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Wed Jan 20, 2010 5:34 pm

As I mentioned in another one of my posts, I am looking for original-style wool interior for my 50 standard split.

All that seems to be available is cordbraun, and I need the same texture/pattern, but in grey as seen in an original VW paint/interior material book on the Samba at:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/50splitcolors/splitcolors-1c.jpg

Unfortunately I do not have this book, so I don't have a real cloth sample in hand, but maybe someone can repro?

Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:27 pm

I will need this cloth for my '51 std as well. I do have some pieces of the original cloth, in some places where it was tucked under and never saw the sun, so it would be pretty original in color. I thought someone in Europe had made a run of this before.......?

Thu Jan 21, 2010 4:55 am

Try http://www.himmelservice.de/english/start.htm

Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:57 am

Himmelservice does not offer it, nor does Lenny or WW.

There is a source for 47-49 interior material on the Samba http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=569236 but this is different than 50-51 standard material.

Not sure if Ricardo is still on this forum, but I know that he was offering to repro seat material as long as we could find an original piece. Sounds like you have one John...unfortunately, I do not. I have been horribly tempted to purchase the tan version of the same material (for export cars) and dyeing it the correct color, but that just seems WAY too risky.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 6:00 am

Question, John:

The material you have an 'untouched' piece of - is that the same pattern as the cordbraun that you show in your Zarwerks shop cam thread? That is what I believe it should be...just in grey, with no piping, of course.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 7:45 am

50Splitman wrote: Question, John:

The material you have an 'untouched' piece of - is that the same pattern as the cordbraun that you show in your Zarwerks shop cam thread? That is what I believe it should be...just in grey, with no piping, of course.

Now, it is not a striped fabric. I don't think. It is grey, might be a fine herring bone. I'll post a pic here later...

Thu Jan 21, 2010 7:58 am

The original material from my 51 standard had no stripes.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:13 am

I don't mean there was stripes...sorry for the confusion. There are just raised 'ribs' like the picture that I sent the link to in my first post in this thread. I looks like cordbraun, but in grey. Does that make sense? I guess we'll see what John posts to the thread, too.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:23 am

Sorry about that. The picture in the link is what mine looked like only mine was a tan color.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:23 am

50Splitman wrote: I don't mean there was stripes...sorry for the confusion. There are just raised 'ribs' like the picture that I sent the link to in my first post in this thread. I looks like cordbraun, but in grey. Does that make sense? I guess we'll see what John posts to the thread, too.

Yeah, that makes sense and that is exactly the fabric that I have. In fact I have an entire rear seat cover of that. Seeing the picture I remembered I took a picture of mine and compared it to that. I'll post a pic tonight.

I would really like to find a source too. Perhaps we can have a mill do a run of it if enough people would buy it. I think I heard about a 100m minimum from one fabric maker and that a Beetle will need 7 yds. So 14-15 buyers would be needed.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:42 am

50Splitman wrote: Question, John:

The material you have an 'untouched' piece of - is that the same pattern as the cordbraun that you show in your Zarwerks shop cam thread? That is what I believe it should be...just in grey, with no piping, of course.
Hi,
i am interesting in a sample of that fabric.
I had produced that 47 - 49 zig zag pattern.
That cord from Himmelservice is for the trash, the brown comes in green, he told me that it is corect but i have untoched examples in brown but not grey.
I have to order 50 meters to start the production, it goes like 3-4 month.
Marcus

Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:55 am

beetlekey wrote: 50Splitman wrote: Question, John:

The material you have an 'untouched' piece of - is that the same pattern as the cordbraun that you show in your Zarwerks shop cam thread? That is what I believe it should be...just in grey, with no piping, of course.
Hi,
i am interesting in a sample of that fabric.
I had produced that 47 - 49 zig zag pattern.
That cord from Himmelservice is for the trash, the brown comes in green, he told me that it is corect but i have untoched examples in brown but not grey.
I have to order 50 meters to start the production, it goes like 3-4 month.
Marcus

Good to know, so that is only 7-8 splits worth. Do you know what the cost would be? I would consider buying several splits worth if there was not enough interest. I know Jim Bremer is looking for it too.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:56 am

Great to hear I'm not crazy and we have a match! So we have two parties interested so far :-) Now we need a repro source....

I have purchased stuff from Split Parts Unlimited (Ricardo in Argentina) before and had a good experience, but what do you think? His current split interior looks nice, offers to repro "any part under special request or any quantities". Not sure if Himmelservice could do this also...or does Lenny make his own stuff on-site, or does he obtain it from Himmelservice?

He has an ad here for the Split Parts Unlimited repro interior they currently offer:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=735682

Thoughts?

Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:01 am

50Splitman wrote: Great to hear I'm not crazy and we have a match! So we have two parties interested so far :-) Now we need a repro source....

I have purchased stuff from Split Parts Unlimited (Ricardo in Argentina) before and had a good experience, but what do you think? His current split interior looks nice, offers to repro "any part under special request or any quantities". Not sure if Himmelservice could do this also...or does Lenny make his own stuff on-site, or does he obtain it from Himmelservice?

He has an ad here for the Split Parts Unlimited repro interior they currently offer:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=735682

Thoughts?

I have ordered things from Ricardo also and have always had good experiences with his products. And I think he has a local source down there that can run fabric, and made his. Perhaps we should see if he can get a quote also....

Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:10 am

Sounds great John...I'm game

Since you have good original material to copy, do you want to take the honors of asking him?

I'm in for a complete standard interior, including headliner, seat covers (and back seat luggage board) and carpet. Of course, our B pillars and around the rear quarter and split windows are bare, so install should be MUCH easier!!

Believe it or not, I have all of the original floor mats, including the front tunnel mat, in very usable condition.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:41 am

Yeah, I have all my mats too, that is good. Was the headliner beige? I think the one I took out of my std was, I saved it. Was not gray.

I'll touch base with Ricardo on that, and also send Marcus a sample so he can get a quote.

I have the rear luggage board for my std too and was looking to maybe reproduce that. It is just a hard tar/fiberboard, bit is press crimped in a few places.

Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:50 am

Yes, what's left of my headliner looks beige. Although brown now, it shows no sign in the threads of ever being grey.

I actually screwed this up when ordering my zwitter deluxe interior from Lenny and thought the headliner was grey (I told him to make it grey like the vinyl at the bottom of the door panels)...now I'm going to have to manually re-stitch a beige one for that car. I can get the headliner separately, but a major PITA to change out, even though I haven't installed it yet - not to mention the money I wasted.

Sounds great re: the fiber-boardd repro, too!

I'll anxiously await what you find out...

Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:55 am

Have you guys tried www.lebaronbonney.com ? When I restored my former '52 std, I used their wool broadcloth (part #15-76-4) which cost about $40/yd a few years ago.

Check some of their samples at www.lebaronbonney.com/fabrics.htm

Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:02 am

RareAir wrote: Have you guys tried www.lebaronbonney.com ? When I restored my former '52 std, I used their wool broadcloth (part #15-76-4) which cost about $40/yd a few years ago.

Check some of their samples at www.lebaronbonney.com/fabrics.htm

I had looked them up a while ago for something, but not for the hunt on this fabric. I should check them out though as they are only about 40 mins drive from where I work. I could easily bring (or mail) them a sample ... I'll post back if I get any thing from them...

Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:34 am

Although they seem to offer Bedford Cords (which is actually what my original '54 interior uses), none seem to be a good match.

What I can't tell from the company's website is if they will actually reproduce interior fabric for a customer?