Early Ford Mohair Supplier

95476

95476

Senior Member
Since Lebaron Bonney closed down it has become more difficult to source early Ford interior supplies. I was buying my mohair from LB, then from Jeff Hirsch.
On my last order several months ago Jeff informend me that their mill in England had closed permanently. He said he will no longer be able to supply mohair, english broadcloth, etc.
I was wondering if anyone else has run into this and if they have any alternatives. The Cartouche samples were not even close and I would like to keep thing as close to OEM as possible.
I also was informed by my paint wholesaler this week that Axalta is discontinuing their Centari line of enamel.
 
The Carlysle Group purchased Dupont's paint line and remaned it Axalta.
They are discontinuing Centari and going with some new water based low VOC formulations.
 
Could not find any old upholstery shops around here (West Coast) with enough Mohair scrap to upholster a vehicle. Most of the old upholstery shops AND paint shops closed a long time ago. Not enough business. A long shot would be the Pomona Swap Meet. You never know what you will find.
 
If you are looking for a substitute, my upholstery guy used some materials from an older Ford Taurus. Looks close the original material. Plus it is stain resistant. Remember Chocolate ice cream on original seats? We had a car with that stain for 10 years.
 
slowforty Yeah and I was one of thousands of kids that did it. And as I recall there was
a "touch" of profanity from Dad.
 
If anyone is interested PM me. I used an English Broadcloth in a dark brown color for my 52 F-1 truck, purchased directly from a centuries old woolen mill with very long history of supplying military uniforms going back to the battle of trafalgar. Hainsworth Mills. Of course this wasn’t original to my truck as they used vinyl;but the history and heritage of old fords and period cars , plus the practicality of the material along with it’s natural comfort led me to using it. It has an extremely high rub rating plus it wasn’t expensive- cheaper than wools at aforementioned domestic sources.
 
I decided a few moth holes in the seats were character and didn’t need reupholstering yet, but my wife found Huddersfield Fine Fabrics in England, and got some really nice tweed samples. Not precisely the same patterns as a 40 Ford, but the same genre and real wool tweed.
 
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