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What are the forum members thoughts on going with updated upholstery vice going back to original in the 54 Clipper Deluxe. I found someone who can put in new carpet to include the trunk with padding underneath in a maroon/burgundy color and he will do the door panel, seats, floor kickboard, headliner and the area behind the backseat (below window). The colors would be cream/beige outer area with maroon color seats and maroon/burgundy french ruffle toward the front of the seats. The material would be vinyl because leather was twice the price. The question is from the standpoint of car value, what would result in the higher return on investment? At some point I want to sell the car and try to find a convertible. I've seen pictures of his work and he does a good job but I would have to check out his referrences and see a job or two. I also went to an auto upholstery shop and they advised going with original but my concern is original (stripes) just doesn't look as good as what it could look like. If I put the car in a show, could I still register it as a classic or does this force it into the custom category? The picture below is the way it looks now.

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Frank the blue and white on the door panels, and the blue and white stripped board cloth on the seats are the same original materials that my car came with. Only mine was severely dry rotted, faded, and rodent damaged. I would appreciate any pictures you are able to take of all the various interior original cloth pieces. Headliner, original seat material, and more importantly what the wind-lace and side interior pieces look like how they are finished. The A pillars, B pillars, C pillars etc. All of this material was missing or completely faded to white when I got my car. Also any close ups of the original seat patten. Looks like the seat material on your car is not very faded at all.

I am trying to located material that is close to the original, but I dont have a good pattern to work from since my material was so faded and damaged.


Thanks in advance!

I might not go with the leather but might substitute a good quality leather grain vinyl instead for the door and seat side panels. Were they leather originally or leatherette?

Would sure try and keep the overall pattern as original as possible though. That, to me, is one of the distinctive things about the car well worth duplicating. To go to a generic tuck and roll or some such with an obviously wrong material think would hurt your future resale. Are your door panels damaged or could they be cleaned and redyed and reinstalled with new padding? Looking at the 54 fact book, there are a couple of Clipper patterns that don't have stripes. Maybe something like that could be reproduced for the seats and pass as authentic if not original.

The carpets are more forgiving with modern more generic materials because something appropriate looking is available and also easier to change should the right stuff come along.

Re: The price of leather: I can buy leather for $50 a hide every February at the local car show. There's a guy there who gets discontinued hides from Cessna and sells them. This is aircraft quality leather, and Cessna usually paid over $1500 a hide for them when originally purchased. I found some really nice antique looking leather that was made by Garrett leather out of Italian hides that I'm using for the Speedster. Most of the colors I've seen have been blues, black, tan, and cream. If you'd rather do leather and can wait until February, let me know as I can get it pretty cheap.

Keep in mind that NONE of these will match original Packard interior colors, but will be fine Italian leather for a fraction of what it would cost the normal person. If I still worked there I could get it for $10 a hide. (It helps to know people!!)

The front of the parts book lists some interesting interiors for your 5492 under the "leather trimmed cars": three combos of light/dark in green, grey, or blue in genuine leather. (Trim codes 5-6-7)

Also available were trim codes 25, 26, and 27 which were combos of light/dark in green, grey, and blue in "imitation leather" that is vinyl!

Probably no one knows what these looked like but if you did your seats in the same basic style as they are, with dark bottoms, and a light colored cap on the backrest you would be very close. The dark color should match the color and grain on the bottom of your door panels.

Even genuine leather trimmed cars got leatherette door panels, just like the convertibles and hardtops. If you agonize with the parts book long enough you may be able to tease out if the headliner was then cloth or vinyl. I am pretty sure that "leather trimmed cars" got vinyl headliners. In 55 and 56 many Patricians had leather seats with cloth inserts and those all got vinyl headliners.

So you could do your interior on the cheap and still be 100% correct. I'm going to do my 50 Super sedan in all red vinyl and leather and according to the parts book it will be correct

Kev - as requested I took a bunch of pictures of the interior of the 54 Clipper Deluxe that is very similar to yours. I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the backseat after I took the seat cover off of it. The seat actually cleaned up pretty good after vacuuming it. I think I need to find a good steam cleaner or fabric cleaner. I also found a mouse nest. I took a bunch of pictures. Let me know if they help out. The last picture has a number code on it. We should compare our extra parts lists one day. I may have a few you need and vice versa. I also got the news back on the radiator but I'll mention that in another post where I think I may have some helpful information for others - Thanks

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Eric - I'll keep the leather in mind. That sounds like a great price. I'm still assessing the condition of this car. About how many hides does it take to update the inside of one of these cars? Thank much.

Figure at least one hide for each seating surface, so 4. I would buy two extra of the same dye lot to make sure you have enough. If you're doing the door panels then I'd figure two more, one for each side and two doors per hide. There's a lot of waste sometimes, and you don't want to be caught having it almost done but lacking one more hide to finish. The hide I got for my Speedster is just one hide, but all I'm doing with it is the two bucket seats and the armrests. I laid this hide out on the living room floor one night and measured it, it was about 6' square, plenty big for what I'm doing, plus I have a bunch of scraps from the same dye lot that was probably enough to do the entire car anyway. If I had more, I'd use them on the '48, but this was a special order and they didn't get any more. I heard that it was the same leather that was in the guy's Ferrari, so I'm in the big leagues now!

Frank,
It's your car and you can do what you want with it, but if my upholstery looked that good, I would clean them up as best as I could and put clear plastic seat covers over the seats and put clear plastic over the door panels as protection. Of course, the vinyl on the driver's door panel would have to be fixed and we haven't seen how the front seat upholstery looks. Wish the original upholstery on my 53 Clipper looked that good!
kens53clip
Ken Dunning

Thanks Ken - I leaning in that direction. I was really surpised at the condition under the seat cover. I have to take the front seat cover off next to see what that looks like. I like the idea of the plastic over the seat covers if I do that otherwise over time they will get wrecked.