Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

The leather & cloth upholstery in my 55 Patrician (code 60) is original and other than a few silver threads missing from the driver's seating area, shows no wear or other issues at all.

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I think that the upholstry guy was talking about the fabric stretching and not the leather. Maybe something that he experienced? I'm sure that didn't happen in many original interiors as the makers would have stopped the practice if it failed every time.

Bob

Many upholsterers hate working with leather. Sew it once and the leather is perforated like a paper towel, you cannot take out the stitches and resew it like you can cloth, or throw away a mistake like you can with vinyl. Any boo boo is expensive and cannot be redone or covered up

So, you need an experienced upholsterer with a good eye and steady nerves for the sewing

Yes, it is important to find an upholsterer experienced with leather and with the heavy needles needed to sewing. You certainly don't want them learning on your car.

May errors with leather do not require throwing the piece out. If a seam is incorrectly made, the thread can be ripped out and resewn 1/4 inch away. Yes there is loss in some cases.

On the subject of where the concern is for stretching, the leather or fabric, as long as you are using AUTOMOTIVE OR AIRCRAFT UPHOLSTERY LEATHER OR FABRIC you can be assured of many things. Adherence to appropriate flammability standards, abrasion standards, sun fade standards, cold crack standards etc etc..

Home upholstery leather is sat upon as is aircraft, car upholstery is slid across thus resistance to abrasion is important. Home upholstery stays at room temperature while car/airplane can go from -10 to +130 degrees

Fred Kanter
Kanter Auto Products
Boonton NJ

G'day Mates,

My son-in-law runs his own motor trimming business and he retrimmed my '56 Patrician (I was the apprentice). I opted for original fabric, imported from SMS, and combined it with dark grey leather instead of the original dark cloth. We stuck precisely to the original design, apart from the rear of the front seat which was done entirely in dark leather, but with a stitch pattern the same as original. While everything was apart I fitted lap sash seat belts front and rear - some might not know that there is a bolt hole in the centre piller to attach the upper seat belt fitting. I can't quite remember but maybe we changed the format for the arm rests as well. I'm very happy with the upholstery job but not so the carpets. I also bought a pre-made set from SMS but the quality wasn't good and the fit even worse. Hopefully there are a couple of pic's for you have a look at. Cheers, John

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It does look good. Were the carpets shy of the sill plates ie too narrow?

G'day Howard,

Yes, there was a big problem regarding that, particularly front right side. It seemed to me that when the carpet was cut the pattern wasn't centred over the material, leaving one side "shorter" than the other and not fitting properly under the sill plate (actually mostly not reaching). Also, the quality of the (wool) carpet was pretty poor with thin spots in the backing and some small tufts missing. Complaints to SMS resulted in a new roll of carpet being sent out in replacement, but no recompense for the making-up. My son-in-law said it was a pretty poor job all round, but most likely done by a sub-contractor rushing to try and make a buck. Didn't make me any happier though. Cheers, John

I had that sill issue with another vendors carpets--Other than that, they were a very nice job for the price. From what I was told the original carpet padding was much thicker than that on the kits, but when new they only went to the edge of sills, not under. They never did stretch out completely.

I happen to like the under look so I had them made that way on my present car (which came to about the same price as kit) but the edge or under thing is something I have wondered about.

I had my 400 carpeting copied from the original, but he (trim shop) also measured the front and rear floor. He stated that the carpet shrunk over the years from water soaking in. The original went under the sills, but not by much. The new carpeting goes under the sill also.
I purchased new carpeting for the Caribbean. It is the new stuff made by Neal Porter. The color is right, but it was a horrible job done by someone in the Maryland area. It looked like the kid who swept the floor was given the job. I had to buy all new binding and the trim shop here is going to resew it.
I know Dave Czirr bought his carpet from Hirsch and is very happy with it. Perhaps he can chime in and tell us if it goes under the sills.

Since we are on the subject of carpet..... what is the correct style/pattern of carpet for a '54? I actually never see a close up picture of a good carpet.