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8flU[t L R0Rl,l5" M:J kn.r*l.ds. "f oll thirrScoconut *rJi,* ited to,r,i 1 Lrvc;riteislan.J drink, the pifru ..,lr,.Jo. "

It was raining here in North Carolina last

lweekend, a rare occurrence these days inI the dry Southeast. I decided to take advan-tage of this opportunity, so I poured myselfa hot cup of Sumatra-Decaf, curled up in myfavorite chair with my basset hound, Gabby,and reread from cover to cover one of myfavorite books, M-B's . Sonderousstattun-gen fur PKW c Ausgobe B (Special, Equip-ments for Passenger Cars Edition B).

0n page 38, my eye caught with interestthe interior equipment option of Kokomat'fen (coco matting), as options listed for the190b,1g0Db, 190b, 190Db, 190s1, 220b,2205b,2205Eb,300d, and 30051. Wow! BestiLl. my heart! Knowing the highest quatity

manufacturers of aftermarket cocomats arein Fort Mil.L SC, abouttwo hours from my home

' in Southern Pines, NC, I placed a ca[[ to theowner, Jeff ALl,wine of Natural Auto ProductsLLC, www.cocomat.com, to arrange a visit.

I arrived in Fort MiLt the next day, to bewelcomed by Jeff and his wife, Debbie. Iwas eager to learn more about the manu-facturing process and why cocomats havebeen the floor cover of choice for a[[ luxuryvehictes over the years. My knowtedge of atlthings coconut was limited to my favoriteisland drink, the pifra cotada.

Coco ftoor mats are made from a naturalmaterial, coco fiber (a[so known as coir).The coir is a natural fiber extracted from theprotective husk of coconuts. The husks, sep-arated from the nuts are seasoned in lagoonsfor periods up to ten months. Using woodenma[[ets, the [oca[ artisans convert the huskinto the coco fiber. The fiber is transferredonto traditional spinning wheels, where it isspun into yarn. Once spun, the yarn is dyedand hand-woven into mats. Sti[[ practicedin Southern India, this process is a[[ donewith ski[[s learned over generations.

Sisal is atso used. Coco fibers come fromthe husks of coconuts. Sisal comes from theleaves of a ptant. Natural Auto Products usesa combination of coco and sisal in many oftheir cotor combinations, just [ike the orig-inal cocomats did. As their name implies,

80 THESIAR I [/[AR/APR2008

locotndts, dn 0ptiott btl J'|et[edes-BeltzNatural Auto Products offers a fu[[ line ofnatural f loor coverings inctuding, in addi-tion to the cocomat, sisat, woot, and seagrass mats, a[[ of which are natural prod-

ucts. The cocomat is by far the most practi-

cal and constitutes the majority of their nat-uraI product business.

The original idea behind cocomats was

Front

A rore ropy of the originol 1960'oplions" cololog.

Drivers side

Jeff ond Debbie Allwine, the Coconeisters. A poir of originol 1956 l 90SL cocomols.

Ihe fomily business iewels; over 2500 vehkle potterns.

that they were used in cars before carpet,when there was on[y rubber on the floor. Thecoco material acted as a carpet but with thebenefit that it allowed dirt and sand to filterthrough the coco material, so you did not seeit on the top of the rubber floor matting.Porsche, VW, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Triumph,and many other European cars supptied thistype of floor covering. Cocomats were a bighit in the '50s through the '70s, even aftercarpet was introduced. There were two mainU.S. companies and one company in Germanysupplying cocomats during the years whenthey were popular. The cocomats during thisperiod did not inctude any rubber bachng andtheir quatity depended upon which manufac-tureryou boughtthem from. Porsche and Mer-cedes-Benz originaI sales stickers inctudedcocomats from the factory. These were thehighest quatity and came from the Germanmanufacturer. One of the U.5. manufacturers

was in Southern California and one was in I[[i-nois, which later was sotd and moved to Geor-gia. The German company mostly supplied theauto manufacturers and new car dealers. Whenthe auto manufacturers stopped buying themats, the manufacturing of that product [inewas stopped. During that period, and up tothis day, a[[ of the material for cocomats gen-erally or.iginates in Southern India. Jeff pur-chases his coco materials from this area ofIndia, and the rubber backings from Thai[and.

Cocomat benefits are threefo[d. Aesthet-icatl.y they took attractive in various colorcombinat ions and add a high quat i ty lookand feel to an interior. Second[y, dirt wiLLnot remain on the surface, but fat[ throughthe matting onto the rubber backing. Theresul t is an atwdys fresh looking f loorcovering. To ctean them you simply removeand shake out the cocomat. Al"L this provideswear protect ion to your car 's carpet orrubber mats.

Here's the process Jeff and Debbie useas they manufacture their high-quatity coco-mat. Each mat is handmade to order. I wasshown this process by Jeff and Debbie work-ing together to make up a custom set ofcocomats. After an order is received, Jeffsetects the correct mat cotor from his largematerial inventory. He then proceeds to cuta rough pattern and then backs the mat withi ts rubber base. The adding of the rubberbacking is done in a temperature and humid-ity controlled room to insure uniform adhe-sion of the mat to the rubber backing. Jeffthen setects the correct pattern from hisrack of some 2,500 vehicte patterns, bothclassics and new modets. Clearty, this patterninventory represents the fami[y businessjewets. The pattern is placed on the cocomatand is cut precisely to shape by Jeff usinga clever[y constructed tabte j ig saw thatutitizes air flow so the mat moves freely dur-ing the cutt ing process. The mat is thengiven to Debbie for her to add the hand-s e w n b i n d i n g . H e e I p a d s a r e a d d e d , i frequested, as a tast step. Hee[ pads areinstatled on 99olo of their orders.

Al . l . th is is hand done by NaturaI AutoProducts, and a[[ is done with attention todetaiI and qua[ity. Not un[ike the processwe go about in restoring our classic M-B's.And, no restored classic is complete with-out a few options. I can't think of a betterlook than "Kokomatten" to finish off thefinal details and, at the same time, protectour rubber floor mats. Here's a pifra coladatoast to the Atlwines for keeping alive anoriginal vintage option. At Mercedes-Benzstandards to boot. Cheers! o

sow used to tul fte (o(omot lo fte oppropriote

Blue cocomots wifi whife dots in Ulfisronsin Sedion member John lewenouer's | 90S[.

MAR/APR2OOB I THESTAR 8I