OUR HISTORY

LeBaron Bonney understands: your car is your passion. With over 100,000 interior kits sold, we proudly serve restoration enthusiasts by consistently delivering the best quality, best fit, and best service. Allow us the opportunity to show you why LeBaron Bonney has been the popular choice for antique auto enthusiasts for nearly 50 years. Our clients love our quality, fit, selection, knowledge and service…and we work hard every day to continue to earn their trust. We offer interior kits, tops, upholstery, fabric and a wide range of replacement parts for Fords, Chevys and other antique cars via our website, catalogs and our certified partners. For more information or to place an order, call us today at 1-800-221-5408.

With the acquisition of ABC Auto Upholstery of Philadelphia in August of 2006, LeBaron Bonney Company now offers interior upholstery kits for over 300 models and model variations of Ford and Mercury antique autos from 1928 to 1962. For General Motors owners, we “cover” close to 400 additional models in our Hampton Coach Division, producing kits for Chevy and Buick autos.  Sensible growth in the service of the auto restoration enthusiast has been the hallmark of our company since its beginnings.

Interestingly, the company’s beginnings in the late ‘30s didn’t involve automobiles at all, though the service was transportation related. 

It all started in late 1938 when (LeBaron) Lee Atherton and his younger brother Jack (Bonney) Atherton opened a bicycle rental business near their family's summer home on Cape Cod Massachusetts. They named their venture the "LeBaron Bonney Co." Although the two brothers worked full time in their family's furniture store, they had long dabbled in a variety of side businesses.

As the years progressed, LeBaron Bonney evolved from renting bicycles into several direct mail businesses offering a selection of historic & decorative maps and later reproduction model sailing vessels and hand crafted accessories.

After the war LeBaron Bonney started producing new upholstered furniture and providing re-upholstery service for the family furniture business. They employed 4-5 people at the time.This continued into the 50's and 60's with limited success.

If there is a point in time when Lebaron Bonney took a new direction ultimately leading them into the antique auto upholstery field and changed forever the small upholstery shop, it was in 1959 when Lee Atherton purchased a 1930 Model A Deluxe Roadster to restore as a project with his son Barry. Lee enjoyed doing the mechanical part of the restoration and found a local body shop to do the body work and painting. However, when the car reached the upholstery stage he found there was no easy solution to this important part of his restoration... and when some of the old time trimmers from the LeBaron Bonney furniture shop suggested they could duplicate the original interior and top...Lee jumped at the opportunity. They succeeded so well that at upcoming meets that Lee attended, other Ford owners praised the work done and wondered if he could have their cars done!

From this experience...the businessman...the visionary...Lee Atherton saw a potential for new business for LeBaron Bonney Co. He envisioned a line of pre-fabricated interior upholstery "Kits" that would closely match the originals in materials and workmanship...thus enabling the average old car hobbist, like himself, to complete their restoration projects in a professional manner at reasonable costs. What made this idea even more exciting was that these kits could be shipped world wide thus opening up a vast market. A small advertisement in Hemmings Motor News started a flow of business that continues to this day, with over 500 inquiries a month on Fords alone. From a beginning with 4-5 employees in 1960, LeBaron Bonney today has 56 skilled employees and does business world wide while enjoying a benchmark reputation for quality, duplication of original work, and reasonable prices which stands alone in the antique auto upholstery field.

By the mid 60's LeBaron Bonney had outgrown its space in the old furniture upholstery shop. New models were being added as fast as time allowed and interest in these "Kits" was really snowballing! In 1965 the company purchased a 14,000 sq ft facility in Amesbury Massachusetts. While it seemed more than enough space at the time they were soon forced to build an adjoining 7000 sq ft building followed by the purchase of the adjoining 29,000 sq ft "Biddle & Smart Building". This building was originally a part of the Biddle & Smart Co. body plant where carriages were manufactured from 1870 to the early 1900's...then auto bodies for many of the famous automobile manufacturers of that day. Although auto bodies are no longer produced here, the feeling still lingers about the town where occasional sign boards may be seen on some of the old buildings.

In the early 1980's LeBaron Bonney further expanded into the old car field when it came out with its first "Parts & Accessories Catalog," offering parts & accessories for Fords and other antique cars and trucks. Currently the LeBaron Bonney 112 page illustrated catalog contains over 3000 specialty items for the old car enthusiast.

Later as their inventory of specialty upholstery materials, carpets and trims grew to support it's ever increasing kit sales, they started offering this inventory for sale "By The Yard" as many of the materials were suitable for vehicles other than Fords of the same era.

In 1995 LeBaron Bonney continued its expansion into the Antique Auto Upholstery field with the purchase of "Hampton Coach," a smaller company located in Hampton, NH that produced interior restoration kits for vintage General Motors vehicles, primarily Chevrolet and Buick (1916-1955). In addition to bringing over a skilled work force to LeBaron Bonney, the acquisition included over 400 patterns for interiors and tops covering Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and LaSalle cars and trucks. This division of LeBaron Bonney is run at the same facility at 6 Chestnut St., sharing all the benefits as LeBaron Bonney Ford division.

Today "LeBaron Bonney Co." with its Hampton Coach Division produces Interior Upholstery Kits and Tops for over 700 Models and variations of models of Ford, Mercury, Chevrolet and Buick auto and trucks covering the years from 1916 thru 1962. For a complete listing see our page on Interiors and Tops.