Parchment Interior options

My interior, like most of my car, is in need of help. While I ignore more pressing needs (oh, the dead starter, perhaps, the rust, the front end rebuild…), I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to refresh the interior. I’d like to stay with the parchment color, but it seems my seat options are limited to stock. My rear quarter panels have speaker holes in them, and the plastic is pretty much destroyed, so I’m unsure of my options there. Kick panels are cracked. Overall, not a bad candidate for a color change, considering what needs replacement, but I like the current color!

Once again, I’m not going for a concours restoration, just a comfy driver. It seems if you don’t want black, you’re kind of SOL. For reference, here’s my starting point:

Following.

I might be an oddball but parchment, saddle and burgundy are my favorite interior colors. Everyone has black but I like being different. My GT has parchment, my xr7 GT has saddle and my other XR 7 has burgundy. Coupled with the right exterior those colors can compliment each other. Black is…well…just black.

Black isn’t a good interior color for the desert.

I definitely want to stay with parchment. I’m just having a hard time figuring out seat options a replacement panel options to stay parchment. The dash paint, door cards, and head liner are in good enough shape for me.

You can get custom parchment made for any seats that you want. It’s just a matter of money. As far as panels you can dye another set to match. After market options are limited for our Cats.

For the rear panels, you’re probably best off finding good originals so they’ll match your door panels pretty closely (only variable is different fade rates over the years in different cars). We (WCCC) have a pretty nice passenger side panel in stock here (pics are of the actual panel, I just took them).

For the kick panels, replacements are available in parchment (link). These are the plain flat version as found in Mustangs, without the speakers perforations that all Cougars came with. Close enough if you don’t plan on putting speakers behind them. There are also several versions with speaker pods that stick out, which you’d probably have to paint. I had some for a while but find them kinda ugly, my plan for whenever I finally put my car back together is to put speakers behind the panels (you can use these reproduction enclosures) and somehow re-create the factory style perforations in the flat kick panels.
Actually if you want my parchment kick panels with speaker pods, let me know, I won’t need them anymore. They’re actually the right color, not painted.

We carry a good flexible paint for vinyl & plastic which is a pretty good match, SEM Phantom White.

The seat upholstery is the tricky part. We’ve had some issues getting a good match from the manufacturer of our seat covers. The thing is, not every Parchment interior is the same. What I ran into is - I have a '68 Standard, and my Parchment interior was a plain, solid color. Whereas your '67 Standard Parchment interior (which became Decor in '68) probably has a “mottled” look to it, yes? Like when you look closely there should be a faint pattern in the vinyl (not talking about texture). In my case, the new seat covers I got came with the “mottled” version of Parchment, which wasn’t right for my car. After going back and forth for a while, I ended up exchanging them for a new set made with a solid white vinyl that’s a bit whiter than factory, but matches the repro headliner well. I got some extra material to re-cover the rear interior panels with, and found a different SEM white paint that I’ll try to redo my door panels with. Blugh.
That said, the repro Parchment may be a better match for you than it was for me since you actually want the “mottled” pattern. It still won’t be a perfect match, but that’s all that’s available right now. Also I see that you have Comfortweave - note that the original material is perforated and awesome, whereas the repro is not (they just took a mold of original stuff, so it’s kinda “imitation” comfortweave). I don’t see a listing on our site for the comfortweave version but I’m pretty sure we could get it made. Here’s the regular vinyl complete upholstery set for 67 std in parchment: link

Looks like you need a dash pad too - these new repros are very nice.

Here are a couple shots of what I was describing earlier on what I went though. Here’s the first kit I received with the “mottled” pattern:


And here’s my original seat, just a plain solid color, and actually a little darker:

So anyway, like I said, maybe the mottled look will match yours a little better than it did mine. Hope that helps!

Thanks, that does help. I’ve had that dash pad bookmarked for a while, as well. My vinyl definitely has the faint pattern too it, and the Comfortweave is pretty cool, but definitely not a deal breaker, as I’m sure reproducing it would be costly.

