Burnt Orange interior - it's never easy!

[MattNoVAT]

Weirdly, Burnt Orange nylon velour interiors are not very common and there is not much demand for the material these days!  (There is no accounting for taste!)

Both I and my car trimmer are having lots of difficulty locating Orange Nylon Velour / Brushed Nylon material thats even close to the original.  The closest so far has a triangle pattern with a black dot in the middle - so no real use.

Does anyone on here have any knowledge of uplholstery or fabric suppliers regardless of where they are in world?

I'm told that the material ideally should be be "contract" grade so that it will survive the wear & tear of your average car seat.

The alternative if I cannot find the right colour (or close match) is to buy a plain white nylon fabric and then have it professionally dyed Burnt Orange!  A car interior needs 10 linear metres of fabric and dying a man-made fabric is not something one can do in the washing machine at home. (I would suspect Mrs NoVAT would not approve of this anyway).  Anyone had experience doing this?  I reckon I'll be treading new ground.

Thoughts and input welcomed....

[cheeky monkey]

Hi Matt

Have you checked with Lancia.cc in Cape Town for the original material ?.  They currently have gold/yellow listed but no Orange. However, having conversed with them recently they do seem to have a 'supplier' so give them a try. Tomorrow i hope to get delivery of some blue check cloth from them, but only after paying a Customs and Excise charge which allows Parcel Force to release it on bail    

At home we've only used dylon products or herbs to dye clothes (with lots of salt to fix the colour).  You could have an organic beta and experiment with herbs like 'madder' root which gives various reds and orange.  In the old days i believe they used stale urine for its ammonia content  to fix the colour but i imagine Mrs NoVatt would not be amused by that.

G

[peteracs]

In the old days i believe they used stale urine for its ammonia content  to fix the colour but i imagine Mrs NoVatt would not be amused by that.

I guess the only comment to that is

"You must be taking the piss....."

(Sorry, could not resist it, the thoughts of running it through the washing machine is priceless)

Peter

[MattNoVAT]

I've emailed Felix but I think I may run into the same issue when I had my S2/FL re-trimmed.  I could not find enough matching material to re-trim the whole car and I don't think the Mk 1 Ford Mondeo ever came with an orange interior!

I am already leaning towards getting white Nylon Velour and having it dyed to the correct colour.  At least then I know I have the right shade and .... if I dyed myself it it'd end up looking like a 60's psychedelic tie dye affair... which is not the desired result!

I have heard that tweed was soaked in urine to for some reason (cant remember why) but you are right about Mrs NoVAT not being impressed with me pee-ing into the washing machine.  (Especially after I tumble-dried her new woollen jumper just before Christmas then washed one of my daughters woollen jumpers on a warm wash - needless to say those events cost ££££'s and plenty of ear bashing!  And we haven't got to the car parts in the dishwasher.

Lets see what Felix says but look for a professional fabric dying company at the same time.

Keep the ideas coming though

[MattNoVAT]

A bit of a depressing day today.

Despite several hours, over the past 2 days numerous phone calls and trips to fabric suppliers, no success, not even able to find someone in the UK who will dye nylon (It can be done it just requires a different process to cotton i.e. it's more difficult!)

I just love the way you cannot find anyone in the UK who is even remotely interested in helping you, but they are very quick to say no and want to move on to something easier.   I have two UK options that are awaiting answers back next week, if both of those draw blanks then it looks like I'll be buying an Oatmeal coloured brushed nylon and sending it to the USA where it will be colour matched and dyed professionally.

And people wonder why we don't buy British?

 

[rossocorsa]

Matt

have you tried looking around to see if any sofas or bed head boards are currently offered in a similar colour? If you happen to come across any and you find a suitably friendly furniture shop that can be bothered to order it the manufacturers will often supply material by the metre (for accident repairs or in situations where a customer wants to make matching accessories) even the Chinese manufacturers will do it although they usually want to stick it in a container along with sofas so it takes ages to come. I'm not working in furniture retail now or I'd see what I could do.
Got to say I'm not surprised it's proving difficult I admire your efforts as I'd have given up by now!

Alan

[HFStuart]

Matt,

Were there any other cars that used similar colours? It was the 70's so you never know

Stuart

[rossocorsa]

not sure the nap on this would be deep enough and colour looks slightly out??? Also not heavy duty but its nearest I've seen on a quick search for the velvet

http://www.modellifabrics.com/terracotta-red-contract-washable-plain-velvet-upholstery-fabric-livorno1259

http://www.modellifabrics.com/marmalade-red-contract-washable-plain-velvet-upholstery-fabric-livorno1258

http://www.modellifabrics.com/terracotta-velvet-upholstery-fabric-washable-brescia1433

[MattNoVAT]

I have requested samples for the first two as they are close in colour but I need to check the nap.  They are strong enough as it states that they are good for domestic or contract use.  Contract means that its hard wearing enough for use on a sofa or car seat!

