Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Headlining seems to be vinyl in my car

Seems to be so.

bhappy -

It's natural for threads to drift off-topic over long periods. I'm just glad we got back to the headlining question. As you can see, if you've been following the thread, that question opened up a real can of worms, as type of headlining material doesn't appear to have been well-documented in the available factory materials.

Yet, in additional to the good anecdotal evidence, I've since found that Packard covered headlining material, as bulk yardage, in two separate groups of the parts book: fabric (cloth) in Gr. 31.4742 and "imitation leather" (aka - vinyl) under the last subheading of Gr. 31.481.

Trim Set No. 43, as originally used in your '56 Exec sedan, is only referenced in Gr. 31.4742, which confirms it was cloth, and shows it was Light Green in color. Nothing else beyond that.

While the factory didn't offer an all-leather interior (in regular production) in the Exec or Clipper lines for '56, it appears, then, that any Trim Set involving vinyl or leather would have had a vinyl headliner. Though the parts book has little more to say about that material than color, our anecdotal evidence suggests that material would have been perforated in '56. However, it looks like it wasn't available in any dark shades, back then.

BH,

Thank you for clearing this up for me. My 56 Exec has the light green cloth headliner (in a kind of flannel material). It is in good shape and I wanted to know if it had been replaced.

I now have to decide whether to reupholster my interior in teal leather and fabric ($5000), or just to replace the fabric and leave the original vinyl ($1500).

The headliner should still work with either option, but the windlace is trash. It will be replaced with a leather-wrapped foam with the leather/fabric option, and a fabric wrapped foam with the cheaper, fabric option.

Thanks again for all of your help, it always amazes me of everybodys kindness to share.

Bob

Not to put too fine a point on it, but my 56 Pat's headliner is UN-perforated vinyl. That may just be because it is a SPEC order, but the possibility exists for other 56 vehicles.

Sigurbjorn, That's the first time I've seen you post although it's obvious you have before. Did you post a pic of your car in the owner's registry? Glad to see you here.

Randy -

While I had advised that the headliner in your special Pat was NON-perforated, for some reason, I thought it was genuine leather, rather than vinyl, and had gone back and edited my post to state that. My bad. I stand corrected - vinyl it is.

Meanwhile, that headliner in your car is definitely part of some sort of special order equipment as there is no listing for orange (or vermillion) vinyl headlining material in the parts book.

Sigurbjorn, That's the first time I've seen you post although it's obvious you have before. Did you post a pic of your car in the owner's registry? Glad to see you here.

It was actually Sigurbjorn's car that I was referencing early in this thread when I commented about an export 55 Clipper with vinyl headliner. Sigurbjorn was kind enough to give me a lovely tour of parts of Iceland in his Clipper when I was ported in Reykjavik some years back.

Here's the man himself and his car. Photo on the approaches to Pingvellir as I recall, a truly dramatic bit of landscape!

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Yes a photo of my Packard is in the registry.

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Kevin, I am redoing the interior of my 1937 115C bus coupe, I want to have it look stock, but certainly dont mind a modern fabric that is stain resistant and wears well. Kantor is sending me swatchs but I want to see what other companies offer. Thanks, Rich