1950's Tropical Theme / Interior Question

[TomMadeO]

I have a 1955 685 Wagon that I have been working on for the last 22 years. ( it has been a long journey )
It was a very complete vehicle when I got it, but was in very poor shape. Being young a stupid I decided to restore it....complete restoration. That being said, and after 22 years I am trying to find out some information in the interior. This is what it looked like:

http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0091009/photos/tommadeo/9416987869/

I was told by someone that Willys did aTropical Themed promotion the mid 50s. Does anyone else have knowledge of this? I would assume they did looking at my interior and the paint color names " palm beach ivory"......

The second question is has anyone seen a similar interior in a Willys? The caps on the seat and door panels look like the vinyl was made to look like ratan, and the fabric itself is a heavy weave.

Finally, does anyone know where to find similar materials? I stripped some fabric from an old couch I used to have......it was remarkably similar.... But I would like to find some automotive upholstery that is close.

Any info?

 

[mathman]

I have a 1955 685 Wagon that I have been working on for the last 22 years.

That's a rare bird - the serial number charts show only 108 of the model 685 wagons were produced in '55.

 

[TomMadeO]

To add to the oddity, it has a 1956 grill from the factory!!!

 

[ARLEN]

A lot of cities have Vintage Cloth Shops. I use them all the time for drapes and upholstery for Antique furniture. I also used thrift store coats & curtains to get material. I've never seen a material marked Auto Upholstery. Upholstery is Upholstery. The thread count is what makes it more durable. Normally if it's marked Auto Upholstery it's because it has a higher thread count. You are not limited to just Auto Upholstery.

 

[jbco]

The remnants of my headliner are a very similar heavy weave vinyl type fabric. But those seats are very unique. You may try giving Paul at Willys America a call to see if he has any knowledge of a tropical themed promotion. He may also know of a source for that type of fabric.

 

[Auggie]

i must be missing something. what seats are you talkin about? the only thing i can find is the pic of fabric from his fliker thing. are there more pics somewhere that i am missing?

 

[TomMadeO]

Bryce, That is the only pic I posted...i wanted to get a close up of the rattan styled vinyl and cloth. All of the door panels and seats had the black caps, and the armrests were also covered with that rattan styled vinyl. I will pull out some of the old "photographs" from the "scrapbook" (those words sound so old now..) to get some pictures of the interior before I took it all apart tonight.

ARLEN, I was concerned about fabrics and fading. Although she does live in a garage, I hope to bring her out into the sunlight some days!! I was worried that I would go through the work of using my "reclaimed" material (which is a near EXACT match), only to find it horribly faded after a short period of time.

 

[ARLEN]

Nothing lasts forever. Even real leather dries out and cracks. My seats in my 2010 Toyota are already showing wear.
If you like it, do it.
I bought a pair of Chrysler K car seats at the junkyard that were red. I needed them to be burgundy like the wood I put in my
Willys, so I stained them with the same Miniwax Mahogany stain I stained the wood with and put a sealer on them.
You can always stain your cloth with tea also, if it fades.
The first rule of an Artist is to never follow the rules.

 

[TomMadeO]

Here are some pictures of the interior material from the seat and rear quarter.

 

[TomMadeO]

Now here is the old Willys material on the bottom, and the material I reclaimed from my old couch on the top.



I don't know if I could find anything closer?

 

[ARLEN]

They sell brand new cloth that looks just like that at Musical sites. It looks just like speaker cloth. Its for restoring antique speaker and radio cabinets.

 

[willys4ever]

wagon interior

my wagon that i just bought had the same type of head liner in it and seats was like a red and white and body was 2 toned i will post a out side and head liner pictures as well as door panel oictures and try to get a couple of seat pictures tomorrow. it is supposed to be a 58 but i found original markings on the frame stenceled in red 1959