810 trunk interior

Hi John McCall and Jack Richards.
Yes, I have been very fortunate with the amount of original material my Cord contained plus the help of many fine members of our club some of whom are no longer with us to restore my Cord. Rick Hulett shared with me a wealth of information on original Cords that he photographed over many years. I have everything he sent me stored in emails. It is there for others to use too. I suppose we do need somebody to collate it all. I am open to suggestions.

I would like to express full support for the sentiments of John McCall sent to Terry Cockerell today. Why do we have to have some committee or other bureaucratic process before the ACD Club officers and directors can move to preserve this and other valuable materials and knowledge about our machines? We elect these representatives to lead and act , not to form some committee or write some article in the Newsletter to "garner support" for what should be , as John McCall says , a no-brainer. Comments anyone??

Terry'
You are very lucky to have a car that hasn't been messed with. There are very few out there with as much original material as you have. Most people would have had to go to Rick to get as much info as was still in your car.
At the Auburn reunion this year I talked with one of our directors about what the club might be doing to start gathering up any information such as Rick had in his many original pics of details of the interior and trunk trim that is invaluable when trying to restore a Cord. The reply was to the effect that I should compose an article to send to the editor of the Newsletter on this subject to garner support for club moving in this direction.
This was a disappointing answer for me. It seems like a no-brainer that this info needs to be preserved for the good of the club and the members, to more easily allow the members to restore and preserve their cars, I believe the Directors and elected officers need to take the initiative now before Ricks and others files are lost.

Hi John, yes I had been in contact with Rick Hulett unfortunately he missed out on seeing the finished job. He was the inspiration to do a good job.
There were some remnants of the original striped lining in the compartment under the front seat, behind the back seat and in the trunk lid. Both have the wider spacing. I have not taken a picture of the panel behind the rear seat but it does have the sam pattern.
Rather than have a long narrow strip of the striped material just under the jack shaft I made it wider and slid one side under the bottom metal cover of the trunk opening. I think the sample I have originated from Rick but it was sent to me by Tom Georgeson a long time ago. My Cord is an early production unit with Serial No 810 1586 A which probably accounts for the different pattern. My car had never been restored so I don't think the striped material had been changed.

Terry,
Rick Hulett has been the recognized interior expert for many years. The sample you show looks like one I got from him earlier this year. Did you also get carpet and striped material patterns from him?
I recently installed one of his trunk kits in my phaeton. The stripped material is a burlap adhered to a jute backing about 1/4 - 3/8 inch thick. This material was only attached to the side walls, back of the rear seat, and inside of the trunk lid which was also trimmed with the interior leather. A beige carpet covers the trunk floor on the left side of the spare and a separate piece also is on top of the shelf over the spare tire and draped over the rear of the spare down to 2 snaps just inside the trunk lid. There is no stripped material attached to the trunk floor.
I believe Rick indicated that all the trunk carpet material, except for the the cabs, was the beige material.
He did not mention differences in stripe width with manufacture date in my emails and phone conversations with him.

the cloth with the "marker" is genius! it looks great!!

It's the focal point of the whole restoration!
Recently I took the rolling body to a car show in Sydney where it generated quite a lot of interest. Most people here in Australia have never seen a Cord let along up close and inside the trunk.

Beautiful trunk !

Bill the material is no longer made. There is a solution. I had a sample of the correct material to work from that was supplied by Tom Georgeson. I found a base material with the same weave pattern then experimented painting it to get the correct colour. Then the job of drawing black lines at 45 degrees and uniformly spaced on each panel began. I used a marker pen for this in-conjunction with a mechanical drafting board. Eventually the panels were glued to thin carpet to stiffen them up before the panels were cut to match cardboard templates. It took quite a few weeks to complete the job.
I found that early production Cords had a wider spacing pattern for the lines compared to later production cars.
Thank God mine was an early production car which made drawing the lines more manageable.
The carpets were made by others to templates I made.
I can send you some material samples to get started if you like.

Happy autumn
Driving season is wrapping up in a month or so here in Raleigh and I'm thinking about what projects I will be doing this winter. I have been eyeing my trunk which is upholstered fluffy residential carpet. I understand that some sort of duck, canvas or ? was originally used but I've not had the opportunity to peek other folks trunks so I don't really know what is correct. And where would be able to purchase the stuff? Any help will be appreciated.