Re: trunk upholstery kit

Posted by DavidPackard On 2021/9/19 14:01:10

JWL’s information is consistent with the perception/assumption that the senior car trunks were finished with up-graded materials, that is, carpet v. rubber mat. I must admit my rubber mat assumption may have been a figment of my imagination knowing the ’48 Eight front mat material and GM’s use of rubber mats a few years later in their ‘lesser’ product lines. By the time I bought my ’48 Deluxe the trunk had been media blasted, repainted low gloss black, and dark gray/black thin trunk carpeting glued in . . . over every surface, save the spare wheel well. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen original 22-23 series trunk finishes. The only ‘stuff’ left in my ’54 trunk was the three piece ‘tar paper’ first layer for the flat surface, two ‘ropes’, a flattened jack box playing the role of a trunk mat, and a lot of flocking lying about.

I guess bear should follow bkazmer’s advice of flocking the surfaces that are not the ‘floor’, and HH56’s advice on a center mat. I know when I looked real close to the flocking on my ’54 the material was not a single color, more of a blend, but I’m not sure if ’48 flocking was a single color material. I bet after a few years the color of the adhesive was obvious. If flocking is not on the horizon the finish should present with almost no ‘shine’, quite subdued.

From the parts catalog there’s an impression that the trunk color did not vary with paint code . . . other than the incidental over spray, so the flocking and mat may have been from the same family, but not necessarily matching colors. Given the color of my fender ‘ropes’, and the flock residue the ’54 trunk finishes likely presented with a brown/tan hue in that time period, which is quite consistent with HH56’s information that ’51 cars had the same color presentation. The observation made by bkazmer is the ’48 – ’50 cars likely presented as a gray hue.

Bear, if you jump to page 44 in KPack’s 1954 Panama project blog you will see various ‘non-OEM’ trunk presentations. My experience is the in-door / out-door carpet from Home Depot would need a lot of help to bend around tight radii, and if you were successful, outside bends would expose a ‘different’ texture. Thinner non-pile material does not have that restriction.

Another project blog to look at is Joe’s ’49 Club Sedan around page 8, where Joe shared his idea/method to add upholstery elements to the trunk lid. I shamelessly stole that one, but did not back the material and just glued the magnets to the carpet and allowed the fabric fit the curved contour of the lid. I also use magnets to hold the fender upholstery . . . very little glue.

I think the bottom line is that your quest to find a truck refinishing kit may not be successful, but you can get real close to OEM standards by buying the materials individually, but you can equally go crazy back there.