Does anyone know of a source for premade seat covers available for early cars such as a 40 Ford coupe? Thanks!
I got a set for the front seat of my '51 Ford from eBay. I mainly wanted something to protect the good original upholstery and these looked good and fit pretty well. I think I've seen that the same outfit has covers for some old cars as well. These will not subs***ute for a reupholstery job, but they are good at what they do. https://www.ebay.com/itm/386514470385 Here's what they look like when I installed them in my car : Here's what they list for '40 Fords. https://www.ebay.com/itm/326654615239?fits=Year:1940|Make:Ford&_skw=40+ford+seat+covers&itmmeta=01KASTB2C344VK51SCB4BYWP3C&hash=item4c0e21dec7:g:ucUAAOSwBGFnu~gJ&itmprp=enc:AQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eImJY+d0GeyMwj4LEomvbZRa0AQQqXohuu8L6rUjSTCMuC+RGeH0SL7kuOYSFuMzRxSUcn1woPKZdZi6mOE/EA9mMnzsqss+lFImUA9c+iWHbX/XKObiLtmn+ZznyU06QTB/yKcrpwsBFx78WcsBWAfnDWsAb+LK6NBILWOZaNXZkfeX74qtOgIry4yr7zaoZsIeN1Koz4VgcHmWS2IiZ+dYYMeHlFjvAxFU8lPOQrYKvB6XIy7qHQuvHGGiKQPb/9PL5eXcKKSI2coluW9ujusX9/nJsWO5rNPR1QjEN33A==|tkp:Bk9SR6CmrLrWZg
Oh, BTW, the covers in my car are installed on a temporary basis so I can take them off for shows etc. As such, they look a little loose and sloppy. They come with enough loops and attaching gizmos that I believe you could do a much better installation if you set your mind to it.
At one time, JC Whitney and places like that sold them, and they worked well. I took a set off of my coupe in the early 90's and someone else used them after me, they were still good to go. Post an ad, maybe you'll get lucky. A spin-off of LeBarron-Bonney used to sell seat covers, but they are no more as well.
Those folks make a lot of different covers for a lot of different vehicles. Did you check with them? They may have what you need.
Hello, The one thing my brother insisted on was clear plastic seat covers. The local shop for such installations was called Sure-Fit Seat Covers. They were started by a Zink Corporation company and made all kinds of seat covers for all kinds of cars. Why did he want clear plastic seat covers? His first car was a 51 Olds sedan. The teenagers piled into the car with no regard for what was on their clothes, namely pants… Levi’s primarily. The joke goal of a good set of Levi’s was that they had to be able to stand up in the corner of your room to be wearable in public. Ha! That was a good one and there were some guys that actually had those pants that were in desperate need of a wash… Our mom would not allow us to go out with stained or dirty Levis or any pants. She made sure we both were supplied with duplicate pairs of Levis, cotton cord pants and plain chino style material pants. If she saw stains on any of the pants, they were immediately dealt with via the washing machine, scrub board or sent out for dry cleaning. To our friends, it was always impressive to have clean pants weekly. Ha! As the teenage hot rod kids wore what they wore, my brother’s seats in his Oldsmobile sedan got stained and had to have a complete re-upholstery job. Then the new clear seat covers were installed and used a lot, prior to selling it to a friend. Jnaki So, he was instrumental in getting the local Sure-Fit seat cover store to install clear plastic seat covers in his new Impala. He knew we would be racing it at the local drags and working on other hot rod projects. He knew from experience that he wanted to keep the new upholstery in his new 58 Impala pristine. No smoking as the instant any hot ash fell, the plastic melted. Yes, he got a lot of flak about the clear seat covers. But when anyone sat in the seats, it was always clean and nice. Our mom was a stickler and wiped off the front seats if she was going to ride in the Impala to the store or doctor’s office visits. The clear plastic seat covers always wiped clean and looked brand new. When it was my turn to start driving the 58 Impala, yes, I kept the seat covers on so I had great looking seats. One of my high school friends was the daughter of the owner of the local Sure Fit Seat Cover store. She was always impressed that I actually was the only one in school with clear plastic seat covers. Note: I replaced the clear seat covers once in the time I owned the Impala. Around the Summer of 1962, when I was using it a lot. But, when I sold the Impala to go aways to college several years later, the new teenager who bought it wanted me to take off the clear seat covers. He had ridden in the Impala with me several times and now, he wanted the original red Impala seat surface to be the one he uses. So, when I drove over for the last time to give him the car, he was amazed that the seat material was as if it was brand new and not single scratch over 8 years of hard teenage racing + cruising use. Thanks to the clear seat covers on the whole seating surfaces. Note 2: I remembered a story about plastic seat covers that I posted. I went to school with the daughters of the people that ran the Howard Zink Corporation that made seat covers from the 40s into the late 60s. The daughters were down to earth teens and the family business was great. The company was named Sure-Fit. At the time of being a teenager, they had shops all over. The Howard Zink Corp., Sure Fit Seat Covers, the world's largest manufacturer of auto tops and seat covers… We knew of our own Sure Fit Seat Cover store near our high school in Long Beach. But, there were others all over So Cal and the western states. When my brother purchased his first set of clear plastic seat covers for his 1951 Oldsmobile sedan, he was the laughing stock of his friends. But, the clear seat covers protected the seat upholstery through countless dirty Levis over the last years of car ownership. When he bought his 58 Impala, those clear seat covers were again purchased and custom fit to the Impala seats. By the time I was the main driver and owner of the 58 Impala, I had one other set put on, due to wear and tear. In 1964, I had a set for the 65 El Camino that lasted 8 years. Our neighbors did go into the local Long Beach store and had some plaid ones put on their Chevy 4 door sedan. They were similar to the stock ones, but a different color pattern. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...nto-your-hot-rod.1185473/page-2#post-13468353
The Jalopy Journal
