[Arran]

I contacted SMS Auto Fabrics via email regarding our radio grille cloth plight. I received a very prompt reply from Doug Pollock/SMS that this was "right up his alley" and he has the looms, yarn, and experience to complete the mission, all he needed was samples to evaluate. I have contacted and forwarded the email and SMS contact info to Mike S./Radio Daze asking him to put together samples and contact SMS. Radio Daze is actively pursuing a replacement vendor and were excited to hear about this potential source...

Arran....nice lead!

Britt Abbott
Chesapeake, VA

I figured that might be a good one to check on, very good to hear that it sounds promising. If that one falls through, or even if it doesn't, there is another outfit called Original Automotive Interiors (can't remember their location) that does much the same thing. Both of these businesses have been in the business of reproducing and selling reproduction upholstery cloth for automobiles for decades, even for more obscure makes and models like a Hupmobile, a Graham Page, Kaisers, and stuff like that so they must have an economical way to produce fabric in smaller quantities. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if they could reproduce such fabric at a lower cost and in a greater variety since they are already set up to do so. While some may not mind paying $75 for a repro grille cloth the reality is that most will not, the same is true of automotive fabric because the interior is usually the last thing on the restoration list and last thing that everyone things of.
I think many in the antique radio hobby could take a lesson from the old car hobby, the length that some of those guys go to to reproduce a missing part indistinguishable from the original really shows the passion these guys have for their cars, but what I find amazing is that they usually find a way to do so at an economical price. You won't find silly things like blatently incorrect Philco decals staying on the market for years on end with the vendor unwilling to correct them, if it's wrong someone will correct it or the business will go elsewhere. To put it simply, there are more guys like Steve Davis and Dick Oliver then like Rock Sea Enterprises.
Regards
Arran