I was recently talking to the guy who runs the restoration shop that has worked on my 1935 coupe-roadster about getting new upholstery for my car. The car was re-upholstered in the 1970s with some very 1970s-period vinyl, and I wanted to have the car re-done with the right pattern and the right leather. I also want to repaint the exterior eventually, but for now I wanted to start with the interior upholstery to get rid of the 1970s vinyl.

However, the shop owner suggested that there was an important and difficult set of choices ahead when it came to color choice. His take was that you really needed to pick just the right shade of upholstery and the right shade of exterior paint at the same time, because the two needed to go well together. He also said that getting an exact match to the original color of upholstery or even exterior color was actually pretty hard to do and not particularly important: it's hard to find the exact shades, and no one can really tell the difference today. Plus, very slight differences in shade could make the difference between a terrific paint job and colors that just don't work. So he thought that even if I wanted an original color, the goal should be a great color in the ballpark of the original color rather than the exact original color even if it could be recreated.

So his recommendation to me was to spend some time figuring out the exact colors I wanted from color swatches and the like and to pick the paint and interior color i wanted now, even if I only wanted to do the interior for now.

Do others agree that this was good advice? I'm pretty sure I want an exterior color that will go well with a tan interior (which was the original interior color), so my instinct was to try to find a tan leather that was as close as I could get to the original tan color and to get new upholstery in that color. But if the shop owner is right, that isn't a good strategy: I should be waiting until I know what exterior color I want so I can pick the exact shade of leather that will match the exterior.

Anyway, these things may just be a question of preference, but I'm curious what others on the board who may have been in the same boat might have to say. Thanks in advance for any input.

If you pick the interior color now only, you will be limited to what exteriors will work. Though tan is a pretty neutral color and would work with a lot of exterior colors.

I was in the other boat. I had a car with the exterior color all done and had to pick an interior color. I was lucky that we found that went well with the exterior and also matched the pinstriping. Our first selection of leather though was a disaster. The upholstery shop did one seat and both of us knew that we must had been drinking when we picked the color from the swatch. We did much better second go around and only wasted one hide.

You do have a lot of leeway as most cars that I have seen, take advanatge that for extra $, you could have a Packard upholstered and painted your way.

If I only had a nickel for every time it's been commented on that you could get a Packard painted or upholstered any way you wanted, I could probably go out and buy myself another Packard. Yes, 'you could have it painted your way'. In 1932, the custom paint cost was $110.00. It is a shame the records do not exist to show how many cars were ordered with custom paint jobs, or upholstery jobs. I would doubt very seriously that many were ordered with custom jobs.

Of those cars I know of with original paint, and those where the original colors are known,(but now repainted) all have/had factory colors.....B

I had a similar dilema, but ended up painting AND re-upholstery at the same time. Since the original wool stripe is no longer available, I went with the leather option which was either black or the "saddle tan" which we went with. We are very happy with the results!

Denny
That is one sweet looking Packard. I love the color. What year is it?

Its a '41 Clipper and the color is an original,
Grove Green Metallic.