Question about stepdown interior
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Was wondering if anyone has ever seen this pattern of fabric on a stepdown before? My car is a '49 Commodore 8 and this is the original interior. It's just that I've only seen the striped material before on the 48 and 49's. The tags on the inside back of the seats read.... 210737 FALLS 3-49 and 213781 FALLS 5-49. The interior is pretty well shot so I'm carefully putting seat covers over it to preserve as much of it as possible. I'd someday like to have it re-done in the original material and was wondering if this was a special order, or if I've just not seen enough interiors to know what's what...... Thanks, Aaron
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Comments
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Is the same fabric used on the doors?0
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Hi Dave.... Nope. Doors are a plain grey broad cloth looking like every other 48/49 door panel I've seen. The cars exterior was "CC"platinum opalescent (not the grey color but more of a champagne like color) which I was told was a pretty rare color according to Sid MacDonald who was a Hudson dealer here in Seattle. He didn't remember selling the car new, so that ended that lead. I bought the car back in 1973, am the second owner and it was bone stock when I bought it from the original owner. I currently have all the seats out of the car and have carefully inspected them for any signs of a re-upholstering job, but find nothing to support that theory. Everything looks prefectly "factory" if you know what I mean. This has been making me nuts (well.....among many other things) for thirty years now and I'd love to solve the mystery. I appreciate your reply and hope someone can shed some light on this. Regards, Aaron0
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Where are you located? I'm over in Port Orchard/Southworth area.0
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that materiel was not used in 48 or 49, the car had a grey stripe with light blue shading on stripesBILL ALBRIGHT0
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tattooman wrote:Hi Dave.... Nope. Doors are a plain grey broad cloth looking like every other 48/49 door panel I've seen. The cars exterior was "CC"platinum opalescent (not the grey color but more of a champagne like color) which I was told was a pretty rare color according to Sid MacDonald who was a Hudson dealer here in Seattle. He didn't remember selling the car new, so that ended that lead. I bought the car back in 1973, am the second owner and it was bone stock when I bought it from the original owner. I currently have all the seats out of the car and have carefully inspected them for any signs of a re-upholstering job, but find nothing to support that theory. Everything looks prefectly "factory" if you know what I mean. This has been making me nuts (well.....among many other things) for thirty years now and I'd love to solve the mystery. I appreciate your reply and hope someone can shed some light on this. Regards, Aaron
Hey Aaron,
What throws me are the name and numbers you say you've found on the inside, back of the seats. I say this becuase Hudson had its own upholstery shop and, as far as I know, that info would not have existed on factory installed materials. It not inconceivable that a past owner had the seats reupholstered. Who knows, maybe your car was a special order. At any rate, it's cool looking fabric that would be hard, if not impossible, to duplicate.
Dave0 -
Hey Dan & Rambo. I'm in North Seattle. I have an Uncle living in the Purdy/Burley area tho.... Next time I get over that way, we'll have to try and hook up.
Regards,
Aaron0 -
Hi Bill (Dave too). I agree that Hudsons of that vintage had the grey striped upholstery. It's all I've ever seen too. I'm attaching a photo of the tag from the inside backrest of the rear seat so you can see what I'm looking at. The only thing about a re-upholstery job that I find tough to swallow is that when I got the car it was only 24 years old and everything else was perfectly stock. So I find it unusual that at that time someone would strip off all the old upholstery, hog rings, etc and completely re-cover the seats from scratch rather than just putting covers over the original upholstery. Or at the least leaving some trace of it somwhere, like spare hog rings that arent attached to any material or something similar to that.... It's no big deal though, it's just something that I haven't been able to figure out ever since I owned the car. I just thought maybe since the attached tags are dated 49 (or at least that's how I interpret them) that the car was special ordered. Thanks for the input. I appreciate the help. Regards, Aaron0
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The part number 210737 is a "Spring-Rear Seat Back" for '48 - '52 Commodore and Hornet 4-door sedans with Left-Hand drive. The part number 213781 is not listed my parts book, but I think it is part number of the "Spring-Front Seat Back".0
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I know that Hudson had "fresh spring offerings", like other makes. New colors were introduced to give the existing line-up a new appeal. I haven't taken the time to look up the color of your car, but that probably explains it's less common nature. I've never heard of Hudson offering a different uphostery fabric, however. Still, I'm inclined to beleive that you're right that it came with car from the start. If the whole exterior color/interior upholstery package was a special limited offering it would be the first that I ever heard of. I'd be more inclined to think that there might have been a temporary shortage of fabric at some point, and a compatible fabric was installed on a few models for a short time. We have all have heard about the shortages of metal after the war, but fabric? (lol) Does your Commodore have a particularly high serial number?0
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Hi Aaron,
Ah, I'm getting a better sense of what you have there. I see that the tags you mentioned are attached to the springs. Now that makes sense. I agree with you that even if it were a reupholstering job, there should be some signs of it. However, it is not unfathomable to think that someone, especially 24 years prior to your ownership, had a quality reupholstering job done. Face it, some people buy new cars today and have the upholstery changed. For all you know, the original upholstery may have been damaged early on and the original owner didn't want factory replacement fabric or cheapo covers. They may have been in a profession (like a car dealer, upholstery shop, etc.) that allowed them to change the fabric at cost. Maybe this fabric was a special order. We may never know.0 -
tattooman wrote:Hey Dan & Rambo. I'm in North Seattle. I have an Uncle living in the Purdy/Burley area tho.... Next time I get over that way, we'll have to try and hook up.
