Grace's front seat

[alanmende]

Well, the stitches were taken out of my hand on May 12th, and even though it's still a bit sore where my carpal tunnel surgery was (and my fingers are still numb), I've gotten back to doing some light work on Grace, our '54 Commander Starliner. Like putting in 6 qts of Castrol Syntec 20W-50 with that good ol' ZDDP and reassembling the front seat backs and putting them in along with the seat bottom. When I finished last night, I just sat there and went "Ahhh."



Note that the passenger side seat back is leaning farther back than the one on the driver's side. Once the Plasti-Dip dries on the seat back adjusting screws, I'll put them in and even things up.

Guess I ought to start thinking about putting the steering wheel back on, hus?

Kindest regards,

Alan Mende
Hummelstown, PA

[52-fan]

That is a really nice looking interior. BTW What is is the Plasti-Dip on the screws for?

1952 Champion Starlight, 1962 Daytona. Searcy,Arkansas

[dictator27]

darn that looks good! I hope my 54 Commander Starliner looks that good when I'm done. (I've only had it for 38 years!) [)] One question, though. It looks like both the pleated and unpleated parts of the door panels the same colour? My car is Sandusky Beige with a Chadron Red roof and tan interior. It is the cheapest Commander Starliner available, with no options whatever, but has a two tone interior. The unpleated parts of the door/rear quarter panels are a very light tan and the pleated sections, seats and arm rests are a medium tan. Anyway, awesome car, Alan.

Terry Godkin
Surrey, British Columbia

[alanmende]

Hello 52-fan: Take a look at http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com...TOPIC_ID=19167 for the explanation of Plasti-Dip on the seat back adjusting screws.

And Terry: Our car was originally Azore Green with a Lance Green top. It had the Amazon Green interior, colors that my wife (and fellow SDC member) pronounced UGLY in the extreme. She chose the Shoshone Red and Sandusky Beige color combination with the light tan (I'd call it flax tan) all-vinyl interior. When I contracted with Phantom Auto Works to make a complete interior kit for us, that's what Rene and Bonita sent us. I have seen other '54s with the light vinyl interior, and their door panels were all the same color. If your panels, seats, and arm rests are original, that's a cool color combination that you should preserve or have reproduced.

I just checked our car's production record that indicates:

Paint 2519 Azure (sic) Lance
Trim 8012 Grn 112

I'm not sure what that trim code means, but I suspect it has something to do with the interior colors. By the way, the original upholstery was a combination of vinyl and fabric.

Kindest regards,

Alan Mende
Hummelstown, PA

[JDP]

BTW my seat cover supplier just got in new machine stitched vinyl that would closer to factory then the heat sealed pleats I've always used for a application like this.

JDP/Maryland

[barnlark]

Alan, I don't have a '54 paint chip chart and know zero about '54 colors, but I see that you put (sic) on the "azure" from the production order and didn't correct the azore. Since azure is a color and azore is a set of islands and I would have guessed that the azure green name would be a bluish green paint originally. Now, I guess an Atlantic volcanic island would be mostly green, but is azore green really the correct title for the color? Studebaker had many incorrect spellings or abbreviated spellings on the production orders and I often wondered why they didn't match the brochures or chip charts.

Beautiful interior job, by the way, and sorry about your surgery and hand. Can't tell that it affects your work ability, I might add! I had to finish my car last summer with cracked ribs and it makes for a much slower effort.

Sweet car.

[alanmende]