Upholstery Work?

[Kevin Bielinski #13320]

Anyone ever attempt this? I've been following a tutorial on another site and everything is coming out great. I re foamed my back seat and it is better than new. Picked up a Singer 111W153 and am now starting to make seat panels.

[Edward Kenny]

I need to know about this as well because my front seat needs to be newly cushioned. For some reason I'm scared that if I start it myself I might botch the job. Is it difficult?

[Wayne Womble 12210]

I did all of my 33 and my 31 myself. Bought a cheap Chinese walking foot machine. Just duplicate what you see. Take it a piece at a time. One day you will finish.

[Kevin Bielinski #13320]

At first I was scared but it is not that scary. Re foaming was easy. I used better quality material than most shops do. Instead of burlap, I used laminated deck skin. The stuff is tougher than nails. The foam I selected was 3270 and secured to the deck skin with K Grip. I then secured a 1/2 layer of sew foam to the 3270 with K Grip and placed the cover back on. Of course all the foam had to be trimmed to the correct size. I also used listing wire across the s springs in order to make them work in concert with each other. The upholstery shop near me wanted 400 bucks to do this job.

Now I'm in the process of making patterns for my '70. And will start with vinyl before i try leather.

[Edward Kenny]

In trying to refoam my seats, can I still reuse the original seat covers? All I want to replace and rebuild is the foaming itself. All else must remain original.

[John Tozer #7946]

If you are SERIOUSLY ready to have a go at this specialised work there are some excellent free videos here:

http://lebaronbonney.com/instructions.htm

Good luck.


John Tozer
#7946

[Kevin Bielinski #13320]

Yes, you can. I did the rear seat of my 1970 Coupe and it came out great. The materials today are far superior than anything in the past. Send me an email and i'll tell you more. The leather on my 70 was in good shape. the original foam, which was latex, dries up and turns to yellow dust. Todays materials don't rot like that.

BTW - Im in the process of making new seat covers for the car in black vinyl. Vinyl is inexpensive and I thought this would be a good practice run before I tried leather.  Another thing - don't think for one second that a home sewing machine will go through sewfoam. My mSinger Model 66 can eat a lot of stuff but can't handle that. I use a Singer 111W153 for this. Don't beleive the guys on eBay who claim the old black Singers can do auto upholstery - because they can't, if you want to do it right.

[Fred Zwicker #23106]

Thanks John for the link to LeBaron Bonney's upholstery information.  I found it very interesting and informative. 

I do my own seats, carpets, trunk linings, doors and side panels (but not headliners or convertible tops). Kevin and others are correct in that you need the proper sewing machine with a walking foot.  This type of machine feeds the upholstery so that it will not slip, and keeps the stitches even. If a regular sewing machine (even a tailoring machine) is used, slippage can and will result, with uneven stitches.  As a result, sometimes the needle cuts the material from the repeated stitching in one place.

I use a Juki machine and also own a Consew machine for the heavy work (both are walking foot machines), as well as a Singer 31-15 tailoring machine for lighter fabrics.  I was once in the drycleaning business and we specialized in suedes and leathers, so picked up a lot of experience many years ago that are not forgotten.  Some areas still need a few stitches by hand (some of the corners and places that the machine cannot easily reach). I worked my way through college, working in drycleaning plants and tailor shops and taught myself to sew. Today tailoring in this country is becoming a lost art, but someone has to do it, as it would be quite expensive to ship our cars to China and back for a new interior.

Attached is a pictrure of my sewing department in my home.  At work, we have the bigger machines, cutting tables and lots of materials on hand "for later". My father always used to say, "You can do anything if you have the tools and know how".

Fred

[John Tozer #7946]

Fred,

Your old Dad was right....

I would kill for a walking foot machine but they are well out of my price range. I bought a Brother industrial machine then swapped the pulley on the motor for a small one to slow the whole thing down to around my basic skill levels. I won't try headliners and am undecided on seats until I begin with the jump seats in my 75 series.

Just to add a note to your old Dad's advice, I tried sewing leather with no success whatsoever for a while despite trialling numerous needles, threads and tension settings. Finally struck gold when I applied a bit of lateral thinking and applied contact glue to the two faces to be sewn and effectively glued them together before even starting the sewing, adusted the height of the "gripper" on the bottom of the machine and flew through the task! Finished the entire Dining Room suite that way!

So maybe you Dad could have said "You can do anything if you have the tools and know how ...mixed with a bit of sideways thinking!"

Regards,


John Tozer
#7946