I am thinking spring already, and one of my project next year will be the interior upholstery.. I am working on a 1947 Cadillac convertible and plan to have the car judged. The original trim code was 56B which is red leather and tan bedford cord. Along with that comes a few questions and hopes that I can get a little help.
1. Is all bedford cord tan in color?
2. Who handles the most accurate shade of tan bedford cord?
3. If I was to decide to use all leather interior would I lose judging points?
When I purchased the car the interior was missing so I don’t have anything to reference the design of the interior to. So I am asking if anyone would have pictures of any areas of the interior and would share them with me, I would enjoy looking at them. One of the areas would be the boot for the top and how it is connected to the seat back. I still have not located the shrouds that hides the top cylinders next to the seat back. If someone would have a damaged one ( from either side) that could be used for a copy I would like to hear from you.
Gary B.
Bill Hirsch for your upholstery. There are many shades and types of Bedford Cord.
http://www.hirschauto.com/Upholstery-Fabrics/departments/74/
Hi Gary: Below are some pictures which show the Bedford cord and leather used in the 47. The first picture is a factory picture and will show you how the seats and seat backs were done in leather. Now the only other leather used on the front seats were the robe rails on the backs of the front seats which are leather and then leather at the corner bottom on both sides of the front seat to protect the seat from scuff from shoes getting in and out of the car. This is often forgotten when putting in new leather and Bedford cord seats. The other place leather was used was the top of the armrests on the front doors. The next two pictures might be small pictures but they show some more detail on the use of leather on the back seat.
I elected to do my 47 in all leather which is incorrect for 47. You will find that Bedford cord on the doors and back of the front seat is tough to keep clean especially if you tour rather than show. If you want I can post pictures of my 47 in all leather. Bill
Can't speak for sure on 47 but in 40 there was an option of red leather with tan Bedford cord or all leather. Most of the interior of my car was trash but there were some remnants of the red leather. Red leather in 1940 Cadillac talk was not bright red. It was maroon. I got a coupe front seat from a hot rod project to fix the severe rust in the convertible front seat. The seat structure is identical to the convertible. It happened to be all original tan Bedford cord. The tan Bedford cord that LeBaron-Bonney was selling at the time (2013) was a dead on match both color and texture. Other colors were not the same texture. I have no knowledge if the current dye lot they are selling looks the same. Years ago on a rainy day at Hershey L-B said if they could just order 10 times as much material as they do the mill would make exact duplicates but in this case the tan Bedford cord was an exact duplicate. I did do the car in leather and Bedford cord and we find the seat very comfortable after 7000 miles.
Gary: Two more pictures of top down and cover in place. Bill
I was surprised to discover the original Bedford cord under the leather of my '47 convertible when I had the leather pleats restuffed. The leather trimmer cut the hard binding around the edges off when the leather was installed. Also, I then realized why the sunvisors were brown, when the rest of the interior was red leather. By leaving the original trim under the leather, the seats are very firm and supportive.