The Coupe Gets A New Suit

by Dick Zakrzewski

My wife, Karen, and I decided this was the year to finally outfit the coupe with an interior. After all, we only drove it three summers showing off insulation and junk yard seats. Not feeling savvy enough to undertake such a task ourselves, we needed to find someone with the right skills.

Locating the, just right, upholstery shop was no easy task. A long search brought us to a small town near SRS...Hartville, Ohio and highly recommended Conley's Unlimited. After a tour of the shop and viewing examples of his work which included rod magazines that featured cars he'd upholstered, we knew we were at the right place. Photo #1

Photo #1

The owner of shop that carries his name, Scott Conley, began the process...and it is a process...by working with both Karen and I to determine the look we were striving for; i.e., classic early '50s, '60s, wild or mild. We decided to go with something between mild and wild. Next he wanted an idea of the colors and material. I told him we liked tweed, but he suggested we consider Alante, a new leather like material. One look and we fell in love with it.

After looking at stacks of color patches we settled on navy blue with burgundy accents. Scott looked at us a little funny and said, "I never tried that color combination before," but said "What the heck, we're pushing wild here."

Scott, took our input and showed us some preformed door panels then made some quick sketches. After a little discussion we agreed to a starting point. Scott indicated he would mock up our ideas in cardboard then have us take a look to see what we thought.

We returned a week later to see cardboard cutouts that really didn't look much like what we discussed, but were perfect. Its as though Scott had looked into our very souls to discover what we really wanted. See Photo #2

Photo #2

Photo #3 shows the finished custom sculpted arm rest and door sculpting, that will blend into a complementing sculpted patterns around the door and extend into the headliner. Photo #4 The sculpted pattern will also be picked up in a pair of Glide Engineering bucket seats and the trunk. Photo #5 and #6 The final position of the arm rest and the location of the power window switch was established while I sat in the driver's seat and my left arm at comfortable position.

Photo #3

Photo #4

Photo #5

Photo #6

Scott prides himself on his attention to detail. Stitches are perfect French seams. Yes, even the garnish moldings are covered with the Alante leather like material that are pieced together with French seams. See Photo #7.

Photo #7

In a follow up article, we'll look at the finished product that includes a custom fabricated "water fall" console.

Dick Z