Upholstery cost

Kdancy

I'm embarking on restoration of a 1952 Wasp sedan.
wondering what you guys experience with a full upholstery job cost and what I can expect? I have samples from SMS so know the material cost is 85.00 a yard for the cloth+ headliner and other material.

RL Chilton

Prices and quality vary, like always. Quality job would be in the 4-5K range.

Browniepetersen

You should be into it for less than $1000 for carpet, headliner and material. The headliner is $85. I just purchased ten yards of material red (faux leather) at less than $20 per yard. I started to put the dash in today. So material costs are not that high unless you go for the original reproduction wool weave. The rest is labor. Russ is about right on so when you get a bid for 14K look elsewhere.

Kdancy

How did the factory do the trunk area? Just the rubber floor matt?
Another question, on the 53 Wasp coupe I have for a future project, there is a rolled up padded item stuck in each hinge area corner. Was this some sort of dampener?

SuperDave

My Wasps had just a black rubber mat and a cardboard panel on the back of the rear seat. As I recall, the cardboard panel was medium gray.

Chris Smith

I called Chester @ Herod in Escondido CA to see if they could make a carpet set for my 54 Hornet coupe in the original Daytona weave material. They can and the cost is north of $500.00 Yikes! :O

duncan

I had my carpet set for 54 Hollywood made by SMS auto fabric and they used a special weave material that was short cut. It is dark brown and feels like stepping on to a bison rug. It was less than 500.00 but do not know exact price . If I get stranded with the hudson in a great white north snow storm I could use the carpet set for a blanket. Good plan. HE HE Ray

Kdancy

Is there a source for the rubber trunk mats used in 52? Did the 52-53 models come with rubber or carpet floor mats?

Aaron D. IL

If you can get all of your upholstery wholesale through an upholstery supply warehouse it will keep costs down. I got everything I needed for a car I was restoring for $400. But I did all the work with my dad. He had a sewing machine that was designed for making boat sails but it was industrial enough for our job. The more you can do yourself the better off you'll be. I was quoted for farming such a job out at about $3000 and that was a few years ago already. With that in mind depending on what kind of finish you're going for it could be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be.

Kdancy

For both the 52 sedan (for a customer) and my 53 coupe, we are looking for as close to stock as we can get. On the 51 Pacemaker sedan, a driver quality interior will be ok.
SMS has the cloth to pretty well match the 52-53.
It seems that the material cost is not that much of a factor, it is the labor cost like re-building the door panels to match factory and such. Hudson stepdowns are more complicated than the Studebakers I have done.