Singer Heel Mat

[Danish]

Some may remember early last year I instigated a project to remanufacture a Singer heel mat. Well, issues with the 3d printed mould (rubber bleeding into the mould's printed layers) and a small thing called covid-19 deflected my attention. Every cloud has a silver lining so they say, and I have just acquired an original rubber heel mat. Who would have thought that a faux leather texture was originally applied to to the surface of this mat...circa 1933/34? Also raises an interesting question whether the mats depicted in the handbooks are represented with a perspective effect given the proportions of this mat?

[Phillip]

Hi David,

This is pretty amazing. It looks exactly like the ones NASOC made some years ago and I think can still be bought via Metro Rubber in the states.

I'll dig out one in the next day or so and photograph it so we can compare.

How did you determine its provenance?

Thanks so much for the update!

[Danish]

Further information has come to light...it came from an Estate clearance of a guy that lived in the Berkeley Hills of California, a once beautiful home that fell into disarray at the end. One of his autos he purchased from the Blackhawk Automotive Museum.....dimensions are approx. A3 portrait. 30cm x 43cm

[Phillip]

Hi David,

As soon as you said California, alarm bells started ringing. This is the NASOC mat!

Still available at Metro rubber:

AC 48
Accessory Floor Mat - 12"X17"
$36.80
Accessory Floor Mat - made of high quality black rubber with molded original emblem. Also designed to be sewn into new carpets. 12"X17", Each

Unfortunately no image available on their page.

https://metrommp.com/catalogue/?Year=19 ... &Model=4Ad

I have to find the two I bought some 30+ years ago. Which might explain why I can't find them!

Your photo is identical and the measurements and description match up.

I was going to cut mine down as rectangles to make them match the shape in the handbooks. The logo they used was the pre-war one, which is interesting since there were very few pre-war Singers in the club back then and the 4AD was by far the most popular model.

The mats are a reasonable price, but the rest of their stock for Singers is crazy!

[jeans_old_man]

Yes, $254 does seem a tad excessive for a pair of pedal rubbers! Well spotted on the provenance.

pedal rubbers.jpg (26.13 KiB) Viewed 8334 times

[mikeyr]

NASOC had a agreement with them, well over 20 years ago, probably closer to 30 years ago for a pretty good price, I wonder if that still can be used. NASOC paid for the molds to be made, NASOC "technically" owns the moulds and they were supposed to make things for the club at drastically reduced prices. Might be worth a phone call or email from NASOC officers to see they remember the agreement, I assume whatever paperwork might have been in place is long lost.

[Phillip]

Great idea Mike!

Dave Green would most likely be the man to know! I'll send him an e-mail and link him to this thread...

[Phillip]

Finally found the pair of NASOC mats that I bought many years ago...

NASOC Singer Matts_WEB.jpg (224.1 KiB) Viewed 8119 times

They still look like new!

And here is a close-up of the logo they used:

NASOC Singer Matt_2_WEB.jpg (289.88 KiB) Viewed 8119 times

If you were to cut these down to the right rectangular shape with the logo in the middle they would make a very convincing substitute to the original on a pre-war car until David can get his casting issues sorted.