Interior suppliers....

[Jeff Norwell]

I spoke to SMS a week ago and received a nice sample packet in the mail of the requested fabrics. The lady was very nice and helpful(she knew here info.)
I am gonna go with a complete stock interior.
The loom carpet in a pre made is $295
The Headliner pre-made is $235
4 pre-made door panels are $749
and the trunk mat is $95
Of course the seats I have are just the frames and springs.I will have to buy the additional fabric and Vinyl to get a trimmer to assemble.

I also called Baron Lebonney ...but I did not get a sample package.

Any opinions out there?.... anybody have happy results or negative dealings?

Just testing the waters is all

thanks.

[Ford Blue blood]

Jeff working with SMS right now on a vinyl top for my wife's 65 Tunderbird Special Landau.  So far very pleased with their professionalism and responses.  They knew that the Special Landau was a different grain and color from the standard Landau of that year.  Sample on the way for color and grain confirmation after relating a failed $225 attempt from a T-Bird vendor with no questions or comments other than "sorry you had a bad experience, we will be more then happy to mail you a sample".

[JimNolan]

Jeff,
   I ordered SMS door panels for my 57 years ago and seat covers from LaBarron Bonney. The door panels were perfect and I'm still running them although they have started to fade a little. But, my car sees a lot of sun. The doorpanels back then were about $1300.00 and the seat covers were $1000.00. Both companies are great as far as I'm concerned. Back then SMS didn't make seat covers, they just furnished fabric. The SMS door panels and the LaBarron Bonney seat covers color matched each other perfect. In fact, I used the white on the SMS door panels to come up with the Formula for the Colonial White paint on my car. No two paint companies had the same formula for Colonial White. Colonial White paint is actually light brown.
  You won't get off cheap from either SMS or LaBarron Bonney. But, you'll be happy with either company. Jim

[Jeff Norwell]

Great feed back fellas..... I thank you.
I don't think SMS do seat covers at this point still Jim... but thats OK.
I will holler back at LaBaron Bonney.
I was quite pleased with the original conversation with the female rep at SMS.... She seemed to know her stuff and put me at ease.

[Zapato]

Jeff, you said SEATS , thought you were building your car as a business coupe. no back seat.

[RICH MUISE]

Zeff...funny Zap brought that up..I was logging on to remind you if you were still considering the 70D stationary window, to make sure they don't put a crank hole in the back side panels.  Rich

[57chero]

I also used SMS for my ranchero interior , there just down the freeway from me so I was able to go in person and look at samples.I already knew I wanted to do the seat and door panels in the custom 300 gray style, they have thousands of little drawers with samples for just about any make and model, so this guy walks up and asked me what am I looking for I say I am doing a 57 ranchero and he says, really those are one of favorite cars, then goes and pulls all the samples out he knew exactly what the panels and seat should look like, then we went over to his desk wrote up the order when we were done he sent me to the lady at the front desk to take a down payment to get started. I told the lady wow that guy really knows 57 fords is he one of the upholsterers no he's the owner. I also
purchased the headliner and installed my self, they made the door panels from scratch from original patterns with the holes punched ready to install and I took the seat in and had it re done by them also, it all turned out beautiful and fit perfect. There is a couple of pictures at the bottom of the first page in the members rides section in the gallery.

[Jeff Norwell]

Jeff, you said SEATS , thought you were building your car as a business coupe. no back seat.

Yea.I know.I got a 11 year old kid.....

[Jeff Norwell]

Zeff...funny Zap brought that up..I was logging on to remind you if you were still considering the 70D stationary window, to make sure they don't put a crank hole in the back side panels.  Rich

Yea.still on the fence on that too Rich....

[texasmark1]

and now, for something completely different...I too obtained a nice sample of fabric and vinyl from LeBaron for my Fairlane 500... door panels and seat covers... total would have been $2K plus... for me, that was an "ah-ha" moment...

so, I went looking around the Houston area for a trimmer.  found a fabric and material supplier, purchased some panel board and a couple of yards of white vinyl (my car is red/white).  the panel board is basically heavy duty cardboard.  started trying to copy my rear door panels (2 door model, but I call them door panels).  not that hard to get in the ball park with the results. let the whole think stew in my head for a few months... drove the car with no door panels... hey, I was driving it at least!

got up some steam this summer. decided to do all the panels.  obtained some Ford 60's era red patterned fabric from an established trimmer shop and got the rear seat done by a small upholstery shop in my area (used the old covers for the look; red and white).  then began to tackle the door panels in ernest.  instead of the panel board, I have used 1/8 inch masonite from Lowes.  covered them on the reverse side with a product that probably is used under roof shingles... black and sticky one side, silver insulation type film on the other.  I put this on the side of the panels that face the door (for insulation/sound deadening/weather resistance).  next covered the interior side with black recycled carpet from PepBoys.  used this to create the "padding" effect under the next level, which is the vinyl and upholstery.  the black carpet will be the bottom 4 inches of the panel. 

used the two chorme roof-edge spears to create/trace the line for the sweep of silver on the panels next (this shape mimics the outside chrome/gold trim on the car).  using another insulation product to create the silver insert... its basically two layers of thin silver trim separated by bubble wrap-like material; I split this material in half, cut it to shape and applied next .  white vinyl finishes off the top, then the metal top edge of the door trim that has the fuzzy window scraping material on it.  hope to post pics soon. total expense:  much less than $2K.

[RICH MUISE]

A little persistence goes a long way...good for you! I keep telling myself.."I can do this, I can do this"...worst that can happen..you do it over and still saved a ton of money..and will have the satisfaction of being able to say "I did it". If you need help posting pics, let us know.  Rich

[Ford Blue blood]

As I have said before....you can put a butt load of material on the floor for the cost of one hours labor....Good for you, found out there is a lot to be learned and accomplished by reading and talking and then doing!