Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I have a 48 Custom Eight and want to replace my carpet. I found SMS Auto Fabric and they have rug sets in wool or synthetic. I asked about the rubber backing on it and they said it was just like the original. So has anyone ordered from them? I also have the seat material for my car to.

I have had two occasions this year to make a purchase from SMS. In my case all of the items were in their inventory and shipment occurred 2-4 weeks for one order and 4-6 weeks for the other order. Products are great.

They have most all of the original patterns. Their products are excellent. They are a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for and their service is excellent. My one critique was when I ordered seat covers for my car, i had to order 2 different things vinyl and fabric, the fabric I got almost right away, the vinyl took quite awhile and I had to call several times to find out that they were making it which took more time. They should have told me that when I ordered it.

ALK

The material, vinyl and leather for the 400 came from SMS. That was in 1994-5 and I was very satisfied. It was timely and not too expensive. Finally received the material for the Caribbean - took almost a year, BUT that is a custom order and they probably don't set up till they have several orders. They are THE interior suppliers and yes they are pricey.

Yes I just finished buying windlace from them for my 1950 23rd series Deluxe 8 Touring sedan. They did a good responsive job of sending me samples. I got samples from about 6 different vendors. Nothing matched my car, but SMS was the closest of any vendors I found. I ordered from them and what they sent me was junk. It had frays, rips and bumps all over it. This means they did not look at the product before shipping it. When I complained and sent them photos they said OK and they sent me another batch. It had a few problems but generally was OK. The upholsterer had a hard time fitting it because the material was hard and brittle, and this caused a few more flaws in the job.

I think the problem was the material was old and brittle, and it had to be reworked by SMS to get the proper diameter cord into the windlace.

Considering the very high cost and quality problems I would not do this again. However they seem responsive to the customer and a frank discussion with them about the quality before ordering would probably result in satisfaction.

Only thing I ordered from SMS, because they were the only source, was the brown/copper nylon fabric for the flip sides of my 56 Caribbean seats. I had to wait for enough orders to acrue to make a short new production run worthwhile, and then when they did send it it was latexed on the wrong side and I had to return it and await another run. All told took about 1-1/2 years. When I finally did get it, it was satisfactory.

This is a very enlightening discussion. I ordered fabric for the 54 Pacific from them many years ago. They had a large quantity of the correct pattern in white and black vs none of the green and black I required. Bought white anyway, had prompt shipment, and dyed the fabric the correct color myself. Quite a production line with a very large new garbage can full of mixed colors of Rit dye to make it the right shade of green and a couple of electric water tank heating elements thrown in for good measure to get the water hot. Even more impressive was many yards of fabric stretched around the garage to dry. Turned out quite well actually. Car still looked good and hadn't seemed to fade as of a year ago. Am surprised to learn they will make custom runs of material now although not being the patient type, probably just as well they didn't offer to then. Don't imagine there would have been many orders for that particular fabric in green then or now.

I think the difference in service and delivery times with SMS comes down to that.....custom (have to make), vs in stock. A question that should be asked when ordering so reasonable expectations are set.

I would be surprised if SMS can supply a proper replacement for the original Mosstred carpet which is wool and glued to a thick foam rubber backing.
When I did the carpet for my 1949 Custom 8 I ordered Wilton Wool carpet from Bill Hirsch and bought a sheet of 3/8" thick black foam rubber. After carefully cutting the openings in the foam rubber, I used 3M spray-on contact cement to glue the carpet to the backing and to wrap the carpet around the edges of the foam rubber to match how it was done originally. The results were very satisfactory.
I used closed cell foam rubber with the thought that it would be less likely to absorb water in case it got wet. The original foam rubber backing looks more like open cell.

Brian

I guess there is nothing today that exactly matches the original Mosstread used in certain Packards and Rolls-Royce cars. It was made by the Shelton Mills in Shelton CT for the Sidney Blumenthal Company of NYC. You really can't appreciate it fully without seeing and touching it. Sounds like BDeB made as good an approximation as you can get.

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