Cartouche Upholstery

J

Joe Immler

Well-known member
I had a tear on my '41 Coupe front seat. The interior is LeBaron. They sent me 3 samples of material for a replacement seat cover. None matched. I chose the nearest match, had a cover made. When it arrived the color was WAY off. Almost a green/brown.
So, I contacted Cartouche . They sent a sample book and their fabric is a very close match. Which all leads up to this: I spoke to 2 women on the phone and my upholstery shop guy spoke to another person. They all say that they will not make a seat cover. I must buy an entire interior kit. This seems odd as they have the pattern. Why not make a cover? A few questions:
1: Has anybody had Cartouche make just a seat cover or other upholstery part?
2: Other suggestions? Any particular supervisor I can call?
 
Mismatch is one of the reasons they would likely balk about just making a single cover. The soft wool broadcloth materials used in the old Fords start to fade right out of the box. It's very difficult to match a faded paint job let alone a faded fabric

You can also try SMS auto fabrics but I don't know if that have the older types of wool or mohair that might have been used. I think they only go back to around 1940.
 
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rotorwrench Since this is a coupe an entire seat cover would blend in fairly well if the fabric color was close to what I have. As I said, the LB samples were way off. They didn't come close to matching the samples I had originally and they have been closed up in the booklet and out of any light. Thanks, though. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
 
Dave is definitely the man! Help me with side curtain
hardware months after the order was received!!!
 
There samples may have been setting on the shelf for a long time. I think I still have some from over 30 years ago. LB likely purchases the fabrics on a large roll rather than by the yard and they may go through a roll relatively quick if business gets brisk. Their suppliers may have changed too. Some of these fabrics may be getting more difficult to source as time goes by. There used to be a lot of large textile manufacturing companies in the US but many are going the way of Berkshire Hathaway and Textron and diversifying into other industries with most of the textile products now coming from offshore sources.

I do my own trim work so I have more flexibility than most but I have noticed some changes over the last 10-years or so. LB is not the same company it was 30 years ago but they are a major player in the antique auto upholstery business. I would love to have the computer controlled machines that they have but that's never going to happen.
 
Previously I contacted Cartouche about some door panels and a headliner. Same answer, they would only sell me a complete kit. So I went to LB for what I needed. Cartouche probably has a policy to only supply a complete kit, so that all the material matches. It eliminates a lot of hassles over things not matching. As we all know there are those that might order something , be told it may not be the same as what they are replacing, and then scream bloody murder because it doesn't match or fit. Those same people then go on the internet and bad mouth the supplier without telling the whole story. It's a no win for the supplier.
 
Just to add some extra thoughts.
I did a 53 chevy (sorry guys) a few years ago.
I wanted some original material.
I asked Lebaron Bonney for samples - not even close.
Someone suggested Originalautointeriors - they were spot on.
They included their complete interiors price list - quite reasonable.
In fact my upholstery guy said that he couldn't do it for that price.
They are a division of Cars, Inc.
I think Cartouche is part of the Macs group.
I offer this as additional information.
dave-TX
 
The major players have computer machines to cut all the pieces from digitized patterns and that saves a lot of time. Sewing is the only thing that is near impossible to automate for so many different designs but a person that is good with a walking foot machine can sew the stuff up pretty quickly. I had to slow my old Consew 206 down some when I first used it but after you get some experience you can sew 36 inches in a few seconds. A clutch motor machine sews really fast.

Bottom line is saving time saves labor and that's what makes the prices come down. It takes me a fair amount of time to pattern the panels and cut the stuff out. Making up the piping and sewing it all is also time consuming. I try to buy the headliners when I can because they take more time to sew the listings on straight without set up tooling. There is no way I can do that as cheap as the folks that have the stuff all set up to go and do it every day. I only do it when I can't find anyone else that does.

The last time I purchased a few yards from LB, the stuff looked old like it had been cut and set on the shelf for a while. It was still good but I had to clean it before I used it.
 
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Since Tuesday I have left 2 voice mails per day for Dave. No response. So, I called today and asked for a supervisor and explained the situation. It is official--they will NOT make just one piece such as the seat cover I need. I must buy the entire interior. Sure seems like they could make a little more money doing this.
Now trying other ideas.
 
A trick I have seen auto upholsterers do to repair a rip is to take a piece of upholstery of the same pattern and colour from somewhere else in the car that is not seen directly, eg the back of a seat or the front facing panel on a seat squab and sew that in to a point where there is a seam in the seat. The place where the piece has been taken from can be replaced with a "similar matching" material and it is not automatically obvious to the eye.

GB
 
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