On December 1, 2021, we received a shipment we had long been awaiting. Christmas came early – and from Acton, Massachusetts.

Janet displays the custom top fabric, just arrived from Haartz Corp. It’s pinstriped and a near perfect match with our original fabric.

I had first contacted Eric Haartz in December of 2014.  Eric, grandson of the company’s founder, was intrigued by our Michigan’s family story and our original pinstriped fabric. And, Eric has been a very long time active member of the Horseless Carriage Club, which probably goes a long way towards explaining his interest in our project.

First, a bit about the Haartz Corporation which grew out of a top fabric company started in 1897.  It is now a world wide company with operations in Massachusetts, Michigan, Germany, China, Japan, India, and Mexico. They supply both interior and exterior (convertible tops) fabrics for the most exclusive brands of automobiles as well as other specialized applications.  Eric was both enthusiastic and super detail oriented in all our communications which required sending him swatches of our original (faded and aged) top fabric. As I write this, we are anxiously awaiting our trip to Ernie Romero’s shop to start the transformation of this beautiful fabric into a one of a kind Michigan top.  For the un-initiated. Most tops for cars of the Michigan’s vintage no longer have original tops. One hundred year old fabrics seldom survive. If they do, typically they remain folded up and mostly unseen for fear of shredding into brittle bits if the top is opened up. Additionally, most tops were either BLACK or some flavor of beige. And almost NONE were pinstriped or otherwise decorative.  Eric told me that his recollection was that his grandfather sometimes got inspired by men’s suits and adapted some of these patterns into automobile and other fabrics.  Very few of these patterns for automobiles survive on antique cars. They have typically been replaced with BLACK.  We believe our car’s top will be simply outstanding.

Pinstripping is best seen in the folded section. CLICK TO ENLARGE