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this will be short....im typing gimp handed. injury to finger.

thx everyone for the input and help. this will be very handy for me in the future. but if there is limited supply, if any, sounds like Craig and I better buy it up now.

let me know Craig....and i'll call sms and post.

Hank

Hank:

My provider at home was having a problem delivery my personal e-mail, so I do not have the response from that fabric provider at this time. I will check when I get home this afternoon.

I agree 100% with you about buying up stock of that fabric. Funny, I mentioned that to my wife as well. After about 25 years, my Clipper needs a few touch-ups, though nothing major.

I have to tell you, Hank, you picked a great car to restore. The Constellation is a fantastic driver and feels great at any speed, very confident in traffic or on an interstate. It steers, brakes, and even turns a lot like a modern car and the ride from the torsion-bar suspension is exceptional; nothing like wallowing whales of Cadillacs and Buicks of that period. The turning radius is unusually tight for a car of its period and size; it is easy to parallel park and I have successfully made a U-turn without corrections on a 2-lane street.

When I bought my car in June I had some reservations about it. I had considered something a bit older, like a 1941 120; but in retrospect, I couldn't be happier with my selection.

When you finish your Constellation it will be much prettier than mine and it will dazzle everyone who sees it. Folks who know nothing about Packards instantly recognize that their is something very special about these cars, and the fact that you restored it yourself will be a source of pride for years to come.

i love the constellation as well, i always say its the carribean of the clippers. well...it is the top of the line clipper anyways.

if it was me i would have marketed it that way....the new 55 Constellation... the Carribean of the Clippers!....now in Packard dealers.


SMS has the correct fabric and correct vynl in stock. more then enough for two cars.

fabric in black with silver stars= 95 a yard
citrine vynl in correct grain= 49 a yard

im not sure how many yards it would take...4??5?? so not cheap.

not sure i have the means for that right now. may have to buy a little at a time.

hope you get some to fix your interior. maybe the other company will have it cheaper...so let me know when they email.

we will see how my car turns out....yours is very nice from what i can see and is something to go after for sure!


Hank

Hank:

That is great news! I found a photo of what is alleged to be the original fabric, which I have attached. When it comes to measuring how many yards of fabric needed to upholster the seats of this car, remember that the surfaces are stitched into ribs of about 1 1/2 inches each. Needless to say that this adds more to the actual amount you think. I will have to find out the amount; I might have to measure the seats in my car. $95 a yard? Geez, that is expensive! I will let you know what I find out from Original Auto NOS. Maybe they will be cheaper, or at least give us a way to negotiate a better price.

Oops ... I forgot the attachment. Here it is.

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From the 55 dealer album. If any help, the way the swatch is showing in this photo, small dots with the star between them are 7/8" apart horizontally and 1 1/8" vertically. The bigger or long points of the star in both directions is just over 1/2".

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If you are using your old seat covers as a template, which is usually the case, make sure that you add two inches all around to compensate for the shrinkage that occurred to the old fabric. And you'll need to allow a little more for the welting as mentioned about 1 1/2 inches folded over either a fiber cord or in later cars, a piece of nylon that looks like extra heavy fishing line. The fabric is 62 inches wide in most cases.

Let me offer an observation from a longtime Constellation owner (35 years, 3 or 4 different ones) and lover:

There was no fabric offered in all of 55 and 56 that was less durable than that star pattern cloth. Even when the cars were only twenty something years old, and with very low mileage the driver's seat was always ruined--- even on otherwise immaculate cars. That was of course also true on the Clipper Custom sedans, which used the same star pattern material.

Yes, it is very pretty, but especially if you end up with NOS, plan on treating it like wet tissue paper and keeping it covered. I know I'm not an easy man on interiors, so I am going with the all vinyl option when I get around to doing mine. The flame cloth option seemed to hold up well.

Ross:

That is a good observation. Unless what you want is a trailer queen to haul back and forth to shows, as opposed to a real driving car, then weak fabrics are not optimal. I had an old Ford for awhile with a cloth interior and like your description of the star fabric, it began to split and fray even in places where no one sat. The black cloth currently in my Clipper does not contain stars, but it is of good quality and strong. I think I'd be a bit hesitant to replace a good interior with a weak one. My Clipper is a driving machine, not a show boat.

my car wont be a trailer queen, but wont be driven tons either. the material from SMS seems like its very strong, but maybe its not NOS...maybe its a remake. if its NOS its been VERY well preserved just from feeling it.

here are some pics of the samples i requested.

Hank

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