Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

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I've always wonder why every '50s Packard I ever owned had pinkish carpet no matter the color of the car or of the rest of the interior!

That said, the upholstery in my former 1952 Henney-Packard Nu-3-Way which had rubber floor mats was also Frieze but it was a much finer weave and apparently an experiment according to some former Henney employees who were looking at it and discussing it at a PCS (Professional Car Society) national meet back in the car's hometown of Freeport, IL some years ago. Everything from the seat to the rear floor or "mound" as it is called in the industry along with the headliner was in the same blue Frieze material.

Frieze carpet refers to the sorts that look like they have a random length; the length is actually the same, but the density is low enough that the lay is fairly random. A 3/8" pile is actually a bit on the low end; most are 1/2" or more. Also, shag carpet is a type of frieze.

Often it looks a lot like this:

About 10 years ago Dwight Heinmuller sold a house grade Karastan carpet in the available 56 colors that is a bit thicker and more plush than the original. To me looks a lot better and more appropriate looking than the thin and cheap nylon auto carpet. I don't know if he carries carpet anymore but if not, might still be able to provide the name and colors. Several others besides myself bought his kits and in my case, I am quite pleased with the result.

Don't have a good photo of my car handy but here is a photo of someone else's car he sent showing what it looked like when I first considered buying his carpet.

Thanks. Anything I get would be residential grade carpet. This stuff is completely extinct in the automotive world.

I think Randy got the Caribbean carpet from Dwight Heinmuller. It was a complete set all rolled up in box when I got it.Had it set in sun for about a week to get it lat and straight. Had all pieces and extra that was cut off. Appears to be high-end carpet.Had to put padding under it to get nice fit.

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Nice, that looks like a pretty solid match in pile. Correct binding as well (which is commonly available, thankfully) but a nice detail.

3/8" pile height also?

By the way, I am getting some samples inbound. If one of them is appropriate, I will get some magenta and yellow dyes for nylon and see if I can match the particular Sardonyx color. A significant difficulty is simply finding a WHITE carpet. Most residential carpets simply are not pure white or even off-white.

BTW is that an original sill plate? That thing looks CLEAN.

I have some exciting news to share. I was able to get a sample of carpet that is extremely close to the original style. The main difference is that the pile height is slightly taller, but that's not much of a complaint. To be specific, it is a 3/8" pile, which I assumed means it's 3/8" strands. In reality, the carpet lays down so the strands are 1/2" with about 3/8" total height. In comparison, the Neal Porter carpet is 3/8" strands with 5/16" overall height. Obviously there are no 5/16" pile height carpets out there. Probably no 1/4" frieze either but I will check.

The main problem with this sample is that it is polyester, which is pretty much the hardest fabric to dye. It requires at least a 1/2 hour bath at 200F, with double the typical required dye. I am getting another sample in soon that is nylon. If it is also acceptable, then that would be much preferable as, even though a 200F bath is still required, it apparently dyes fairly quickly and with less dye.

My idea is to take a metal tube, sealed at one end and standing on that end (obviously with a strong wooden frame around it) and insulate around it. Add 1 or 2 submersion heaters all the way at the bottom with a metal stand above that. Tie a roll of 3-ft wide carpet with polyester cords. Fill the tank with hot water and add/mix the dye. Lower the carpet in then turn on the plug-in heaters. Heat until 200+F then cool until safe. A tutorial I saw advises to remove from the dye then rinse with hot then cold water. Hopefully this is not strictly necessary, and rinsing afterward with cold water will be sufficient. I have also seen that hot water on carpet can cause warping, but this is after a steam treatment, and the solution is just to soak the carpet to let the fibers arrange themselves, so maybe it would not be a problem. The carpet would have to be vacuumed of excess water then left to air dry with some dehumidifiers going. I actually had a carpeted basement as a kid and it flooded a few times. Even after being soaked, we were able to get it OK just with this process. Importantly, household carpet has underlayment that we have no direct way to dry, and it was still mostly fine. So I'm not concerned with this method. Another idea would be to get some wood and chicken wire, and make essentially an oversized cookie sheet to lay it on so it has airflow on both sides.

Calculations:
A 48"x12" tube is about 7.5kg of water, requiring 4.2kJ / kg*K to heat, neglecting losses. Assuming the hot water is 120F, to heat to 200F is 44K. So it would take 1400kJ to heat. With 3kW of heat, that would take 8 minutes to bring up to temperature. I'm honestly not sure the diameter of a roll of the size required to carpet one car.

Did you check out the carpet and upholstery photos in the archive. The collection is not complete so no idea if the colors you are interested in are posted but you might get an idea of the original texture for comparison to what you find. Here is the gray sample.