That’s a good looking rear panel, too. I could kick the previous owner for cutting holes in mine for speakers and shattering that brittle plastic. I have a couple of spares, in a couple of different colors, that I had debated trying to use for a mold. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t any reports with how fragile this aged plastic is! I hadn’t even thought of trying to source extra material based on whatever I end up with for the seats, and recovering the spares. That’s an option, too.

I would potentially be interested in the kick panels, I’d have to see what they look like. Both of mine are cracked right at the front/bottom.

Strangely, my wife doesn’t mind riding in the Cougar, ripped seats and all. I’m really hoping to at least get the seats taken care of before o spring, just for a little more comfort while she allows me to play around with my project.

Thanks again for the info! I’m looking forward to sending large sums of money your way in the near future! Haha.

The original white comfort weave with the holes is available at SMS. $179 a yard.

I like the parchment, stick with it, IMO.

With that said, I recommend a RCCI G1S tach to go in that big, gaping, clock hole!

http://www.rccinnovations.com/index.php?show=menu-tach-all

Cool! I’ll check that out. Thanks!

I definitely want to stay with the parchment. Heck, with my original color scheme, my car is 1 of 116! (Ha…in no means do I actually care about 100% originality, just a neat fact) That is in the plans! There was a cheapie dime storage special tach that was in there that just fell out of the hole one day while I was driving. Fun times! All sorts of things to deal with on the car, but that’s part of the fun.

Back in '98 I bought a '67 standard from the original owner. The front seats had been reupholstered in a near (but not near enough!) matching vinyl. Wrote to SMS, got the original stuff and had seat covers remade/installed. Perfect match and at the time, it wasn’t that much more than reproduction covers made of the incorrect material. One thing…I reused the knitted vinyl inserts for the seat backs. They looked GREAT!

I recently did a 68 for a customer. Here are some pics


Here 's a pic of the door panels before & after

Wow, Bill, that looks awesome. Seeing nice Parchment pictures gets me itching a little more to make sure this is a priority next year.

Nice! Did you redo the mylar? If so, how? Guessing the “after” is on the left.

Thanks for the recommendation. I received the fabric samples from them today and they look fantastic. I was priced at $159/yd for the Comfort Weave, and $65/yd for the standard vinyl. I had been debating aftermarket seats, but I’m leaning towards a more stock interior look. If I need something more supportive for a longer drive, I may just buy some Procars or something along those lines, and just swap out seats when needed. Something I’ve had to do with street/track cars before, so it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Now I need to find someone to make me the full seat covers!

The Mylar was in good shape. And I guess I should have put after & before or reversed the pic!!

Just a note here. Prep is very important. I use Laq thinner & nylon brushes. The alcohol based products are weak & don’t seem to work very well. Bulldog primer is a required product IMHO.
This resto is not exactly correct, but the cost was for this customer!!! I always work with them to try and meet the 2 criteria- The desire/demand of the customer & their budget, not always “correctness”!

Hello Cougar Bill,
I wish I lived closer to Colorado so you could take a look at my 68 bench seat. It has some seam splits that I understand can’t be stitched together and it needs some bolstering - both are most likely original to the car. Are there any special concerns if I want a look as close as possible to the original? I’m not familiar with the names like Decor but perhaps the attached pictures are detailed enough.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regards,
Brad


Nice looking Cat!!
I have always like the clean look of the parchment/white interiors. My old BossCat has a white interior. By the looks of the interior you have it is showing the signs of years of sun fading. I believe the interior panels would have been very close to the same shade. That bench seat is way cool too! I just bought a bench seat kit from Don for a new shop couch!

Not 100% sure but looks like you have the standard interior, but can’t seem to recall my minds pics of Décor…

Anyway, you could have seat repaired w/ replacement panels, but it will be different shades.

2 options. Buy a full kit or just have front done & redye the back. SEM makes the “dye” and it is easy to do. Just a lot of cleaning( well ventilated area) and patient cleaning & spraying. Get 2-3 cans to ensure dye lot matching.

Good luck & post as you progress… we love pictures here on the community table.

Bill

thinking this IS décor & standard has no weave inserts… Others will tell us for sure