[bonneville Joe]

Probably going to pick up a '65 Catalina 2dr sedan post car on Monday. Its a project car. Body on the car is great, the interior is not. Anyone know of a supplier for interior pieces for one of these? Harry Samuel didn't have anything listed on his site and neither does PY. I seriously doubt AMEs has anything. I know these are pretty rare cars so I figure finding a parts car is out of the question.

[Jerry H.]

Here's your rear door panel:

[bonneville Joe]

Nah, the seats are toast. Its the typical padding exploding out of the crack in the top of the seat. I'll probably have someone locally do the seats and get it as close as they can. Jerry, is there any way that you can get a pic of the rear 1/4 inner panels so I can compare them to a hardtop panel?

Its a 389 2bbl TH400 auto car, only options that I saw were power steering and power brakes. It might even have had a clock cause it looked exactly like my '65 Bonneville dash. I think I would have remembered seeing a delete plate in there. Thanks for all the help guys.

[MPKind]

You finally got one...is it going to be primer gray for the several years too?

To be honest, the '65 Catalina Pompei Pattern Cloth & Morrokide interior is not easy to come by. I had a guy redo my seats last year. I had the cloth inserts, but they were in poor condition, and had to be scraped. What happened was he found original '64 cloth (still on the roll) of the same dark turquoise color, but a slightly different pattern. So I went with that. The '64 cloth is also more durable than the '65 Pompei cloth.

Plan B would be to find another Catalina with the same color interior as yours and salvage the upholstery. A good interior guy can use what you give him if it's in useable condition.

2door sedan interiors only came in red, blue, and turquoise. Add gold for the 2d coupe. Add gold and green for the 4d sedan, and 4d hardtop.

In hindsite, I wish I would've been able to find another car with mint interior so it was factory correct...oh well, most folks won't know or care. The color is a great match, and they look great too.

As far as finding a parts car, you may come across one, but don't fret. Most everything you need is available from other '65's. The exceptions are the rear 1/4 window glass. So don't break them. I think even the door panels and rear seat panels are the same as a 2d coupe, but not certain.

So what's this car like? Any cool options, or is it plain jane? Color?

Matt

[Phyllis1965]

Q: Are you gonna change your name to 2 Door Catalina Joe?

[LASJayhawk]

Jerry love the reef turquoise Kinda makes me thaink of my 65 cat Safari.

I just sent of to SMS to get some samples of headliner and a quote to make me a new one. I also inquired about seat covers. When I hear back, if I can remember I'll post the quotes.

[LASJayhawk]

SMS quoted me $215 for a headliner for the wagon and $675 for 4 new door panels. They do not have pre-made seat covers, but can provide the vinal.

[bonneville Joe]

Its marina turquoise (the dark emerald green) with turquoise interior. The only real wierd thing that I noticed about it, it has no outside rearview mirror on the door and it never had one. The car is totally complete down to what appears to be the original plug wires. Car has 86K on the odometer and hasn't been driven in at least 10 years from what the guy told me. He bought it from the original owner but never titled it into his name. He has the original title and it was signed by her so in all reality I'll be the 2nd registered owner. Its a neat car. I have only seen one in a magazine and 2 on the net, one belonging to a PY member here. I feel better knowing that a 2dr coupe interior should probably fit it. I'll check that SMS. Thanks.

[Stuart]

Harry may not have ready made seat covers for that car, but he may have the materials - you could give him a call or send an email. I've been to his place, and he has a warehouse stuffed to the rafters with NOS vinyl and cloth.

Another possible source is SMS in Oregon. They have their own looms, so if they don't have the right cloth in stock they can make it. They should be able to provide door panels as well.

http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

http://www.autointeriorsbyharrysamuel.com/

[Jerry H.]

SMS did the door panels on my 65 Cat convert. They are the same as the 2 dr sedan. Here is a pic. I do not know the price, as I bought the convert already restored. The previous owner had them done.

[Jerry H.]

