Sunday, May 11, 2008

1961–64 VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia upholstery fabric

After years of thinking about it and months of planning and research I finally have a manufacturer starting work on a reproduction of early 1500 Ghia upholstery fabric — the woven fabric used for the front and back seat inserts and door panels from 1961–63 and the seat inserts only from 1963–64. I asked 1500 Ghia owners which colors they would most like to see reproduced and the three most requested colors were red (554), silver (564), and cerulean (559), so that's what I'm having made. 3 yards will be needed for seats and door panels and 2 yards for seats only.

Here are some samples of the original fabric (shown larger than actual size):


554 red, originally used in black and pearl white cars from 1961–64 and anthracite cars from 1963–64.


564 silver, originally used in anthracite and ruby red cars from 1961–64 and emerald green cars from 1963–64.


559 cerulean, originally used in sea blue cars from 1961–64.

(You can see these and other paint and upholstery combinations in the early VW 1500 Ghia color brochures)

It should be available by late summer or fall of this year. If all goes well the next project will be reproducing "salt and pepper" fabric for 1961–63 Type 3s.

Many thanks to Lee Hedges and Matt Pierce for sending original samples of cerulean and silver fabric, respectively.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a type I Ghia which needs a very similar fabric but with yellow and black. I had the paint redone in original manila yellow and would like to replace the fabric which had been replaced with vinyl years ago. Since the type I ghias seem to have some of the same fabrics there might be more people out there wanting to do such a restoration. Please let me know who to contact about this stuff.

Scott said...

An email is on its way to you.

tukenet@jippii.fi said...

Hello!

I found your blog just today and noticed that you know someone who is reproducing fabrics to 34 Ghia. Sadly this post is from last year but is it still possible to order some fabrics? I would be glad if you could answer to my e-mail.

Unknown said...

I am in need of the red and black fabric for my 63 T34. Do you still have the fabric available or know where I can possibly find it??
I look forward to hearing from you!

Scott said...

Contact SMS Auto Fabrics (smsautofabrics.com). They should still have some available in their warehouse.