Open car upholstery question

W

wrndln

Well-known member
I have a question about open vehicle seat cushions. Why do the cushions have a "dip" about a third of the way back from the front? Closed car don't have this "dip". Is it somehow to divert water off the cushion. I don't see how that would work very well. I am attaching a picture of an upholstered cushion (not mine).
Rusty Nelson
 

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I don't know if that dip is restricted to open car seats. The purpose is to give the assembler an attachment place in the middle of the seat to hog ring the cover to the seat springs. This gives the cushion cover an anchor point and keeps it nice and tight on the springs. Closed car seats would generally have buttons to use as an anchor point.



Frank
 
I agree with emf. nothing to do with diverting water.


Many cars of the period, dont have that inward pleat. I find it attractive as a style.
 
I upholstered my 28 coupe with a Classtique kit and it had NO dip in the cushion and no buttons. Why the difference between the phaeton and the coupe?
Rusty Nelson
 
The upholstery pattern shown in the photo is for 28-29 open cars. That horizontal seam that's pulled down is to add some surface tension to the upholstery. Otherwise it would be loose and move around if it were just one large unsecured piece of material. From the underside, the seam is tied off to the bottom of the spring frame. Many of the closed cars have upholstery that has buttons that do the same function.
 
Model T cars were tufted with the buttons since it was a popular thing in that era. It was less popular in the model A era but the higher end cars did use tufting to pull the cushion cover surface down across a line. Some model As in some years had a seam across the width that may be french felled or may be piped whether using faux leather or cloth materials and had the puckers around the front corners where the cushion top cover met the front side or apron if you will.

The one in the photo appears to have a listing in that piped seam across the bottom cushion that is being held down tighter to the seat spring box. Perhaps it's held with a wire or small diameter rod. This generally requires a seam in the underlying padding there to allow the cover to be drawn down further or the padding could be thinned there. It gives the appearance of a pleat there. This is common in the modern era but it wasn't as common back then. Pleats with padding were the norm but most pleats were sewn from front to rear or top to bottom. They pad the pleats to make them stand up better.
 
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