Great find Alan, Thank you!   I had been looking for brushed nylon velour only - but I'm willing to look at very close alternatives, if you have seen how close my S2/FL material is to the original then you'll know that if its close enough then all but the experts would notice its not original!

The power of the forum works wonders!

[WestonE]

Matt

High Wycombe is the town of furniture manufacture in the UK and full of sofa makers so you could do a Yell search and call round them. Not the greatest answer but it might help.

Eric

[rossocorsa]

I have requested samples for the first two as they are close in colour but I need to check the nap.  They are strong enough as it states that they are good for domestic or contract use.  Contract means that its hard wearing enough for use on a sofa or car seat!

Great find Alan, Thank you!   I had been looking for brushed nylon velour only - but I'm willing to look at very close alternatives, if you have seen how close my S2/FL material is to the original then you'll know that if its close enough then all but the experts would notice its not original!

The power of the forum works wonders!

I was never too sure of the very early (true series 1) coupé seats but aren't they velvet bolsters and brushed nylon inner panels?

[MattNoVAT]

Yes, early S1 had velvet on the bolsters, my gold interior is like that but I also have an S1 interior in burnt orange but that one does not have the velvet bolsters..... Gotta love Lancia for being consistent!

[rossocorsa]

I think S2 pre facelift were brushed nylon all over but same colours as s1, there is a question though over whether they had piping in contrasting  vinyl or matching cloth, the pictures are erratic and the marketing department sometimes used old photos in the brochures. There may have been variations according to which country the car was sold in or whether it was a 1.6 or 1.8 (1.3/1.6/2.0 for S2) but all that info seems to be lost I have a fairly large Beta brochure stash (approx 100 different items) and it's all very vague and inconclusive.

I think to look pucka series 1 a coupé should have velvet bolsters, suspect your orange seats are from an S2

[redvxcoupe]

I've emailed Felix but I think I may run into the same issue when I had my S2/FL re-trimmed. 

Lets see what Felix says but look for a professional fabric dying company at the same time.

A friend of mine here in Norway are restoring a -76 Hpe with Burnt Orange interior... Impossible to get any material close to original.
Another thing....Felix is also restoring his Hpe in Burnt Orange.....
That's why my friend allways received well used second hand clothing....

[MattNoVAT]

The update today is that I have found a company than will dye some new brushed nylon that is Oatmeal colour.    I am awaiting full size samples of the brushed nylon and also the velvet finish nylon as used on early S1 cars.  They will match the colours in their labs and dye the oatmeal material burnt orange for me.

If this works then I will be having 20 metres of brushed nylon and 10 metres of velvet in Burnt Orange.

Fingers crossed it all works out :-)

[cheeky monkey]

Hope you get a good result.. Sounds very promising

the cloth i needed from Felix has arrived so i need to work out how to fit it to front seat. Ive now got 2x seat bases so i think i can work out how to use one for the back section of the seat  I was about to ask how the black back to the seat is attached, but ive just seen there are 2 screws on the base and another 2 at the top, under the headrest.

[MattNoVAT]

I hope so too!  Everything is gathering pace and of the numerous samples I have received none are an exact colour match, a couple are close but I'm using them as reserve just in case the dyeing process does not work out.

[rossocorsa]

sounding good Matt, out of sad anorak style curiosity I checked my parts book and there is only one cloth variation listed for series one coupés described as either 'green' 'beige' or 'red'. The part numbers change for series two so presumably the velvet bolster was deleted at that point and then there are two variants listed with or without 'garnish strip' which I take to be the vinyl piping. So it seems early series two were plain then later they had the contrasting dark brown vinyl piping. For the HPE, which was released not long before the change from S1 to S2, the part numbers appear to be the same (S1 vs S2) so I think it can be concluded that no HPEs had the velvet sides although there seem to be variations as to whether the sid panels of the seat were dark brown vinyl or cloth.

Alan

[MattNoVAT]

Alan,

Always useful info - much appreciated, I think the Series 1 "red" interior must be the burnt orange.  Would you agree?

I'm going for the original S1 style interior with the velvet bolsters and no piping, I'm just changing the colour from the gold colour to orange.  If the dyers say they can work their magic on the Oatmeal material that I'm sending them that is....

[rossocorsa]

no problem! I have all three beta parts books (S1,S2 and S2FL) plus montecarlo and scorpion plus microfiche for S2FL2 and S2FL coupe/hpe  S2FL Beta spider trevi and Berlinas so anything you want me to try and research please ask, although the aprts listings are not always very easy to interpret

Alan