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I called SMS Auto Fabrics to inquire about material for my '48 Super Eight.

A gentleman named Chuck at SMS informed me that Packards would have had a cotton headliner, which is what they sell complete for $249. He said the upholstery fabric is wool. To get a wool headliner would be much more expensive; all they stock is cotton.

I'm not a fabric expert, but the aged headliner that remains in my auto sure looks like wool to me.

Does anyone know for sure what material was used?

See photo.

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Cotton.

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Thanks, Dave. I will not question your expertise.

Cotton it is.

Do moths eat cotton? My '48 Custom 8 headliner has moth holes in it for sure.

M

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I believe that the Custom 8 used wool. The 1948 Data Book page for Custom 8 models mentions wool - see page 9 of the Models section.

My Super Eight headliner sure looks like wool. I received samples from SMS and their cotton headliner material is much thinner and totally different from my headliner.

Is it possible that some Su8s got wool as an option?

OD, above, is right, as usual, in that headlining material was cotton, except, as BDeB notes, in the Custom 8 bathtubs,
where it was wool.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, since i already sang this worthy's praises elsewhere in these forum,
whether or not you live in the greater San Fran/Oakland Bay Area or Nor Cal, call Armand Annereau at Armand's Auto Upholstery, Walnut Creek, 1 (925) 934-4373. Armand owns '38, '48, and a '50s Packards, has owned a '40 180 and 110, and has all the big upholstery sample books Packard issued to only their larger urban dealers. If a material is
still available from the mill or any mill on this planet,
Armand will have it in stock or can get it. Not only has
he for decades been the one other judges turn to with a dicey question at major NorCal concourses, but he also does work for the world renowned area Behrig Auto Museum/Blackhawk Auto Collection.

Tell him a black '47 Super Clipper in Walnut Creek referred you.

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I was going to ask the same question... my '48 Custom headliner has two very small holes that I had assumed were moth holes. Nice to know I wasn't hallucinating.

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Could be boll weevils.