40 years later it's quite difficult to get zi answer. However, we have a pic from famous and useful HVL w/ a medium grey w/ relief coat. On my own, I've been certified by an Italian Specialist that the coat he showed me was the real one, very carefully stored outside light for 40 years. Pb: not the same shape nore the same colour. Who is right since maybe none of us, besides 40 years later, saw how it was then new. HVL mouse-hair aside a sample said to be from the 70's : Image Unavailable, Please Login
The roll I've been showed, ll quite black, w/ the typical zebru vynil relief on the border. So a kind of application onto zebru vynil. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just had my dash recovered in that material. I laid a piece of the mousehair from superformance to show the difference. The "original" from Henk is more of a charcoal color and in my opinion looks better the the jet black superformance mousehair. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Since he only has original parts including many one-ofs, I have no reason to doubt. But have to make a choice. Which is the right one ? Another FChat friend confirmed me that on his Daytona, in the 70's, the mousehair was very dark new, but has a tendancy to get bright very quickly.
I have seen lots of examples of NOS mousehair and I can say with confidence that the HVL stuff is bang on perfect from the outside. The backing is different but that goes covered in glue and bonded to the dash so it makes no difference to the finish. Where there is a difference is that the HVL stuff will look NEW years from now whereas the NOS stuff will look tired and worn quite quickly. For me the decision is clear and even if I had an NOS roll in my garage, I would buy the HVL stuff and install that. As for the Superformance stuff, the process they used was correct, but the colour is just plain wrong. It is too dark, and has a hint of blue to it.
The original material was made with old materials technology where it was not colour fast therefore was easily affected by UV and other elements. For this reason the material would fade quickly even with moderate exposure to light. The HVL stuff uses modern materials to achieve the 'fur' that is extremely resistant to UV light. Henk is fanatical about correct finishes and will not bother with a reproduction unless it is perfect. This project took over 2 years of testing and the results are fantastic. BTW I have no commercial interests here. I'm just a fan of the product and the seller.
There was enough of a difference that even though I had just recovered my dash with the Superformance mousehair I had it all taken off and recovered with Henk's material. !00% satisfied and glad I took the time to do it right.
