1953 America Coupe - Corduroy Seat Seam Trim Question

[David Green]

The tan corduroy seats on my otherwise very original 1953 "America" coupe were recovered incorrectly in the 1970s and I want to recover them with proper material. I've found the right color but can't determine if the seat cover seam welts were corduroy or vinyl. Most of the period photos I've found are what appear to be "Super" models with vinyl bolsters, corduroy inserts and vinyl seam welts. The one photo I've found of likely an original full corduroy seat is too low resolution to clearly see if the seam welts are vinyl. Any thoughts on what was original?
Thanks,
David

1959 356A
1953 356 America Coupe
2005 996 GT3

[Jeff Trevillyan]

Maybe give John Willhoit a call/e-mail. He beautifully restored an America a number of years back, (2004-ish). I was at his shop
when it was about to be loaded up for transport back to the owner...

[Joris Koning]

James Davies is the guy to ask

[James Davies]

Hi David, if you're referring to the piping on the front seat seams, then its very likely to be leather or leatherette. Not corduroy. I would guess textured beige leatherette if your car is a 356 America coupe with beige cord. Do you still have the original corduroy on the interior door panels? If so, there should be piping around the side edges of that, plus a big rubber tube at the bottom wrapped in the same leather(ette) to seal at the bottom.

I've also seen cars with grey cord have dark blue leatherette piping, but this matched the dark blue carpet.

What color scheme is your car? Beige cord and beige carpet with maroon dash? What exterior color? Would love to see some photos of any original interior bits. I'll dig up some photos of what I'm talking about above and post them as well.

[David Green]

Hi James,

Here are some interior photos. Note the photos of the interior rear are much more yellow than the actual tan color. Let me know if anyone would like other details.

Per the Kardex, the car, 51015 (August 10, 1953), was Pasha Red with Corduroy (Cordsamt) interior (no color noted) but the interior is original, albeit much faded and stained after all these years including the past 20 in a storage building in the CA desert where the temps probably reached 140+deg in the summers.

Thanks for pointing me to the bottom door panel trim tube that is tan leatherette so my original question is answered. But now another question: I've assumed the dash was the car's original Pasha red, now faded and cracked. Did some cars come with a maroon dash that was not the body color?

I had a local interior restorer test repair a hole in the passenger door corduroy and have included a photo with the repair circled in red. It's pretty good up close and acceptable from a few feet away. I plan on having him repair the other holes and tears when I finish cleaning and sorting out the interior.

The car appears to be complete and original in all respects except for - and a big one - a 1970s Ford beige paint job, that now with age and heat has morphed into a corral color or flesh color, the recovered original seats (the subject of this thread), 1 missing hub cap, the wiper arms/blades and repro front turn signal lenses although I have the original ones that are very brittle and now missing chunks of the inner gasket flange. I mention these just in case anyone can help me source these parts. I also have 63 years of documents, registrations including the original temporary one taped to the windshield, original books, shop manual, part books, supplements, photos, wooden fuel dip stick, tool kit - literally everything a proud owner would want to keep to pass along with his car.

Trying to do no harm!
David

[Mike Wilson]

Fantastic car, David, and I admire your "do no harm" approach.

[Hendrik Moulds]

Lovely car David, thanks for sharing the photos.

[Joris Koning]

Has anybody found a source for the vinyl shown on the bottom of David's door panel?

[Vic Skirmants]

David, pre-As very rarely had the dash the same color as the exterior. That came later.

[Alan Hall]

David,
That maroonish dash color was probably the most common dash color used in '53, and I don't think it matched any exterior color. I also believe it was a fairly flat paint and not a gloss finish. My father's '53 fashion grey cab had that dash color as did my brothers '53 black coupe. As far as seat binding, that speckled tan vinyl, like at your door panel bottom was used with the corduroy seat upholstery. I did an "archeological dig" on the seats from my brother's car a few years ago, and although I posted the pictures on the talk list, they appear to be gone. I will try to find them and will re-post.
Alan

[Alan Hall]

David,
Found the photos. My brother bought his '53 coupe in 1958, and although it was only 5 years old it had had a pretty hard life. The seats had 2 sets of seat covers installed by that time, the first a turquoise vinyl installed over the corduroy and then a black vinyl over that. A few years later he bought a complete interior out of a wrecked '55 coupe and installed that in his car. The seats got temporary use in a number of cars over the years and then were stored. I decided to see what was under the seat covers a few years ago and found the original corduroy. The binding had been cut off of most of the seat to install the seat covers, but some places had remnants of it. I documented the "archeological dig" in the attached photos. I have some additional photos if any one is interested, but did not want to bore people to death.

