Interior: how many yds of vinyl for Lark seats?

[voxnut]

Howdy!

The original interior on my '61 Lark regal wagon is starting to suffer from dry rot at the seams, so I'm looking at having the seats recovered. I want to buy the correct vinyl from SMS myself (bought samples, looks perfect) and then shop a couple local upholstery shops to do the labor. I know the logical thing would be to go to an upholstery shop and just have them estimate it out, but I don't want to string anyone along, and I want to see if I can get a better price if I have the material in hand. I may have to resort to consulting a shop, but thought I'd ask here first, just in case. So I was just curious to know if anyone has recently done their seats and remembers how much vinyl and piping they used to do the job. I've got the split bench in the front.

Thanks!
Dean

[rockne10]

I want to see if I can get a better price if I have the material in hand.

I've often found that some repair shops are more than willing to have us procure our own parts, inasmuch as we are familiar with the many Studebaker resources available, which they may not know.
I suspect an upholstery shop may be well aware of SMS and the products available. In this case it may be akin to bringing your own bacon and eggs to a breakfast restaurant and asking them to cook them for you.
It's probably best to first choose an upholstery shop based on the quality of their reputation; then ask them if they would prefer you procure your U.S. Royal Naugahyde. But don't expect any warranties on their work done with products you provide.
Just my opinion. Others' experience may vary.

[TWChamp]

I asked a local upholstery lady how many yards it would take to do my 1950 Champion 2 door sedan, and she said I should buy 7 yards.

[Hallabutt]

About eight years ago I did exactly as you are considering. I had recently rescued my all original 1960 wagon had, from a 39 year sleep in a north Seattle garage. The only damage to the upholstery was the ware on the driver's portion, of the split bench seat. I drove the car to Canby Oregon, and gave them a sample of the damaged, embossed section. In about a month I got an exact match, both color and embossing, to the original. I was able to just replace the damaged seat portion, keeping the rest of the non embossed, and the existing embossed original interior intact. The match is so perfect that nobody has been able to detect that the repair was done. By the way, my interior is tan, what color is yours, does it sound the same as mine?

The gentleman that I showed the car to at SMS said that it would take about three yards to do all the embossed vinyl portion. I only replaced the the one seat cushion, but I got enough for the remainder. In another fifty years someone might want to replace the rest. I didn't replace the non embossed part, and didn't ask, but I would guess about two yards for the non-embossed surrounds.

[voxnut]

Thanks for the replies! My interior is taupe on the lower half, with a silver band on the upper part of the back portion, with silver metallic piping.