Reupholstering Plymouth Seat - Materials

[Richard Coney]

Hi Folks,

I'm preparing an article for the British magazine Classic American showing the construction of a typical 30s/40s American car seat and how an upholsterer can recover it. Or indeed, if you have the skills and an industrial sewing machine, do it yourself. I'm using the seat from my '39 Plymouth Business Coupe as the example.

I want to refer to the materials used at the time by their proper names. Can someone please tell me what the straw and soft white felty stuff are actually called? Similarly the blue stuff I found under the seat and chewed up in the headlining? I presume 'horse hair' is the coarse material on the springs, though it looks to actually be straw of some sort, 'burlap' for the white padding next to the seat cover and 'wadding' for the conglomeration (I like that word!) of rag, cotton waste and other miscellaneous stuff?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks guys. Richard

[Joe Flanagan]

I believe the straw-like material is called jute.

[greg g]

Burlap is the coarse fabric made of Jute. The etymology of burlap is unknown and the fabric is known more properly as Hessian Cloth, it may also be referred to a gunny cloth, as aparently early cannon swabs were made from it.

I believe the thicker padding is know as felted cotton or felted wool. And some of the material is similar to the underfloor insulation and is horse hair based properly referred to as haircloth. Some of the padding can also be cotton or wool batting. That usually refers to the fairly thin heets of lofted material that covers the assembly just under the finish upholstery cloth. Certainly cotton wadding works to describe the spring stuffer.

when you take pictures be sure to include some details of the connections between the spring coils. These are what usually fail and makes the seat sag, as the support amongst (isn't that the British term for between) the coils is actually as important as the coil itself.

[Richard Coney]

Thank you. That's very helpful. What about the mish-mash of cotton, threads, scraps of rag etc.? I wondered whether in this car it was just the felted cotton that the generations of mice had industriously chewed up, along with anything else they could find to make their bedding. I presumed that the stuff I found in wads up in the headlining had been transported up the hollow windscreen pillars and deposited there as a nest. I should say that I haven't had the headlining out. It's only what could be seen and felt on the front edge when I opened it up to access the two vacuum wiper motors.

The attached picture (if you can see the details in such a small photo), also shows the springs that hold the structure together.

Richard

[Plymouthy Adams]

pieces from mieces...

[Joe Flanagan]

Should we have the hantavirus discussion?

[Plymouthy Adams]

only if you don't want to use the search feature...

[Richard Coney]

I'm confused!

[greg g]

Heunta virus is something that is carried by mouse feeces and when the dried feces is pulverized or even vacuumed up the spores of the virus are released. The hanta virus claimed a dozen or so victims in the south west a few years ago in some native americans.

http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/history.html

[Plymouthy Adams]

who let the dogs out? a quick search would have netted the answer...lol

[Richard Coney]

Squeak, squeak!.......

[Plymouthy Adams]

a caution to one's health is always a word to the wise and good to put in print..we must all strive to be safe in this hobby...often it seems telling the spouse the cost of an item if more hazardous it seem by most reports I read on here

[deathbound]

Thank you. That's very helpful. What about the mish-mash of cotton, threads, scraps of rag etc.? I wondered whether in this car it was just the felted cotton that the generations of mice had industriously chewed up, along with anything else they could find to make their bedding. I presumed that the stuff I found in wads up in the headlining had been transported up the hollow windscreen pillars and deposited there as a nest. I should say that I haven't had the headlining out. It's only what could be seen and felt on the front edge when I opened it up to access the two vacuum wiper motors.

The attached picture (if you can see the details in such a small photo), also shows the springs that hold the structure together.

Richard

I think this is for insulation purposes. Whether it was stock or not, I don't know....my headliner has the same stuff behind it also. Found out when a p.o. of my car have used black tape to cover a few holes in the black headliner & my son started to peel it off.....got rained on by that semi-loose insulation.

[Joe Flanagan]

It's probably a good idea to wear a mask or a respirator when working around rodent droppings. I know of archaeologists who worked in the Southwest and got sick from hantavirus. And these were ancient mouse turds.