I’ve recently bought a 1970 XR7 hardtop and one of the major needs is replacing the upholstery. It is the black and white houndstooth cloth with black vinyl. Ken’s Cougars has it listed on their site but I find that their source for the cloth has run out. They informed me that there is a similar (but noticeable different) Chevy houndstooth. Anyone know where I can find the cloth or someone to supply the upholstery (front and back). 1970 Cougars are not entirely new to me my first new car was a standard model. I had it for 13 years and about a 140,000 miles.
I’d appreciate any help. Otherwise it’s either Chevy houndstooth I’m getting a sample) or the standard leather.
We have it.
Thanks, I’ll be talking to you. I guess I didn’t look hard enough on your site
Your website shows you are out of stock.
You could also try SMS Auto Fabrics, http://www.smsautofabrics.com. I have ordered from them numerous times (for numerous cars!) over the years, always with good results. Another good sources is Original Auto Interiors, http://originalauto.com.
yes i agree. SMS has just about every type of material that was used for interiors. They are expensive but its quality stuff.
An update on the black and white houndstooth upholstery cloth availability.
Both Original Auto Interiors (originalauto.com) and TMI (tmiproducts.com) have NOS material. I got samples of both and they look to be exact matches. SMS Auto Fabrics (smsautofabrics.com) has a good reproduction.
Identification of the Cougar houndstooth was an issue at one point with a similar but not matching fabric being sent. This did get straightened out promptly, but I would suggest getting a sample prior to ordering material.
Now looking for a source with an upholsterer that has the XR7 houndstooth patterns to make a kit that I can get installed locally. Some of the old sources seem to have lost their older upholsterer resources.
Take a long look at the material from Original Auto Interiors. I just got two samples from them and the pattern is not the same as the original. One the pattern was reversed and the other the white part was too small. The one I got from SMS is the best match so far. If you got something else I would love to see it.
I agree with John. I brought him a sample of my NOS fabric and looked at the samples he had and came to the same conclusion.
However, the reality is that there are only a few people in the world that would be able to spot the difference without samples in their pocket to compare to.
“there are only a few people in the world that would be able to spot the difference without samples in their pocket”
And they both posted! LOL! It is great to have resources like this on the forum!
Thanks for all the good information. I resisted writing a really detailed update but with the new information I guess I need to
give the full detail on the material from Original Auto Interiors. On the phone they indicated that they had matching material and sent me a digital photo of FoMoCo Upholstery fabric samples with the matching houndstooth. It shows the Ford number as 0145 for the black and white houndstooth and matches the exact pattern of the material in my vehicle (the file was too big to attach here). Based on that I ordered material from them, their number 0145-70. It did not match. It was quite similar but the pattern shape was slightly different (it looked more like a W or bat wing pattern) and the pattern size was slightly smaller. On further discussion with them they sent me a sample of their number 9440-69-E. It is a pattern shape match to the Ford sample, my Cougar, and the TMI product sample. See the detail below on pattern size. They promptly sent me the new material and a prepaid return shipping label for the initial material. I see from my notes that TMI had mentioned a 9440 number as well. This is why I recommended always getting a sample.
Pattern sizing.
The table below shows measured pattern size in pattern repetitions per inch (larger numbers = smaller patterns). The first number is in the filler direction (across the roll) and the second in the warp direction (the length of the roll). The directions are based on the Original Auto Interiors material. The others are assumed to be the same (can’t tell from swatches alone). The filler direction has the connected line of houndsteeth (the tooth direction is perpendicular to this). This runs across the upholstered seat back in the Cougar. There is bound to be some variation over time in material manufacture even from the same source and there is certainly a variation due to measuring on small swatches of material (the measurement error is estimated at less than +/- 0.1).
Source Filler Warp
SMS 3.5 2.5 - 2.6
TMI 3.4 - 3.5 3.0 - 3.1
OrigAuto (2nd) 3.5 3.3
70 Cougar 3.6 3.0 - 3.1
I can’t tell anything about the materials of construction (e.g. polyester, nylon, or other) nor how the different materials will hold up. The SMS material does appear just a bit courser and thicker.
Thanks for the info.
Any suggestions on current sources for getting seat cover kits made ?
The extra spaces to form columns in the “table” above got deleted when it posted and with the ranges it’s really hard to read.
I’ve added commas below to separate the three pieces of information.
Source, Filler, Warp
SMS, 3.5, 2.5 - 2.6
TMI, 3.4 - 3.5, 3.0 - 3.1
OrigAuto (2nd), 3.5, 3.3
70 Cougar, 3.6, 3.0 - 3.1
Did the samples from Original and TMI have a thread of sliver on the long sections of the white pattern? I have a 1970 Cougar upholstery book used by the dealer to order cars and you can see a very thin thread of sliver in it.
Do you feel the Original Auto material 9440-69 is the closest match to your seats?
The one thing I liked about SMS was it seemed heavier than the Original Auto material.
I don’t see any silver in any of the samples or in my Cougar.
The three materials are all very very similar.
I agree that the SMS material is heavier than the others but that adds a slightly courser look and feel than the original. Frankly, an on-line search and look at SMS google ratings and BBB complaints was a factor in going elsewhere.
I think the good news is that anyone looking for this material has three viable sources.
I’ve added two more photos
Original Auto Interiors 9440-69-E matched my black and white houndstooth very well. There 014-70 Nylon did not match.
That’s 0145-70 Nylon did not.
I have a roll of original cloth b/w
Sourced from SMS back in the early 90’s
It definitely has a silver thread
My 70 Eliminator has mint B/W interior
I can spot the chevy and knock off stuff easily!