Technical When was tufted interior popular? Year range

In 1969 I bought a 40 coupe with a ****on tufted red and black naugahyde interior,
Paul in CT My present 40 has an all black rolled and pleated interior probably done in the 50's or sixties.
Paul in CT

 

My old T the probably upholstery was probably done in 70's.

 

I’m just interested in trends. I like to know when things were popular. Nothing is worse than a 34 Ford with ZZ Top stripes and whitewalls and lake pipes…… know your era.

 

Good call.
I was considering posting that the location could/should/would determine the correct timeframe, but you're already on top of it ...

 

Breaking down the size. Shape. Pattern. Color. S***ch style. ****ons. To coordinate w/the era you are aiming for. Diamond tucked velour worked on a '56 Chebbie Bel Air in the '70's. Tom's Trim All Cedar Rapids Ia. was good too. McFall was a ledgend.

 

What about this lovely material?

 

That would go great in a 1970 Chevy van.

 

I think ****on tufting has been used across many eras. I would say the style of ****on tufting changed through the eras though. Louis Bettancourt had his Merc ****on ****on tufted in '52 or '53.

 

I have a version of that in my '41 p/u.

 

The only reason that I asked about "stripping 'backer" is that it reminded of a road trip that I made in the early '70s. A friend and myself made a trip from Ft. Wayne to the Owensboro area to visit a friend of his. It was the week between Christmas and New Years and we made the trip in a borrowed, red, '64 Mercury Monterey with the roll-down Breezeway rear window and a swing-away steering column. Thought maybe we'd look like locals that way.

His friends insisted that we stay at their farm home for the few days we were there. They treated and fed us like family, including big breakfasts with full-cream, whole milk fresh from the cow that morning. In other words, we got the royal treatment.

Well after a couple days of this we were informed that we were going to have to get up a few hours earlier the next morning to give them a hand with the chores. Which seemed fair enough to me, in exchange for their hospitality. But not being a farm boy myself I figured I ought ask what kind of chores we'd be doing. The only job that stuck out to me was that we were probably going to "strip 'backer" for a few hours.

Of course I had no clue what that meant but figured that I'd find out all about it in the morning. But I was left with the impression that this was not a particularly enjoyable job. And my puzzled expression must have revealed my concerns.

The next morning they all had a good laugh while explaining what was involved with stripping tobacco. And we had another fantastic breakfast and I never had to get any real hands-on experience at "stripping 'backer". They just couldn't p*** up the chance to have bit of fun at the expense of a couple Hoosier flatlanders.

 

My dad and I did this interior in 1986. He made the ****ons and tufted the seat backs. The material is Persian Lamb and Mohair. Still going strong after all thesee years.

 

There was a 10-15 year time period when you could open any car magazine and half the cars had a Jim McFall interior.

 

That explains a lot. An interior guy…..I wondered.

 

Years popular in automobiles:

1886-2022.

 

My '51 Merc coupe didn't come with any known history but it had an old black vinyl ****on tufted interior in it and a National Street Rod ***ociation sticker from the early 70's, it seems to have been done in the late 60's or early 70's.

I think ****on tufts could work for most eras but it's more about what material is ****on tufted than the use of ****ons. Black vinyl definitely feels like a late 60's or early 70's thing, if you had ****on tufted purple velour that'd definitely look late 70's or early 80's style. Metalflake vinyl would be early 60's looking, mohair would be late 30's or early 40's, etc.

The ****ons won't date the interior job but the material used will.

 

That's nothing, my old 38 Chevy (HAMB namesake) that was originally built in 70s had diamond tuck crushed velvet interior. I called it the *****house interior. Seats, door panels, headliner, trunk; it had it all. I did put different front seats in it, but the rest was original from 70s.

I changed just about everything on the car except that interior and paint. It was almost nostalgic at that point. Sold the car after owning and building it for 18 years. Not sure what new owner may have done.

 

Norm and friend.

 

Norm's T Touring became "My Mother The Car" it was on auction here in Connecticut about 10 years ago, think it went for around $10,000. Also think it would look better as it was in this photo rather than the TV show version. Bob

 

1907 POPE Toledo, was a great car in its day.

 

1920's and 1960's

 

Holy ****! That's where the Godfather sat with his crew when he went out to eat!

 

Jim McFall’s survivor 35 Delivery was for sale here on the hamb. Don’t know if it sold but the interior in that car was incredible.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/jim-mcfall’s-1935-ford-sedan-delivery.1170009/

 

That’s way cool

 

Pretty cool. Imagine what that would cost today. Always loved black diamond tuck.

 

It was popular from the mid 60's through the 70's. I liked it & did several of my cars in black diamond patterned ****on tufted (seat inserts, door panels, headliner).
I did my 57 Corvette two times ( orange once & then all black) . I did my 67 Corvette Custom Coupe in all black(felt like you were in a coffin ). Tufting was
labor intense , Laying out the diamond pattern, Sewing ,Covering all those ****on,
tying them in the seats takes a long time. I did several Corvettes , T-buckets, one in gold metal flake but no full sizes cars But then the fad went away & back to pleats .
They were cool for a time .