[James Davies]

Hi David, thanks for sharing your photos! I too admire your "do no harm" approach. Fantastic. And lovely car.

Those photos help answer your first question. With a beige carpet and beige interior, your car's seats would have had piping made from the same speckled, textured leatherette found on the bottom (and probably sides) of your door panels. That leatherette is not available anymore, but if you're really keen on using some original stuff, I have some of it on a set of seats I'm restoring. I won't need the old stuff since there are big tears and holes. I suspect you can make some piping from what remains. Unfortunately I still need it for the remainder of the summer, until I can make patterns for the new material. This is my summer project. So contact me if you want what remains.

The Maroon dash on your car is original. These Maroon dashes almost always went with beige or reddish-brown interiors. Very common, as Alan says, and not necessarily the same color as the exterior Pascha red color. If you look behind the dash, on the defroster tube and panels behind that, you will find the original Pasha red color. There also may be some Pascha red on the back side of the dash. Reutter painted the dash with a coat of primer (front and back), a coat of body color (front and back) and finally the final dash color just on the front, though there will be over spray on the back. Perhaps you will be able to see this if you look behind the dash. A camera with flash may help. Would be interesting to see the difference between the Pascha red color and the Maroon dash. Also there may be some original Pascha red on the door hinges behind the aluminum cover panel with the Reutter tag.

A couple other things I notice with your interior:

1) Burlap-looking material on the radio delete plate. I've seen this on one other mid-1953 car. Is this really burlap, or perhaps a leatherette with basket weave? Very funky, but original. Reutter did use lots of burlap in constructing the front seats.

2) Your door tops (and the rails below rear quarter windows) are painted beige, not maroon to match the dash. Most often the door tops are Maroon on '53 cars with beige interiors with Maroon dashes. Would be interesting to see if they've been painted over. Door tops often (but not always) matched the dash on these cars. Given that the exterior of the car seems to have been repainted beige, perhaps the door tops were repainted that same beige as well?

3) Nice, original shift knob. This VW knob was only used by Porsche mid-'53 to mid'54.

Btw, your car was completed 2 weeks after my coupe, chassis 50960. Mine is a USA de Luxe Super, so has the leather trim, but it also has lots of corduroy too. Just the front seats and the sides of the rear seat back have leather - everything else is grey corduroy. =)

Thanks for sharing photos of such a great car!

[James Davies]

Thanks for sharing those photos Alan. I guarantee none of us will be bored by more photos.

And David, in case you haven't been able to find the right cord, I've found a couple suppliers that can provide this beige cord in the correct wale, weight and (almost) color.

A Dutch company Keymer makes an upholstery-grade cord called "Manchester" which is available from a few upholstery suppliers in the Netherlands. Their "5 Beige" is very, very close. Weight and cord size is perfect.

Place textiles also makes a corduroy called "Theo" in a few beige colors. They're out of Washington DC. Wale is perfect, though the nap could be a bit taller.

I have some samples of both of these, and some others. But you say you've been able to match up some corduroy already? Would be interested to know the supplier. It's always hard to find the correct stuff for the older Porsches.

Btw, here's photos of an original interior on a '53 coupe. This one has a grey interior that has yellowed over time. It is matched with a blue carpet, hence the blue piping on the seats. Exterior color was also Azure blue.

James

[Alan Hall]

James,
OK here are the rest of the photos.

[David Green]

Edit - I mistakenly wrote a different post that some of you may have read before I saw your recent ones. We crossed in the cyberspace! -

Thanks all for your replies, for clarifying the maroon dash, the radio cover and Alan and James for posting your photos.

James - thank you for the very kind offer of your original material but since the seats were incorrectly recovered in the 1970s I'm not compelled to purse originality with them as my focus is to preserve what I have. Autos International has about 6 different corduroy fabrics, one of which pretty closely matches the existing faded material and I will use one of their plain tan leatherette that is close in color to the original speckled material for the seam welts.

The headliner is long gone (now desert dust) and I'm planning on replacing with with tan wool. Again, since not existing, I'm not trying for originality, just close to proper. Thoughts?

The rails were repainted beige with the exterior.

Photos below of the dash underside with the Pasha Red and a repost of the radio delete area of the maroon dash for easy comparison although each would have location-aged differently. I've also found the Pasha Red in the headlight buckets and on the wheels under the tires.

David