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Spoke to SMS. Seat covers would be ~$3500 (if I remember correctly) and lead time is minimum 6 months. If I were to do actual leather instead of vinyl, that lead time goes up to at least a year. And the cost for the leather is nearly $1000 just for a few yards. It would likely need several hides. I'm not willing to wait an unknown amount of time for the covers to be done, as I plan to drive the car a lot this summer.

Spoke to a semi-local upholsterer that does classics, and it looks like it would be $4500 for complete new covers and installation (add $250 to powder coat the seat frames). They say it would probably be 4 yards of the blue nylon fabric, and 4 yards of ivory vinyl (to make the piping). With the 10% discount that SMS is doing right now, that puts the material cost around $950-$1000.

Those of you who have had interiors done, what are your thoughts? I know it will be expensive. Just trying to get an idea of what others have done.

-Kevin

Not out of line for what I paid 7-8 years ago. I only had a 47 rear seat with center arm rest and separate side bolsters done then. 6 pieces in all and it was $3500 for labor. I supplied the wool broadcloth, the different color piping material and a vinyl leather like base material to duplicate what Packard called leatherette -- all coming from SMS. Upholsterer supplied all the padding and work to make the piping and to duplicate what he says is a very intricate understructure compared to what most other cars did.

Was not surprised he ran into this extra under work on the 47 because when he did my 54 Pacific it also had several extra layers that ran diagonally from one side to the other. Apparently Packard -- senior models at least -- ran several pieces at the bias to stabilize and minimize shifting and bunching of the outer covers.

Thanks Howard, that is helpful. When I take the seats to them I might have them reuse the burlap/horsehair layer. Watching BigKev's video it looks like the burlap will probably have wire going through it.

I can't say I'm excited about the price, but that's the going rate around here. And there are very few places that do old cars. The only other option is for me to do it myself. I have a friend who restores cars and he does all his own upholstery. He offered to help guide me. But I don't want my first attempt to be on $1000 materials, and I don't have the time to dedicate to it right now.

The robe rail on the rear of the front seats.....my car didn't have them when I got them. What does the hardware look like? And what does the cord look like? I can't find any pictures of it on a Panama.





-Kevin

The robe rails or ropes (which is more what they looked like) were only on 4-door sedans.

Hi Kev, Hi Don.
My 53 Carib has robe rails/ropes which I am pretty sure are original. I'll try and get a pic. Right now I have one in maroon and one in white since my car was missing one when I got it. I bought one from Joel Ray I believe.

Here's a 54 Caribbean found online.

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Don - the robe rails are definitely supposed to be there in this car. The mounts are there on the seat frame, and the drivers seat has the outline of the chrome brackets that used to be there. The passenger has the ivory recovered (poorly) sometime in the past and they covered up the holes.

Tobs - yes a picture would be very helpful. I'm assuming the chrome brackets are the same between juniors and seniors?

HPH - thanks for the picture. The Caribbeans look like they have leather/vinyl rails. I wonder what the Panama would have had? The seats are half cloth and half leather.

-Kevin

The photos do not have the greatest detail but the robe rope is shown in some of the interior shots of various models in the 54 fact book. From what I can see it would appear the chrome ends are the same for both the single sedan seat and the two door seats.

Not sure if the rope itself is built the same as a 47 but that one consists of a flat chain pulled thru a soft rubber hose which acts like the inner padding. That assy is in turn inside a fairly coarse woven tube like cover that is the same blocky texture as the factory windlace but slightly larger in diameter. The ends of the fabric, tube, and the chain goes thru the decorative chrome external coverings. The chain end continues thru a hole and is connected to a spring loaded affair on each end which is attached via a welded on tab on the inside of the seat back.

Several years ago I bought a length of very flexible soft rubber or maybe it was silicone tubing from McMaster. Don't remember the exact size but ID looks to be 1/4 or maybe 5/16 x 5/8 OD and seems to be a good match for the original. The upholsterer was going to sew the outer tube out of the same material I had him make windlace out of but I mostly stopped work on the car and never got that far.

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Here are the ones on my '54

Here’s what they look like on my 56

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