Factory leather interior? Or is it vinyl?

Big_B

New Member
Oct 22, 2003
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Sacramento
I have always assumed that the interiors in our classics were always vinyl (like my 68), and it bugs me everytime I read a classified or something and it says "leather seats", when I know they are vinyl.

But today I am looking at Barrett Jackson and reading about this Shelby that sold for $192,500 (eeek!), and it says "leather interior." Have I been mistaken all this time? Did the Shelbys really have leather? I would seem to think BJ wouldn't post false information in the description of a car.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=99
 
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knitted leather... those were some crafty cattle! seriously, though, barrett-jackson has a disclaimer that says they only go by what the seller tells them, even though they provide the vin number for the vehicle. case in point: tonight the sold a 63 vette that was supposidly a one owner car...funny thing is, the car had a white california plate. correct my if im wrong, but a 63 model car should have a black license plate, right?
 
Definitely Vinyl in the mustang....

But I'm not seeing your correlation with license plates. If a vehicle sits in a garage for a long time without being registered the license plate can become useless and it would be necessary to reapply for a new tag.

At least that's how it is over in the mid-atlantic diamond state.
 
Definitely Vinyl in the mustang....

But I'm not seeing your correlation with license plates. If a vehicle sits in a garage for a long time without being registered the license plate can become useless and it would be necessary to reapply for a new tag.

At least that's how it is over in the mid-atlantic diamond state.


or the owner could have moved from another state sometime in the last 45 years too.
 
Rising this thread from the dead.

I saw a craigslist mustang which actually had leather upholstery in it. There's a huge difference in appearance between vinyl and leather, this was leather. Any who, the question is, where do you get the leather upholstery for the classics? I think that it looks awesome, but not willing to fork out $1000's for custom work.

Any ideas where you can get it?

like this upholstery
 
i believe that distinctive industries can custom make any of the original style seat covers in leather but it's pretty expensive.

as was said earlier there was only one early mustang thaty cam from the factory with leather upholstery and that was Henry Ford II's personal car, it also had a leather top instead of vinyl but it's the only one.

maybe the car you saw had the leather interior from a cougar transplanted but even the cougar's don't have repro leather upholstery available at the moment. so you're only choice is to have it custom made, either by distinctive or maybe TMI, or a local upholstery shop.
 
Bnickel, the link is there, I haven't been in a cougar since I sold my 68 GT XR-7, and that was nearly 16 years ago so I'm not really sure what they look like. The seats in the car in the link look like they are specific to the 65-66 Mustang. I'll check the company that you specified though, thanks for that idea.
 
Bnickel, the link is there, I haven't been in a cougar since I sold my 68 GT XR-7, and that was nearly 16 years ago so I'm not really sure what they look like. The seats in the car in the link look like they are specific to the 65-66 Mustang. I'll check the company that you specified though, thanks for that idea.


that is not a factory leather interior. it's a factory style interior recreated in leather by someone. probably done at an upholstery shop. good luck
 
It all depends on which vehicle you're talking about and its age. There were leather interiors available in some older Cougars (by order); but, while I've read spec sheets that say the big (71-73 big) XR-7 Cougars had "(color) leather interior" - the '73 in my carport has pretty well worn and cracked vinyl.

Yeah, you can get real leather that fits made up, but grab your wallet! One place I looked up; offered coverage for both front buckets for about a grand. the back seat was $500-plus more.

I'm thinking I'm gonna do vinyl; or better yet, some kind of cloth.........
 
It all depends on which vehicle you're talking about and its age. There were leather interiors available in some older Cougars (by order); but, while I've read spec sheets that say the big (71-73 big) XR-7 Cougars had "(color) leather interior" - the '73 in my carport has pretty well worn and cracked vinyl.

Yeah, you can get real leather that fits made up, but grab your wallet! One place I looked up; offered coverage for both front buckets for about a grand. the back seat was $500-plus more.

I'm thinking I'm gonna do vinyl; or better yet, some kind of cloth.........

SD, AFAIK, all XR-7 cougars from 67-up were available with leather interior but it wasn't standard equipment on all of them, i know for sure from 67-70 it was standard on all XR-7's but from 71-up i believe it was standard but it may have been optional. also, it's quite possible that your cat isn't a true XR-7 but was converted at some point or someone simply swapped out the oldworn out cracked leather seats for a better set of non XR-7 seats
 
Pretty sure it was an XR-7; but I guess it'll have to wait until after I give it up for a Marti.
Or, hang on a minute........

Or longer.....

Okay, I finally found the VIN decoder on ccoa.org (they've moved it and not updated the link on the front page). And yes, digits 3,4, & 5 on the VIN (which on mine are "93H") indicate an XR7 hardtop. I kinda thought so; else Royce would have straightened NoKitten out loooooong before the car was mine! :p

But still, the upholstery is vinyl. Cracked vinyl......
Oh well, First: Finishing the engine and rebuilding the front suspension.
Second: Replacing the inner fender panels up front before the rust gets too bad (DSO 51 car).
Third Same as Second, but on the rear quarters/wheelhouses/trunk drop-off's
Fourth Dig into the interior; maybe including some nice, supple, tanned ("ginger-ed" ?) cowhide.

Somewhere between or around items 2 & 4 will be "Get a truck for my daughter Jessie to drive, so I can reclaim my $1481 rusty Cat". And part of item 4 - specifically a new rim-blow horn switch - is gonna happen before it becomes Jessie's DD :D

EDIT: Without going into a fuul-fledged Official Stangnet Threadjack; do you know the embossing on the 71-73 XR upholstery? I just wnet out and pulled the seatcovers off the front seats; no XR-7 logos, just the prowling Cat inside the Ford "crown".

Or better yet, may be I should go over to MC.net and ask yet another stupid question. I think they're getting used to my inane posts by now :lol: