VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Roof Fabric

We need to have the soft center of our '33 five-window Eagle coupe reskinned.

I've seen the material that the upholsterer pulled out. It looks like what I've seen on other's cars.

It looks like Hampton Coach's T-51 or T-63, but I don't like it. There are other samples listed with H.C. that I like better, such as T-5 or PH-29A.

Can anyone tell me what our legit choices are? If T-51 or 63 is what it is supposed to have, what direction does that grain run?

If your local trim shop showed you material it may be for the vinyl roofs on late model cars. This looks great but it stretches. At speed the pressure will build up inside the cabin and the roof looks like its pregnant.

LOL. That's a picture! I wonder what she'd give birth to??


The shop that showed us the fabric was looking at the car at the time, and does all the upholstery/fabric work for Ken's Klassics. They claim to do 100-point work. I've seen their work, both inside and out. Looks perfect to me (Certainly costs like perfection). I just don't know that I've ever seen anything that was officially 100 points.

What would you suggest, Gene?

I removed (what I believe to be) the original fabric from the roof of my '35 Standard coupe in 1975. It was a pretty smooth material with little or no grain. I didn't know where to get this material at the time so I replaced with the long grained fabric which was readily available. I plan to replace it sometime but it hasn't even approached the top of my list in 33 years.

Mike