Carpet Colors

I’m hoping for help in establishing the correct color shades for original carpet. I’m finding conflicting data. The Authenticity Manual, and several of the Forum experts, say that carpeting in standard cars was the deep shade of the darker seat trim color, e.g.: medium green biscuits/light green bolsters would have deep green carpet. The same convention would apply for trims where the darker shade was medium blue, beige or gray. The Authenticity Manual goes on to say that medium blue, gray, green and beige carpets were available DOS. When I check the DSO cars, I find only 4 cars out of 404 DSOs have a medium color carpet specified. Adding back all the standard trim cars it would mean that only 4 out of 3005 Mk IIs were built with medium carpets…..which seems extremely low for the production run.


The attached pics are from reportedly original cars. To me, the carpets closely resemble the medium trim colors. The adjectives light, medium and deep used to describe paint colors and leather/fabrics are consistent in that they show distinctly different shades. Because of this, I’d expect that deep blue, green and bronze carpets would approximate the corresponding exterior paint colors, much like the deep gray and red do. Is this assumptions wrong? Are the brown and blue carpet colors in the pics what is considered Deep Bronze and Deep Blue? If not, would anyone with original carpets please post pics..?

Disregarding DSO's where almost anything was possible, I believe that Mark II carpets only came in the colors Deep Red, Deep Blue, Deep Green, Deep Gray, Deep Bronze (Brown) & Black.

I believe the carpet color was deep whatever the interior color was (regardless of shade) Since there were no white carpets the carpet color for white on white interiors was deep whatever the welts and trim were.

Pat,

That’s exactly what we discussed; it was seconded by Lowell and it’s stated in the Authenticity Manual. In the simplest form, are the blue and brown shades in the above pictures representative of original “Deep” blue and bronze carpets? I’m inclined to think they are too light compared to other “Deep” color carpets. I would expect the blue and brown colors in the pictures to be darker and be more approximate of paint code 02 and 08.

I’d be interested to see whether any pictures of original carpets turn up that are noticeably darker than shown in the pictures.

If those are original carpets they have faded. When I had mine done I took samples from under the seat and in the trunk from under the layers. There was a substancial difference from the exposed areas.

It's almost impossible to look at the pictures of installed carpets and tell what the actual colors are. The same colored carpet will look different depending upon if it's flat or curved in shadows or in direct light. Look at the middle picture the hump is in direct light and the floors are in shadows. The carpet looks entirely different in those areas even though the entire carpet might be the same color-the hump could be faded, too!

Pat,

The best illustration is the third picture with broadcloth seats. The door jamb is painted 08. None of the carpet, whether in sunlight or shadow, is as dark as the paint color. I’m aware, as Sean points, out that the carpet fades over time and that the rug’s surface texture has an effect on how the light is reflected. I’m asking whether the “Deep Bronze” carpet color should look as brown and be as dark as the door jamb? I was hesitant about including the middle picture because the foot wells have a different color overlay on the carpet. I should have directed attention to the carpet showing under the driver’s seat back rest. It usually would not be sun faded.

To the original poster,

Are you looking for deep green carpet? If so, I may have enough raw yardage of both the interior and trunk carpet to do a car. My father had it all made-to-sample for the restoration of Benson Ford's Mark II, because what was commonly used within the hobby was not close-enough to original to suite him. Not so much the shade, but the carpet itself.

We matched ours to original un-faded un-trampled samples from the car (it was a very nice original car when we started it), and exhausted 3 different mills until we finally got one that specialized in aircraft carpeting who had the patience to deal with us until it was right (and I won't begin to get into that). ;)

'Course if you're not looking for green, I probably can't help.

Last fall I visited the Benson Ford Library on the grounds of Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan. Their MK II collection carries original showroom order
Binders with original interior choice materials which include carpet samples.
The binder I looked at was in as new condition and would, I believe, the place to go for reference and decision making.