Interior Luggage Straps

[Peter Silten]

Who makes the most authenticate looking and best quality interior luggage straps? Thanks.

[Pat OBryant]

http://www.pvsaddleshop.com/PORSCHE%20STRAPS.htm

Ive purchased straps from this place. Excellent quality.

[Peter Silten]

Thanks Pat. I notice that many of the straps have a metal piece that the strap is looped through on the top luggage clamp. PVsaddleshop's strap appears to loop through the leather.

[Richard Milstead]

Peter,
First, I am not sure interior straps can be authentic and of quality materials and construction both at the same time. The originals were made of relatively poor quality "split” leather that was heavily coated with a surface coloring rather than being dyed. They were constructed with rivets that were nickel plated (poorly) that often rusted and staples rather than being sewn. I have attached a few pictures of an original set of "C" straps although I believe that the earlier ones were much the same. Those are the black ones while the brown colored ones are Luggage rack straps (5 of the original 6 that came in the set). You can tell from the close-up of the "keepers" used at the non-buckled ends, that rivets were used in the construction. I have only personally studied B/C era sets or seen pictures of B/C sets, so some variation may have occurred in early A examples but my impression is that once Porsche began offering the sets of the straps as orderable items on their own (i.e. not with sets of luggage) they were pretty much the same.

In terms of who makes the best and most accurate, well that is probably in the eyes of the beholder. I have certainly not been overly impressed with pvsaddleshop's product. He, I believe, sews his pieces (better construction, less authentic), uses leather keepers (as you observed definitely incorrect based upon the originals I have seen), and advertises that his straps are 1" wide "like originals". Every original I have ever seen is 7/8" wide! He also advertises his luggage rack straps are 1 1/4" while my original set is 1" in width. They probably are well made and very good at holding luggage but are not IMHO very accurate reproductions.

Several years ago I worked with Woody's to get a strap made to complete the original Luggage Rack set so that it could be used for display purposes. I liked the edge treatment they use and leather thickness of their product. However, to reproduce the surface coloring I went to Surflex, a product from Color-Plus, a vendor in PA, which I had custom blended to the correct color since their product most closely simulated the way the originals were done. I am also attaching a picture of that set in use to show the result. Can you guess which strap is the repro? I later purchased a regular set of Woody's interior straps. They do use rivets and metal “D” ring “keepers per the originals. Since I use these with a set of vintage Louis Vitton luggage that we carry when we travel, I opted to get the straps natural, undyed or finished which matches nicely the leather in the LV luggage. I believe that they dye the black sets they make, rather than using a surface coating as the originals, so that would not be correct but I do not personally think that is a serious problem in a reproduction. If someone really wanted to better match the originals I suppose they could get the Surflex black and hand apply it to the straps. For brown sets the exact color is only available as a custom mixture and is quite expensive. I am quite satisfied with my set for actual use.

I really haven't looked at other vendor's sets. I believe Stoddard sells them as well as NLA (probably from the same vendor) and probably Sierra Madre as well. I think if you really want to use them I would look for ones made of quality leather. Riveted construction is probably preferable if authenticity is an issue but sewn is probably stronger construction. They should be made to the correct original dimensions with white metal "keepers". They may not be totally authentic but they will give you good service.

My $0.02

Dick Milstead

[Mike Wilson]

Dick: were the leather keepers or loops stapled to form the loop rather than sewn? Reproduction straps I purchased several years ago had them stapled.

[Richard Milstead]

Mike,

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so to keep me from using that many here are two (fuzzy) ones from the Luggage rack set. Later when I can dig out the interior straps I will take one of the leather loop there but from memory I think they were stapled on the interior sets.

Dick Milstead

[Richard Milstead]

Mike,

I took a few closeup shots of the connection ends (front and back side) on my original set of Inside Luggage Straps. Hopefully the pictures illustrate how they were done. Note in some of the back pictures that there is a chalky, white coating on the rough side of the leather which has begun to flake off. This is typical in all of the originals that I have seen as well as in similar surfaces in the Porsche leather luggage. I believe this was what is termed "split" leather a less expensive alternative to full grain leather used in fine leather products then as well as today. Perhaps the application of this paint coating was associated to mask that or it might just have been the way the maker finished their products. Note that the overall workmanship isn't very good.