Regards,
Aaron
Hi Aaron
Absolutley we should hook up - I get over that way quite often as well, but with the freaking traffic anymore and with the I-5 lane closure debacle coming soon I'm going to avoid making any trips to that side of the pond for a while!
Just send me an email when you're thinking about your next trip out this direction.
Dan0 -
Hi James and thanks for the reply. My cars serial number is (494) 104527 so its on the high end of the production run. I never thought about a fabric shortage, but it's a very logical conclusion. I too have never heard of any "special offerings", but thought since it's a '49 possibly a few cars were optioned differently for Hudsons 40th anniversary? But one would think some fo us would have heard something about that. None of this mattered when I was 16 years old and bought it back in 1973, I just loved the car. And here I am 50 years old, still have the car and still loving it. Thanks for the insight, I guess it'll just have to remain a mystery a little longer..... Aaron0
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tattooman wrote:Hi Dave.... Nope. Doors are a plain grey broad cloth looking like every other 48/49 door panel I've seen. The cars exterior was "CC"platinum opalescent (not the grey color but more of a champagne like color) which I was told was a pretty rare color according to Sid MacDonald who was a Hudson dealer here in Seattle. He didn't remember selling the car new, so that ended that lead. I bought the car back in 1973, am the second owner and it was bone stock when I bought it from the original owner. I currently have all the seats out of the car and have carefully inspected them for any signs of a re-upholstering job, but find nothing to support that theory. Everything looks prefectly "factory" if you know what I mean. This has been making me nuts (well.....among many other things) for thirty years now and I'd love to solve the mystery. I appreciate your reply and hope someone can shed some light on this. Regards, Aaron
Our dealership had 2 49 coupes with the color code CC the first was a early model and the color was a grey gold. The later was called Platinum. I could never understand why they used the CC code for both. Their was a difference in the colors but not much. The uph. was the same as other 49s.0 -
Thanks Dave. As you said, anythings pretty much possible when it comes to people and their cars. Although I consider myself pretty well versed in "Hudsonology", I posted the photos in hopes that someone would have or had seen a similar pattern used on a stepdown. I have some spare stepdown upholstery seats in the original fabric that I purchased years ago, and if my "different" seats have been re-done, they coppied the factory type seams and pattern perfectly. So like you said, we may never know....... makes me wish the old girl could talk...... Thanks again0
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Hi Billy. I'm so glad you replyed to to this issue too! I've seen the "grey gold" color before and it is quite a bit more "gold-ish" than my car. The color chips I have refer to it as "CC-17" and the Platinum color as just plain old "CC". I just took my car down to bare metal and primed it for a re-paint, so I don't have any current photos of the color. I do have some old photos of it back in the 1970's when I first bought it though, hopefully I'll be able to find someone to mix the correct formula for my paint! Thanks again for you're reply. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. Regards, Aaron0
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The Metal Tgs Refer To The Spring Supplier Not The Cloth, Bill A.0
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Bill. Thank you for your reply. I was just grasping at "straws" to see if anyone could shed some light on the interior fabric. Thought possibly the tags woudl help but now I see that they are just part numbers for the spring assemblies.
Regards, Aaron0 -
Aaron,
I for one have never seen upholstery like yours in any Hudson. The kicker seems to be that there is no evidence to suggest that it's not origininal. At this point, let's say there's a 50 percent chance it's stock and a 50 percent chance it's not. Its existance as a result of a fabric shortage is as possible as it having been a special order or high end replacement. I know that doesn't help to solve the mystery, but that's what makes this hobby fascinating. Sometimes it's the hunt that's more fun than the kill. If it were me, I would just assume I have something special and be glad of it.
Enjoy,
Dave0 -
Dave. I've very much enjoyed all the responses to my post. I want to stress that I wasn't trying to imply that my car was something "special" and somehow in some way better than a car with the stock type material. I hope nobody misunderstood my post. I was just curious about the fabric and how it might have came about. I sincerely appreciate all the interesting replys I recieved. I've owned 6 Hudsons over the years, a few of which got some positive press in magazines such as Hemmings and Cars and Parts. The objective always being to keep our Hudsons in the publics eye. None of these were high dollar restorations or super rare cars, just honest old Hudsons that did my best to keep on the road. I just finished installing my Kanter seat covers today, nothing special, but much nicer than the stained worn out "mystery" upholstery I had in the Commodore. My '49 is a very special car to me, it's been with me for 34 years and for all those years, running or not, it's the one that I just won't let go of. I love the cars and really enjoy all the folks in the Hudson family..... Thanks again for all your input. Aaron0
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Aaron,
Speaking for myself, I never got the impression that you were implying anything other than the need to find out about the upholstery. Even if you were implying that the car was special, what's wrong with that? Hudsons are special. So what if your car isn't super rare, high dollar type. All that matters is that you enjoy it. With the new seat covers installed, you'll be good for another 34 years.
Have fun,
Dave0
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