My 1953 Aero-Eagle

[Barnum]

 The body tag is very curious.....but from what I see in your pictures, it is clearly an Eagle  and a survivor .That said, I am sure it had paint and interior work as most cars would have over that period of time. It does give you some options to bring it back to some options of your choice.Though my car is green, this should give you an idea of original trim

[Aeroman]

Here's better pics of what your car should look like with the standard Eagle interior of 1953, with cloth inserts. in the first two pics, the carpet is incorrect and the cloth inserts are close to the original design. Missing are the plastic seat hinge covers. The third pic shows these. The car in the 3rd pic was owned new by Eleanor Paton, daughter of Clyde paton, father of the Aero.

[MarkH]

Wow, this only gets more and more confounding…

Anybody know what the Body Number on the tag indicates?

I won't discount anything - be it a factory misbuild or a Canadian car. But that said, I brought the car here from southern US. It wasn't a short trip from Canada.

In any case, it is definitely a hard top. There's no B-pillar. Everything other than this body tag (and perhaps the upholstery) is all 1953 Aero-Eagle 685A Hard Top Sedan. VIN is 653-MC1-15###. I believe the exports were all conventional 'post' sedans, correct?

The front cross members have not been relocated.


I am now entirely uncertain of what the interior of my car needs to look like. Was it some weird special order that I need to recreate and preserve? Should I recreate someone's vision for customization from decades ago? Did somebody tamper with the Body Tag, and I should just put it back the way it left the factory?

Well, sounds like you've always had the 6cyl.

I think your best shot is to see if you can match your trim codes to any traces of original paint & upholstry. If they match your body tag codes then I'd be inclined to think your codes were stamped on an export tag that mistakenly went down the line with your car........... just my 2 cents. If it wasn't such a rare tag then I'd be more inclined to consider an intentional swap, but 1 of 47 export tags  isn't something the average guy is ever going to run across, and there'd be nothing to gain mounting an obviously mis-matched tag to your car.

I've stripped 3 cars, '52 & '53 and also had occasion to sort through a stack of NOs door panels years ago. None that I've seen had foam backing between the vinyl and door board.

The interior code on my car calls for seat upholstry I've seen on several cars, yet when I peel the aftermarket covers off, the originals underneath are different. Trying to get a match on them now. Maybe you'll find something under the current covers on yours.

Your best hope is if Aeroman can decipher your unlisted codes, I doubt if anyone has more detailed Aero documentation than him.

As for originality, if your codes match the original paint, that's how I'd go but that's just me

[jneely]

Thanks to all for the replies.

It had never occurred to me that that dang interior wasn't original, but that's interesting that you haven't seen another with the foam padding.

As it so happens, I was able to locate those photos I saved from a car on Ebay. Dated 1-Oct 08. I'll be danged if it isn't literally the 1st car shown in the pictures Aeroman posted. Red carpet and all.




What is the white steering wheel shown in the other car? Is that a 'deluxe steering wheel?' I see it referenced in the optional equipment section of the parts manuals, but haven't seen any other detail or description.

[joefrazer]

Yes, a deluxe pearlite steering wheel was an option. I had an NOS wheel that went to a friend to whom I sold my 54 Aero Eagle Custom. It has the same red and white interior as your car.

[Barnum]

Here is an advertisement for the Eagle interior...looks to be the two tone red and black car

[Aeroman]

Brochure shot is pretty accurate. There were two deluxe steering wheels: the ivory tenite wheel with the chrome spoke cover and the black hard rubber one with the chrome spoke cover. Standard wheel is the black hard rubber with no spoke covers. Also, I believe your car should have a full horn ring, not a half ring, but I cannot document that. Car in my pics and on ebay belong(ed) to Mike Matulac, formerly or possibly still a club member.

[jneely]

I got the front seat out last night. I took one of the seat back covers off, in hopes that perhaps there was some clue or maybe a remnant of the factory upholstery lurking underneath. All I found was a mouse nest - go figure.

Does anyone see anything significant? Would a plastic bag have been used at the factory to install a seat upholstery cover? Does the Naugahyde mark on the underside look similar to something on an original cover? The white is labelled 1-74 and the red 11-73.

I found a very small piece of what I believe to be original red vinyl, on the edges of the rear package tray. They are pretty nasty, but I will attempt to clean it up for use as a match on the original color for reupholstery.

Any insight appreciated.

[darrin145]

I would imagine 1-74 and 11-73 are manufacture dates. Plastic bags are sometimes used when the cover is a little tight so the cover will slide over the cotton batting, whether it's good or bad, I wouldn't suggest it, and I'm quite confident the factory would not do that. If the cover is installed properly, no plastic is needed.

Gary.

[MarkH]

I haven't stripped my seats yet but so far have not seen any signs of plastic in the holes or edges I peeled back. I've seen modern (non automotive) upholstery video of plastic being used to ease covers going over foam. I don't have a clue how far back that practice goes, and I've never seen plastic under any auto seat covers.

[jneely]

I've used the plastic trick before on some Model A Ford seat covers from LeBarron Bonney. It does make a world of difference, but I pulled the plastic down and cut it to remove once the upholstery was in place. I didn't think about the stamps being date codes, but I suppose that is pretty likely. I think I'm pretty well solidified on 'all signs point to reupholstery' for this thing, then.

Can anyone confirm if the original seat and door panel insets of grey fabric would match that used for the headliner in a 685A HTS? Kind of a light grey soft fuzzy stuff. There are some small section remnants of the headliner that were still underneath the retainers in decent enough condition to attempt a match.

I think I may have enough clues to try and reconstruct, although I am definitely watching for any original sample I might be able to find, if I come across a junk kick panel or something to use as a better reference for the pleating pattern.

[Aeroman]

I have never seen factory seats with the plastic "bags" over the cotton batting.
SMS has some very close gray striped cloth for the inserts. I used it in my car and am very pleased. The red vinyl I got from them was a bit brighter than original but I let it slide. Perhaps my original darkened with age. I have saved my original vinyl for reference but my cloth was replaced long before I got the car.
I will see if I can find the color pics from Richard Carpenter's green 40K Eagle that was featured in SIA magazine many years ago. I saw that car when Mr. Carpenter owned it (circa 1983) and it was 100% original and very well preserved.

[Barnum]

Aeroman posted this one of the Carpenter car to the FB page

[MarkH]

SMS has some very close gray striped cloth for the inserts. I used it in my car and am very pleased. The red vinyl I got from them was a bit brighter than original but I let it slide. Perhaps my original darkened with age. I have saved my original vinyl for reference but my cloth was replaced long before I got the car.....................

SMS can send you a good variety of cloth samples to choose from. They can also duplicate the heat embossed "stitch" lines in the vinyl. If you could find someone with your trim code and get good resolution photos for the cloth pattern & vinyl "stitch" spacing you can probably get a reasonably close match. Don't expect them to be fast though.

[jneely]

Another update on my car: to add to the perplexity of the firewall tag, it looks as though the car is blue/green on the underside. Since approximately 1953. Has anyone seen ever seen anything like this? Were these cars dip painted at the factory?

My car was undoubtedly repainted red at some point in its life. But having the car stripped down and the underside readily visible on the rotisserie, it it evident that the underside is a robin's egg blue/green color. I can see on the right front fender well where the original Saber Rouge maroon color was sprayed over it. This looks to me like a factory respray, or this color was supposed to have been used on the bottom. The color is very clear on top of the fuel tank.

The color isn't quite a perfect match for the 1953 Willys paint chips I have, though I suppose it could be Willow Green Poly if I squint long enough.