1923 Light Six Toruring Interior?

[Guest GoldenAge]

Progressing very quickly on our restoration of the 1923 Light Six Touring. Planning ahead I am stumped on the interior. It appears that our interior is original, it matches the 1922 in the Studebaker museum very closely. The problem is that the brochures for these cars all state that the interior was "genuine leather", our car is definetly not leather. The doors and the seats match and it is an oil cloth (vinyl) material that simulates leather. I also have a hard time believing that they would have put a leather interior in a lower end open touring car. The oil cloth would hold up much better than the leather in sunlight and moisture.

Any thoughts or information would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul Dougherty

Edited December 9, 2011 by GoldenAge (see edit history)

[Stude Light]

My 1923 Light Six Tourer looked to be original. I found that the seats were originally leather but the side panels for the seats were a simulated leather as were the door panels.

Scott

[Guest GoldenAge]

Thanks for the reply Scott.

For starters it would help if I could spell "Touring".

I poked at my interior again and it does appear that the seats are leather. I am amazed at the fact that some of the seat cushion is vinyl. The edge panels are vinyl sewn to the main part of the cushion that is leather. It was a great match job on Studebakers part between the leather and the vinyl.

Thanks for the help.

Paul