
Q.How do I tell an Aceca seat from an Ace or a Cobra seat?
Look at the back of the seat first. Ace and Aceca seats have a flat rear panel and Cobra seats have a curved rear contour, so that one test rules out the commonest wrong purchase. Between the Ace and the Aceca, the Aceca seat has a flatter side bolster to the bottom cushion while the Ace seat is more of a bucket, and later Aceca seats have differently shaped side panels for easier entry. The rear face of the seat back is finished in carpet rather than hide.
Sources. The section on identifying and sourcing seat shells draws on a thread on the AC Owners' Club forum of April to November 2021, in which an owner searching for missing seats was helped by members who knew the parts. No individual member is named here.
General guidance for maintaining and restoring a classic interior; always test products on a hidden area first and consult a specialist trimmer for major work, especially on a rare coachbuilt car.
