who else does upholstery

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
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I am a beginner when it comes to producing car seats.

I have a lot of sewing experience with clothes because I make my own clothes and been doing that since I was a pre-teen, but vinyl is a lot different than Chiffon.

I have an industrial upholstery machine.

I have made some seats already for a friend and they came out real good for a beginner. Right now I was in a project on some bucket seats for a 72 demon but I am kinda stuck and cant get moving on it again.

I basically measure the old pattern and re-create it so it looks factory, I am not really into the custom stuff.


of course the bottom piece in the pic needs to be stretched out over the frame to look better, but there are no puckers and I think the lines are straight as they can be


anyone else out there do it, or dabbling with it? just curious if it is a common project among FABO people
 

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Thats cool. I have been thinking about getting into that. What type of sewing machine do you have. Where do you buy your vinyl or leather from?
Rodney
 
Nice job you are very talented. I am pretty good with a wrench. I am not to hot with sewing or paint gun. I guess I will be paying some one to do both.
 
rod7515 said:
Thats cool. I have been thinking about getting into that. What type of sewing machine do you have. Where do you buy your vinyl or leather from?
Rodney
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its a consew brand .....pretty big name in the upholstery business

and I get vinyl and materials from a place called Keyston Brothers Upholstery in Denver, CO which is a 3 hour drive for me but that is nearest outlet
 

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67cudafb said:
Nice job you are very talented. I am pretty good with a wrench. I am not to hot with sewing or paint gun. I guess I will be paying some one to do both.
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thanks, I have known been to sling a paint gun too LOL

I went to auto school at a community college and they actually teach all this stuff.....but after they show you once you have practice a lot or you lose it.
 
Dang Rani, looks good. Wish i was handy enough to repop some covers for myself! Keep it up
 
I don't do it, but it interests me. Gawd, Rani.....you ARE a restoration research company!! LOL

I had some Legendary seat covers that I considered trying to install on some buckets, but I didn't wanna damage them and go into meltdown if I punched a hole in one, so I let the pros do it. Your work looks pretty good from here!

BTW, why upholstery interests me is that #1, I like the idea of working on something by myself (as a business thing) and #2, I saw this one guy in town here.....making a killing doing people's classic cars, boats and airplanes. The dude was swamped with work.....(back when the economy was crankin'.)
 
stitching looks good from here.Open the stitch spacing all the way when sewing vinyl so it doesn't cut through,did you remember to sew on the listings on the bottom to pull down into seat?Also it looks like you have some bunching caused by swaping directions when sewing channels.Practise makes perfect,keep at it .If you run into something you need help with pm me .
 
bd1155 said:
stitching looks good from here.Open the stitch spacing all the way when sewing vinyl so it doesn't cut through,did you remember to sew on the listings on the bottom to pull down into seat?Also it looks like you have some bunching caused by swaping directions when sewing channels.Practise makes perfect,keep at it .If you run into something you need help with pm me .
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perfect ...thanks ...that's why I was looking to see if anyone else has experience here ....im just starting out so I figured there would be errors. :hello2:
 
Sewing is an art that can't be taught in one lesson . Some can do it and some can not. I can not but I wish I could. I envy your talent,
 
I do upholstery but it has been a while since I have. I used to have a mattress manufacturing company and I had a bunch of specialty equipment that I collected along the way. One of my favorite tools is the pneumatic hog ring gun. I still have 5 or 6 and do they make attaching seat covers easier.
 

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Oklacarcollecto said:
I do upholstery but it has been a while since I have. I used to have a mattress manufacturing company and I had a bunch of specialty equipment that I collected along the way. One of my favorite tools is the pneumatic hog ring gun. I still have 5 or 6 and do they make attaching seat covers easier.
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That sounds and looks dangerous. At least a nail gun you could pull it out if it doesn't go clean through. an expert only tool
 
Looks dead on to the original.

I run a machine, but it isn't strong enough for foam backing on vinyl. The trick is to have a good pattern and be careful removing the old stuff.

B&D up in Denver also sells foam for a good price. I'll have to check that place out that you go to.

I reupholstered a mid century chase lounge and an end seat with steel rod hairpin legs that I made for it, that now reside in my living room. The end seat was fairly simple with it's P cap armrests and base, but the chase lounge was tricky, because it doesn't have a lot of seams. It was mostly stretching work, on a staple gun, which can be odd with a fixed pattern.

I've found that playing with different feet and slides on the machine with each type of cloth used on a test piece can give you great results when running your lines.

Right now, I'm playing with a full curve needle, hand stitching armrest covers, because I'm not impressed with the rubberized vinyl finish in the Scamp. They look cheap.

When I run hand stitches on a curve needle into something solid, like those armrest pads, I like to place dots where I want the stitches to enter and exit, so they are uniform and gives me a better idea than just a line, when I return the needle from the blind side, coming back through. A line only gives me where all of the stitches need to be, but if I use dots to target, it turns out way more uniform.

I'm going to look in to a professional machine soon, because I just happened to come up with a lot of projects down the line that will make it worth buying.

Oklacarcollecto said:
I do upholstery but it has been a while since I have. I used to have a mattress manufacturing company and I had a bunch of specialty equipment that I collected along the way. One of my favorite tools is the pneumatic hog ring gun. I still have 5 or 6 and do they make attaching seat covers easier.
Click to expand...

Start a piercing pagoda.
 
Looks great Rani, nice work! Ive never tried installing new stuff, but I can always help ya take the leather off if you like?? :glasses7:
 
girlie, what do you not do well? Id love to see that thing installed.
 
I got burnt for 600 bucks from a guy that said he could do my seats and I had seat covers. . I had seen pics of work he had done and yes it looked great. So I ended up doing what I should of done in the first place, take them to a real upholster shop and they look great.
 
that looks great Rani! I do some as well. I used to go golf cart enclosures, done some boat seats, sail covers, dodgers and some other stuff and a few seats on my own cars.
 
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