Interior: Are these seats worth saving

[Daan]

I finally got the rest of the destroyed interior out of my Hawk. I knew the seats and panels were bad, but upon looking at these I wondered if I should even try to keep them. I have most of another interior safely stored away to use anyway (it’s from a newer Hawk, so none of it was meant as a permanent replacement.) This stuff is SO ruined, I just wonder if I can even use any of it or is it a lost cause to try and save it.

[Daan]

I definitely had a mask on when I pulled this stuff out.

[6hk71400]

If you have a good usable interior from another Hawk, I say use it. You can drive and enjoy your car and keep an eye out for a good correct interior. Unless you are going to show the car, the money you would spend to get a 50 dollar trophy is IMHO not worth the money. Most people that are not on the forum would see the car, make a remark and that also would be a good introduction to join SDC.

All the nitpickers just put earplugs in or let it good in one ear and then out the other. I know you have been working and now are probably itching to drive it I drive the one and still working on the other to get it going. I was lucky with my last car I got in the interior is all original. I have to take great pains to keep it that way.

On the other hand, if you are a perfectionist, and want the car 100% authentic use the other interior to have that one redone. Be prepared to spend up to 10,000 dollars to have someone do it

Bob Miles
Go 'em not show 'em is my motto

[8E45E]

If you have the room for them, definitely keep them, especially if the mice haven't marked their territory on or inside them. After all, they don't make them anymore, and Studebaker seats are the most comfortable in the industry.

Craig

[8E45E]

On the other hand, if you are a perfectionist, and want the car 100% authentic use the other interior to have that one redone. Be prepared to spend up to 10,000 dollars to have someone do it

I've never seen anyone spend that amount on a Studebaker interior. I don't even think a genuine leather interior as used on a GH 400 or a Packard Hawk approaches 10K.

Craig

[wdills]

I don't know the route you are going with your car, but those seats can be recovered and used. The remaining upholstery is obviously not useable. The questions is, what is the condition of the frame and springs. If the frame and springs are good, then rip the rest of the upholstery off, clean them up and have them recovered. My recommendation would be to buy a premade set of covers from one of the Stude vendors and then take the new covers and frames to a local upholstery shop for installation. Let your local guy provide the padding as needed to make the cover look good when installed.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

Before recovering them I would suggest spray painting them with Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer (or something similar). (Don't spray POR-15.) At least, the Rustoleum would greatly slow down the rust. Use protective masking and do it outside.
--Dwight

[Daan]

The back seat bottoms are pretty rusty. The front seat doesn’t seem as bad but it’s still got some rust. I don’t have a lot of room for these, other than back in the car… anybody got a pole shed I can borrow?😁

[Daan]

There’s definitely rust all over these frames. I pulled as much of the rotten upholstery and mouse poop filled padding out. The frames will live in my garage attic until I can afford to get these recovered properly. The pics are of the front seat, the back one is definitely in worse shape.

[wdills]

If you have many spots where it is completely rusted through as shown in the first photo, they may not be worth saving. Any places like that should be repaired to ensure you don't have a sharp point poke a hole in your new seat cover. You just have to evaluate how many spots you have needing repair and compare that to how you are set up to make the repairs and decide from there if they are worth saving. Since you have another set, the easiest solution is obviously to have new upholstery installed on those and scrap these.

[Big Dan]

My advice, simple. Don't get rid of ANYTHING in a restoration until you have a replacement for it that has been completely restored and installed!

[Daan]

I finally got all the seats all UN-upholstered. One of the back seats had a giant burn hole, bigger than a pop can. The springs were all burned, on top of the rust. I’m still not sure I can save these frames, but I stored them anyway. I did find another tag on one of the seat bottoms, I still can’t figure out if it’s a factory thing or from the re-upholstery shop.

[Big Dan]

I finally got all the seats all UN-upholstered. One of the back seats had a giant burn hole, bigger than a pop can. The springs were all burned, on top of the rust.

That's what happens when you are cruising down the highway with all the windows open and you toss a cigarette butt out the front window and it blows back in the back window and lands on the seat. Once the seat catches the ONLY way to put it out is to DROWN it with water. A fire extinguisher (or three or four) will not put it out or keep it from re-igniting.

I saw that happen once to a guy cruising next to me. I pulled over to help and emptied 2 fire extinguishers and a full up "double gulp" on it but couldn't keep it out. The fire truck arrived about 2 minutes later to find the entire car engulfed in flames and had to completely flood it! That's a pretty helpless feeling!

[Buzzard]

Dan,
All good suggestions above. FWIW the dry rot in my '57 Packard was about the same only no rust. I supplied the upholstery kit from SMS and a real good local guy (Arizona) did the install. It came out stunning. I hope yours' turns out as good.
Cheers,
Bill

[mbstude]

Putting new upholstery on rusty seat springs and using them in a car seems like a bad idea.

But you can send them to this place and they’ll use them as patterns to make you some new ones.

https://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/subgrouping.htm?cat=41947