What were side curtains made of?

[Rusty_OToole]

I know they had clear plastic windows in buggy and touring car side curtains in the 1900s and 1920s  but what plastic? Plexiglass, vinyl etc were not invented yet. Was it some kind of clear celluloid or thick cellophane?

Edited April 27, 2019 by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)

[Phillip Cole]

Isinglass from fish bladders or mica. 

[C Carl]

Here are the original sidecurtains for my 1924 Cadillac. Seldom used, it was a fair weather car from the upper Midwest. Do you know if the transparency can be restored to some degree ? Maybe just hard automotive wax ? I sure don't want to make a mistake. Fish bladder plastic ?   -   Carl 

 

[Rusty_OToole]

It may be possible to restore them as you would a plastic headlight by cleaning with very fine polishing compound and waxing. Any auto upholstery shop can cut out the old plastic and sew in new but it will be obvious they have been worked on.

[Walt G]

I agree with Rusty that they can be possibly cleaned ( Locate a place that makes plastic display cases and ask for the cleaner they use to remove scratches etc from clear display case windows) as he states, but as to sewing in new plastic , that would depend upon how old the material is and thus how fragile, dried out it is. Plus you will still have the holes from where the current plastic/windows are to contend with which if stitched over will weaken that area . If the clear area can not be cleaned sufficiently then totally new curtains are in order to be made.

[8E45E]

Vintage 'Jiffy Curtain' ad here.------------>  http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?85317-Among-my-souvenirs-12-(Jiffy-Curtains)

 

Craig

[keiser31]

Some CarterCar side curtains....

[sfair]

Here is a possibility:

 

https://www.meguiars.com/marine/products/m17-mirror-glaze-clear-plastic-cleaner-8-oz

[MochetVelo]

It's my theory that automobile side curtain windows were made of celluloid rather than fish bladders or mica.

[Rusty_OToole]

If they made clear celluloid that would be the answer. Celluloid was available from the late 19th c.

[Walt G]

The product that sfair mentions works well, I have used it to clean and polish plexiglas topped display cases that house artifacts in our local village museum

that we had made several years ago and it is the polish that the company that made the cases suggested to use. thanks for posting this WG

[vermontboy]

The Coach Trimmer's Art devotes 5 pages to making side curtains. The windows were celluloid and came in 5 thicknesses (10/000 to 40/000 with 20/000 being the most commonly used. When exposed to weather it turned yellow and became brittle so there  "were always piles of these around waiting for attention"..

 

 

[Spinneyhill]

This is what Wikipedia says about deterioration of celluloid. I don't think you can clean or polish out the discolouration!

 

"Deterioration

Many sources of deterioration in celluloid exist, such as thermal, chemical, photochemical, and physical. The most inherent flaw is as celluloid ages, the camphor molecules are ‘squeezed’ out of the mass due to the unsustainable pressure used in the production. That pressure causes the nitrocellulose molecules to bind back to each other or crystallize, and this results in the camphor molecules being shoved out of the material. Once exposed to the environment, camphor can undergo sublimation at room temperature, leaving the plastic as brittle nitrocellulose. Also, with exposure to excess heat, the nitrate groups can break off and expose nitrogen gases, such as nitrous oxide and nitric oxide,^[15] to the air.

 

Another factor that can cause this is excess moisture, which can accelerate deterioration of nitrocellulose with the presence of nitrate groups, either newly fragmented from heat or still trapped as a free acid from production. Both of these sources allow the accumulation of nitric acid. Another form of deterioration, photochemical deterioration, is severe in celluloid because it absorbs ultraviolet light well. The absorbed light leads to chain-breakage and stiffening.^"