Hot Rods Hemi A roadster: Interior decision...

Burgundy leather, with the plaid, or houndstooth?

 

Plaid if you want a opinion.

 

That

 

ALL Burgundy leather no inserts.

 

Burgundy with plaid. A cloth insert will breath more. Love the Hallock frame.

 

Yup I vote for plaid

 

I am liking the houndstooth. The smaller pattern works better in an area the size of what I would guess the insert would be.

 

Houndstooth

 

I'm with loudbang, all burgundy. Love the car!!

 

Plaid, all day. Better fit. Houndstooth is more a late 50s car fit IMO. Me being a HIGHLANDER might have a little influence in my choice, I dunno...

 

Houndstooth

 

One thought on the leather. The 40 Ford came with leather seats. There may be a practical aspect to leather as
one never knows when they are going to get caught in the rain and have a chance to pull over to put the top up. The seat surfaces should have some water resistance so the seats do not stay wet forever. If the option is fabric maybe look at outdoor fabrics for furniture or try something that will make the fabric waterproof. You could test a piece of fabric with the waterproofing to see if it affects the appearance and it does not smell. Years ago 3M used to make a great waterproofing spray. My friend and I had hooded nylon shells when were kids. We sprayed the shells with the 3M to make them waterproof and it was invisible with no change on how the fabric felt.. The shells rolled up to take up no space and if we got caught in the rain fishing they kept us dry.

 

Leather seats in a roadster sounds like burnt thighs to me lol

 

Plaid with canvas door panels maybe?

 

Here's my hemi deuce for inspiration. Interior gets as many comments as Dodge hemi.

 

Leather seats do not burn Vinyl seats are TOO HOT TO SIT ON

 

i'm partial to blood red leather

 

Hello,

For a nice roadster like yours, Burgundy leather is a great choice. ( unless your final color is still on the drawing boards) The color offsets the paint on the body. Add in some cloth of any kind and it takes away the wonderful leather application. Tuck and roll seats plus seat backs are simple and old school. But, if one wants some contrast and some comfort other than those nearly 90 degree angle seats, an insert of pleats would make it somewhat different and give a seating pattern with feel.

As far as color and pattern: @hurlbird has the good looking pattern on a bench seat, if no bucket seats are selected.

This color combo looks very rich and complete. If more support is necessary, more stuffing in the pleats is able to be inserted. YRMV The added bonus for Burgundy Leather is that it hides the daily Levi's scrub marks from constant movement in and out of the door to seat, etc. The cloth material is an absorbent product and takes wear/fade faster than nice leather.

We know a family that has white upholstery material for their two living room couches. It is the style and they refuse to get the same couches in leather. Every two weeks, they have to take the covers off and wash them to get the Levi rub, or color clothing rub off of the seating areas. Simplicity it is not and it makes them work harder for the same comfort and style...

Adjustable bucket seats will give a feeling of secure driving position and comfort. The seat back can’t have too much adjustment due to the roadster confines, but some is better than a bad back after 25 miles. Comfort in seating should be the first choice then the upholstery.

Jnaki

We had bucket seats that were non adjustable as a teenager. But as a teenager, we did not give it much thought. It was the wonderment of driving anything and if it was a cool hot rod, the better it was for us young kids. Many years later, as 20 somethings and beyond, comfort was tantamount to enjoying the drives, whether short or long.

My wife would not have liked the 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery as much as she did. If we had solid back seats fixed in the almost 80-90 degree angle from the factories, with no adjustments other than forward and back. Our bucket seats were adjustable and very comfortable. Simple Naugahyde upholstery was what covered the seats and they were easy to keep clean, if needed.

We had a leather chair and a leather couch in our house design parameters. Despite the nice Naugahyde upholstery, if we had kept that 327 powered sedan delivery, it was going to be a full tan leather replacement. There is nothing better than new leather for comfort and wonderful aroma. Maintenance is just as easy with the right cleaning solutions. Plus, it just felt right... Slight side bolsters kept us in place in the long and short drives we took for our photo shoots. YRMV

 

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. We both like this, which looks like what I have in my head for our interior to look like. The fabric we have, which we bought a decade ago thinking we'd do the '48 Pontiac in plaid (the current owners, without knowing we had that in mind, did the new interior for it in plaid!) is outdoor fabric. I want something that doesn't look the next roadster in line at a show (not that I go to car shows very often, but when I do, I don't want my car to look like every other fibergl*** street rod there), so I think we're going to go with the burgundy leather and Sunbrella fabric that we have.
The other factor is the disappointing and VERY expensive job we had done in the '52 DeSoto wagon, which is where the leather and the houndstooth fabric came from. I kinda like the "match-matchy" idea of both cars having the same interior, but that white and burgundy houndstooth would probably be a poor choice in an open car, that's going to be driven like a rented mule.

 

I think the burgundy leather and plaid will look great because of a couple of factors, one being that the plaid has some blue in it which accents the blue paint and it also has some red to go with the burgundy.
Works with both colors.

 

Green Sea,
Love that interior!

 

Exactly so.

 

"...is outdoor fabric...."
"...so I think we're going to go with the burgundy leather and Sunbrella fabric that we have."


Hello,

Sunbrella fabric is pretty outstanding for pure outdoor material to keep moisture and wear/tear from starting so easily. We have had 4 sailboats and each one had their own color of Sunbrella covers. The comment that a Dark Burgundy color was our favorite until we decided to get a Silver Grey color on our last, larger sailboat. We learned from our foray into smaller, racing oriented, low slung sailboat and its contrasting color covers, mainsail, front jib cover and all of the winches and wooden tiller were covered in Burgundy Sunbrella.


The dark color took extra care as it picked up any rubbings from the boat itself, any weather pattern residue on the boat. If we took off the winch covers and set them down prior to storing them away for our sailing, they got dirty from whatever was on the boat’s surface. So, we had a white bag made to store all of the Burgundy color Sunbrella covers. When we finished sailing for the day, now the clean Burgundy covers came out and they were pristine. It was also harder to get off any other color marks left by winch gears, fittings that rubbed, etc, off of the Burgundy covers.

Jnaki

On our last sailboat, we got Grey Sunbrella covers on everything and they stayed cleaner all of the time. A wipe with a clean cloth or some cleaning spray was all it took to get anything off of the protective material. The Grey was easier to keep clean than the Burgundy. Also, we did not have any seating covered in any Sunbrella. It would have been too stiff and picked up too much “stuff” that gets all over the place on a sailboat during the moving action.

The interior seating and ****pit seating was done in a white vinyl that was easily cleaned with any liquid cleaner. The white seating surfaces took plenty of seat time and action time without any marks or tearing. The Sunbrella material is not used for seating surfaces for that purpose alone. YRMV

 

Houndstooth.

 

Burgundy

 

NJ Don, Thanks for the kind words. I like the vinyl and plaid mix, something different and nostalgic like grandmas couch. Fellow Hamber Beach Bum Jim did my upholstory. He's since closed up shop and togrther with Mrs Beach Bum, they RV around the country following the SEGA races.

 

Back to the top

 

Bold plaid!
Some of the minor manufacturers' 1950's cars (Nash, Studebaker, etc.) had pretty bold interiors, so there's some precedence. Your plaid fabric repeats the blue of the exterior as well, so that's cool.

Here's some inspiration. Bonus points for stuffed mammals.

 

OT Mercedes gullwing:

 

Houndstooth