What material for replacing front seat upholstery tack strip?

[askovronek]

All-

I am working on my '31 S/W and the front seat has a tack strip contained in a metal channel at the top of it for tacking in place both the front backrest and the fabric which covers the back of the seat. The current condition of the tack strip in my S/W is such that I can't even identify what material it was originally made from. I'm assuming it was wood. There's quite a curve that needs to be followed, and the wood would have needed to be slide into the metal channel before it was bent and bolted to the seat.

Anyone have a recommendation on how and what to replace this with? I haven't seen it for sale on any of the usual sites.

Thanks!

...Alex
'31 S/W Town Sedan

 

[asapguy]

I can't speak for a 31 fordor but my early 29 Briggs had a bent 1/2 round hard wood piece that fit the seat to cover the tacks. It was made in three individual pieces. I was lucky to be able to re-use the orig. which I had to recover with the material supplied by L-B. They also supply a wire-on type fabric molding which is not correct but works. The problem with the wire on type is that it tends to open up when accessing the seat. The origs. on mine were steam bent to fit the contour of the seat & had half round metal clips that were also covered with fabric to fit over the joints. Would it be possible to make a half round molding out of something like a small diam. heater hose & cover it to be more orig??