Funniest looking interior I"ve ever seen. This should be the correc pic:

[MPKind]

What pattern is your headliner? Is it the "weave" pattern in seafoam? That's what I need for my Cat. PY or Ames may be able to get that, but I haven't fully investigated that yet. Let us know what SMS has.

Matt

[MPKind]

I think if my math is correct, there are no less than 4 guys that are on PY that own a 65 2d Sedan. Me, you, 2badcat(Jim), and Jerry Hamilton. Personally, I've only physically seen one other in Minnesota, but I've seen at least 6-10 for sale on the net over the last few years. There's also several listed in the POCI directory, as well as many 66-68 2d sedans.

So they are scarce, but not super scarce. Your car color is Teal Turquoise (L). Look at the cowl tag. It should have 2 or 3 letters for paint code. For my car it's KKL. First and second letters designate the upper and lower paint colors. The third letter designates the wheel color. Most cars had 'A' for the last letter, which is Starlight Black...makes sense. My car's wheel color is Teal Turquoise (L), the body color is Reef Turquoise (K). You'd be hard pressed to find a two tone 2 door sedan...doubt they made any. Cheap wheels.

Not a big surprise that you have no outside mirror. It was either a factory or dealer option. So it's likely the original owner didn't want to pay for one.

You didn't say what it had for engine setup. I'm guessing 2bbl with TH 400, 2.42:1 open rear, power steering, manual brakes.

When you get it, take some pics of it before you start ripping it apart. I'd like to see how it compares to mine.

[MPKind]

Yeah Jerry, that's nice...

I didn't bother with SMS or HS when I was looking for Pompei cloth...I probably should've, but then again, maybe there isn't much of that around anymore. I'm happy with my NOS '64 cloth.

Joe, hopefully the patterned vinyl seatbacks are still good. That's not made anywhere to the best of my knowlege. Another small detail is that if you do find some material out of another car, notice the seat bottoms are not pleated like the seat backs. Only in the Cat 2d and 4d sedans did the interior come that way. Other Cats had pleated seat bottoms.

[Jerry H.]

SMS would be a good bet. Expensive though. Here is a pic of my interior. Should be close to what yours would look like. My interior is untouched, 49k original car.

[Jerry H.]

And here's a pretty detailed shot of the front seat back (passenger side). Shows the detail of the vinyl and the cloth.

[66bonne]

Bonne Joe: How are you liking South Carolina compared to Florida ? It is a little different up there but I enjoyed my brief time in the Palmetto State. Congrats on the 65 2 door sedan. I hope to have mine back on the road in a couple of weeks as soon as they install the paint booth in my son's new shop [he and his best friend opened their own body and restoration shop recently].
Like yourself I could not find exact duplicates for the interior cloth and vinyl so when I took it to the upholsterer I just told him to get it as close as possible to stock and it turned out pretty nice. I'm not too concerned with originality on the sedan as we've made a number of small modifications on the car anyway. Hope you can post some pix. Being there in SC I assume you'll be at the convention, may be we can hook then. Good luck with the sedan and keep us posted. Jim

[bonneville Joe]

Probably going to pick up a '65 Catalina 2dr sedan post car on Monday. Its a project car. Body on the car is great, the interior is not. Anyone know of a supplier for interior pieces for one of these? Harry Samuel didn't have anything listed on his site and neither does PY. I seriously doubt AMEs has anything. I know these are pretty rare cars so I figure finding a parts car is out of the question.

[bonneville Joe]

Yeah, I'll be at the POCI convention, Its only about a 30 minute drive from me. I like it here. I miss some things about Florida but the majority I don't. Its more my pace up here. Florida is too much of a rat race. I should have the car here sometime tommorrow afternoon. I'll get some pics posted when it gets here.

[bonneville Joe]

Thanks Jerry.

From what I can tell, it looks like a hardtop panel. Only difference I see is that the inside post trim sits on top of it on that top corner. They make 2+2 and GP replacement panels that I guess would work until I could find some more original stuff.