Dick Milstead

[Wil Mittelbach]

Perhaps of interest as a reference re. interior luggage strap originality; herewith a photo of the 50yr old original straps of my unrestored `65 cab, owned since `67. Have occasionally treated the straps with a leather conditioner as a preservative.

[Mike Wilson]

That's a great picture of the staple on the loop, Richard. The repros I bought several years ago look like a modern day staple. Too thin. The originals look like a flat horseshoe nail. I think I ended up stitching mine. I'll have to check them.

Thanks for the pics. Much appreciated.

[Richard Milstead]

Mike,
I doubt that anyone can obtain the style of original fasteners that were used in Germany 50 years ago and reproducing them would price these straps "out of sight" for all but the most ardent enthusiast so I wouldn't discount a vendor that at least tried to use the closest modern analogs. I believe the surface treatment and type of leather are more critical in terms of a "perfect" reproduction. However, except for show/display purposes even these are less important to serviceability of the product and, hence, IMHO are also OK if the straps are made to the correct dimensions, of good leather, and have the correct types of hardware and fasteners although modern style.

Again just my $0.02

Dick Milstead

[Mike Wilson]

You are right about trying to source original German staples, Dick. There might be some fasteners that are close and can be modified to look correct but, what would be the point except to endeavor for absolute correctness? I actually use the reproduction straps to hold down luggage and they work great because the leather is stronger. I'll bet if you tugged too hard on original leather straps, they would fail. I know I've seen original ski straps that are very fragile.

[Peter Silten]

I wonder how many companies supplied the interior luggage straps for the 356s. I note that the ones in Wil's photos have slightly rounded ends while the ones shown in the photos supplied by Dick have more pointed ends. The repos sold by Woody's have the pointed ends; the ones sold by Stoddard, NLA and SMC have the rounded ends. Both Woody's and the person who makes the straps for Stoddard, NLA and SMC say that their straps are close copies of original straps.

[Richard Milstead]

Peter,

I do not believe that Porsche used multiple vendors for these items. Seeger was the manufacturer of the luggage through the late 356 era into the 911 era. Based upon the material and construction similarities and the fact that straps were supplied with leather luggage sets, I believe that Seeger also made the straps sets for the interior and the luggage racks. Other vendors did make similar sets for aftermarket sale. Some of these were based on the ones offered by Porsche through the Accessories program. I have attached a picture of one such example. Since many Dealerships sold aftermarket accessories as well as "Official" Porsche items such straps could have even come from the dealership but not been "genuine" Porsche. This could account for slight differences.

In addition for the "genuine" Porsche straps, I believe that either also could have seen but there is a timing factor. Wil's set is from a very late "C" car which dates from the overlap period with early series 900 cars. Mine as well as others seem to have come from earlier C or B cars. I think that at some point in late C period Porsche's vendor (Seeger) changed the style of the strap set slightly. But, of course that is speculation to fit the data. I am attaching two (rather poor quality) photos from Porsche literature that seem to support this explanation, however. First, the picture of the interior straps from the Oct 1962 dealer Accessory Catalog show the sharply pointed version. Second, the picture from an early 911 sales brochure (not sure year but before 1967) shows the rounded version. The transition for subtle changes like this was usually not very precise in timing because accessories would stay in stock for a period of time, particularly at dealers and distributors, so that like the cars early items sometimes were sold later.



Dick Milstead

[Peter Silten]

Thanks Dick for the helpful information.

[Charles Rollins]

Charles @ Woody's Custom Shop reporting in. Our black straps are surface dyed by hand just like the originals. I noticed some of the straps being produced are black on the sides and back, basically all black. This means the maker is using a "vat dyed" hide, different from surface dyeing. I too noticed the rounded ends of the strap posted in the photo. The NOS straps we copied were very pointed so we went with that detail. We can make a set with the rounded ends if that is what the buyer wants. Our straps are slightly thicker then the originals but we did that because the original thickness does not lend itself to a very durable strap as proven by the lack of original straps. They become brittle and break, you don't have to worry about pulling hard on ours when you are holding down luggage. Also, we use a thick waxed thread to close our keepers instead of a staple, reason being we wanted to avoid rust which could leave stains on vintage luggage.

FYI we are now offering ski straps (with the correct style leather) and will have replica Leitz rack straps for the 911/912 roof rack available in the next couple of weeks.