Lancia Beta Forum

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....

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

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

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

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?

 

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

Matt,

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

Stuart

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/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/marmalade-red-contract-washable-plain-velvet-upholstery-fabric-livorno1258)

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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.... ???

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 :-)

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.

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.

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

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....

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

Matt

came across these pictures whilst browsing my literature collection and thought they might be of interest if you haven't seen them (http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww247/rossocorsa/DSCF3571.jpg)

(http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww247/rossocorsa/DSCF3570.jpg)

Hi Alan,

Thats actually the set of pictures that my trimmer has, its the exact interior that I will end up with... hopefully.

It's very subtle, but you can just make out that the bolsters are a different material, the velvet nylon finish rather than the brushed nylon used on the ribbed centre section of the seat and upright.

I spoke to the dyeing company today and the original material is in the laboratory being colour matched and so is the material thats going to be over-dyed to make sure it hasn't been chemically treated that will affect the dyeing process.

The velvet nylon material is being sent up tomorrow to test that to ensure it can take the over-dyeing process.

It does seem to be a fair bit of effort involved here, but I am convincing myself it'll be worth it in the end!

Mrs NoVAT thinks I'm off my trolley  ::) ::) ::)

Dear Mattnovat,
she might have a point!
Accurate judge of character is she??

Mind you "Aviator shades" are back in fashion, and flares are making a comeback, so all you need now is one of those "large mesh - string vest type thingys" that they used to wear on "Space 1999" and you'd be spot on!
 Still I can't talk, I'm getting all defrosted over a torchlight that probably won't work, and I'll end up treading on, IF I ever find one!

Course it will be worth it Matt, --- just dont do the vest Ok, promise? ;D

currently lancia seem to be promoting some matching shoes for you

http://www.lanciatrendvisions.com/en/vote/471_1 (http://www.lanciatrendvisions.com/en/vote/471_1)

OMFG they are nasty! 

Hi All

I always liked the S1/S2 pre F/L interior over the later ones. Just seemed to be more adventurous and Italian.... I guess the seats are not so supporting etc and some of the colours did not suit the car colour (my original was bright red HPE with mustard seats!), but the seat shapes, door car etc were very pleasant to look at and my pet hate is a black interior.

Peter

The sample arrived back today and the colour match for the velvet nylon is absolutely perfect, its amazing to see it looking so fresh and vibrant.  Thats the good news!, I have compared the sample with a section of original trim from the underside of one of the rear headrests, where the sun has not bleached the colour and also where its not been dirtied by years of wear and tear.  So really pleased with the result

The bad news was that because the brushed nylon has a foam backing it cannot be dyed.  :( Soon as it is exposed to hot fluid, the foam backing between the scrim and the surface material just collapses.  After discussion with the John at the Dyeworks, I have tested stripping off the scrim and the foam and they have done the same, so now just the base material will be tested to see if it will take to being over-dyed.  Obviously I have to check with the trimmer that he can work with the material without a scrim & foam backing.    

It's definitely a "brave" colour scheme!

My trimmer Dean is still looking for brushed nylon without the foam.  Fingers crossed again!

Wow. It certainly isn't easy. Fingers crossed...

I've contacted a few people regarding finding spare seat cover material for my 1977 Series 2 HPE. It's got the mustard yellow cloth with piping not velour of course ;)

So far no luck.

Good news today,  the modern brushed nylon samples that was stripped of its scrim and foam backing arrived.  Of the four samples, one is 100% correct and the others are very close but the main point is it can be dyed successfully providing the foam and scrim are stripped off the entire material.

So, I then spoke with my trimmer Dean to check if he can work with the material once stripped of its scrim & foam, my suspicions were correct that it would be too thin to work with, but he said that he can refit the foam and scrim once each section has been cut to size. Excellent news!!

The colour is really vibrant and shows just how much the 30 year old material fades.  But the chemical matching they do is fantastic!

So I have ordered all the material I need, but I do now have to strip the foam and scrim off of 20 linear metres of material now. A small price really, then ship everything up to the dye works.

All I can do now is breathe a sigh of relief and say a massive.......

PHEW !!

good news looking forward to seeing a series 1 in all its glory, are you going to kit yourself out in a natty paisley pattern bright orange shirt and tie set and a pair of tie dyed bell bottom jeans to complete the scene?

I may use some of the extra burnt orange velvet for a pair of matching bell bottoms!!

How cool would that be?

All the new material that is to be over-dyed arrived this week and I have just spent over an hour stripping 20 linear metres of foam & scrim away from the main material.... it's much much harder than it looks I can tell you!

It's all rolled up now and I just have to organise a courier to ship it up to the dye-works and it should be done within the next few weeks, then all I have to do is drop the whole lot in to my trimmer.  (Good excuse for a day off work  ;D)

This will make some much needed space in my garage and I can continue the big tidy up in there!

I'm ever so slightly excited today - despite coming back to work after a long weekend in France and being instantly swamped with high profile work with insanely agressive timelines I'm waiting for the Burnt orange material to be delivered back from the dyers.  ;D ;D

So it's unwrapped and I love it!  ;D ;D ;D

Here it is in all it's orange glory.

The velvet finish is on the left and the brushed nylon is on the right.  The velvet changes colour depending on the angle that the light catches it.  The picture was taken in my kitchen with my phone and not a huge amount of natural light.

quality!!

the future is orange  :) looks great

what we really need to know is have you got enough extra cloth for the matching dungarees and 70s style cap?

There is no turning back now  ;D

I took the interior and the newly over-dyed material to my trimmer on Saturday morning.  The next time I see it will be in four weeks time when its all completed and I'll be collecting it from him.

The gold material is being saved and will be divided between the three people that need material to repair thier gold interiors.

I've even negotiated with Mrs NoVAT that I can store the interior in the spare bedorrm when it comes back.  (cashed in some brownie points... but it was worth it) 

Hi Matt,

Have you received the new interior? are very curious about how it looks
Think the color look great.

Talking about the gold interior...I have managed to get some material to renew the rear headrests.
I am hoping you still can supply the left front seat cover  ;D
This is my driver's seat and has almost no gold material left  :o

Another thing...do you still have some spring cups left?
Have also put my name on the list for "Group Buy - Engine Dampers"

Maybe some shipping can be arranged, pleas let me know the cost

-Tore

So the Burnt Orange interior was collected and I am Uber Happy  ;D ;D ;D   On a scale of 1 to 10 I'm around a 12  ;D  Regarding the colour matching, you really cannot tell the difference.

The old material in in a black bag and to give a sneak at what its like rather than show all the pictures of all the seats & panels here is just a teaser picture of one of the back seats.

The light isn't great in my kitchen but a couple of folks will have seen a sneak preview of them.

Magnificent! What a result.