You'll be fine if you use regular vinyl. The "nauga" was a fictitious animal created by U.S. Naugahyde for marketing. You'll be able to sleep just fine after your steak dinner and sit in your leather easy chair.
An old sofa sounds like a good pick, but a lot of "leather" furniture (and car interiors as well) has "leather seating" meaning that there's only leather where your skin touches. The rest is vinyl that looks like leather. Since an RPU has so little to upholster, I'd go with leather if it wasn't crazy expensive. I'd never match upholstery to paint color. Even if it's a red-on-red car you need to contrast the shades, heck even the manufacturers do that. Bright red car, maroon interior.
I think "bonded leather" is something like vinyl or urethane coating on a plain leather backing. It does seem to hold up real well on furniture.
I knew dat I grew up in the upholstery biz and when I was a kid, my dad would take me with to the supply houses. Those damned nauga dolls were everywhere. Be cool to have one now.
I bought enough leather to do the entire interior of my roadster for $500 3 hides It's worth looking into leather on a roll, it's reconstituted leather sold by the yard. If your doing matching interior/exterior colour they need to be a near perfect match or it looks shit. Generally speaking patinated/ antiqued leathers look terrible although analine leathers can give you that aged look with out it looking fake You need to get automotive quality leather for uv resistance and wear it's usually thicker than upholstery leather. Every time some one wants me to cut up a sofa I roll my eyes and send them else where. Good luck with it sounds like your going about it the right way.
i used vinyl when i redid my interior. looks and feels like leather. all of my neighbors cows are present and accounted for.
If you are a real roadster guy, & drive a lot, as I have for 300,000 miles to date, you will be very happy to select Marine vinyl, its cool enough in hot sun without the top on, & rain proof in all conditions. When first finishing my roadster in 1968, I had black vinyl through out, after 200,000 miles & 5 times cross country driving, the hot weather was evident that black vinyl was too hot. After upgrading everything in 1996, I chose to go with grey marine vinyl, & it works great in all weather conditions.-----Don
Marine vinyl is a good choice, avoid ultra leather as it is over rated and over priced. If you want leather try these folks.I have used them several times and will again. https://www.leatherhidestore.com/
It's been 3 years since you installed your couch leather in your car. How had it held up? How much have you driven it? Or does it mostly sit in the garage? Just trying to get a feel for it's durability. The interior looks great in the pictures! It looks very professional. While 117harv and others have an excellent point about it not being as good as the expensive stuff, I'm wondering if it's good enough, especially considering the price difference between expensive and free. Would you do it again or would you spring for the good stuff? Although, now that I think about it, Never2old is going to have a hard time finding a free red leather couch on Craigslist.
The bitter of low quality remains after the sweatness of low price is long gone. If you are gonna spend time doing a job, use good quality parts. I use Katzkin leather. Have been for 15 years. The labor rate is still the same whether using couch leather or high grade Italian leather. Matching the paint to the leather is a lot easier than the other way around. It sounds like you know what you are doing. Go ahead and do it. Post pic`s when you are done and tell us how you like it and any other suggestions that you have to offer.
Stopped by UFO yesterday to see what red was available in marine vinyl. Only two & neither was right. Might use combo vinyl/leather to get the color I need. We'll see. Upholsterer said he can get a bright red ("Ferrari red") in leather. I'll see when he gets back from Sinaloa. Thanks for your posts. I'll update soon.
That is true for most, no doubt there. I happen to know leather quality and if anyone is hunting their own hides they'd be far better off if they do to. Even if your hunting at the store. "Bonded" leather is made from the dust that comes from splitting and shaving hides and the scraps ground into dust. It's basically the particle board of leather. Dust and resin. Ever see a leather jacket rip? Bonded. Ever have a belt disintegrate? Bonded. Full grain is what you want for durability and awesome looks. In bigger pieces, like a couch- This will have the cows scars, blemishes, barbed wire scrapes, hair follicles and maybe its still got the hair. The surface's pattern is dependent on the cow's genes not the embossing. You'll not find any full grain leather in mass produced car seats anymore. I can show 100 year old pleated seat back from a derelict open car that's in amazing shape. Top grain has the full grain split off, its shaved down and looks like suede until they polish and emboss the surface with a fake grain pattern stamped into it. Most of the stuff is just Top grain. Full grain jacket on left, top grain vest on the right.
Great info. The sad thing about it is that a lot of people will look at the info and just blow it off. There is truth in leather quality and you get what you pay for, or also what you don't pay for
I've tried it all over the last 50 years and keep going back to good quality leather. I've been buying top quality 55-60 square ft hides for in the vicinity of $4 a square ft for many years. Just getting ready to order some for my deuce 5 window. Over the years I've sold most of my builds and leather seems to be the cover of choice for most buyers. I'm sure my leather comes from overseas but it seems to hold up well. Funny thing, the hides for my current roadster must have came from Argentina as at the front of each hide was a hole about a foot in diameter. I asked the supplier what the deal was with the hole and he said the hides were Brahma and that's where the hump was.
I think I know the material your talking about. It's called recycled leather . I bought some for my barbers chair. They use the recycled leather on the back and Naugahyde on the face I believe.Looks and feels like the real stuff. Was about the price of Naugahyde. The only red color I saw was called Cranberry and it was pretty dark.
My grandma had a Naugahyde couch, the most uncomfortable thing I can remember from my childhood. EVERYONE hated sitting on that thing. Covering it with a blanket made it tolerable for short spurts.
Like others commented, I think a contrast looks best. The seat top is real leather, the sides and door panels are matching vinyl - hard to tell the difference. Material came from Lebaron-Bonney - expensive but I wanted as close to the stock '34 material as was available. Leather is super comfortable, hot or cold.
When skinning curb couch's ,I'd be worried about bed bugs. Had them when I lived in a apt. in Tulsa. Never again will I hunt at the curb.
I'm thinking that if you were to find an old school coach for free, you take it to the dump and skin it right there before you go in. [emoji41]
There is some damn good vinyl these days that looks and feels just like leather. I would go vinyl no doubt at all.
Some of the higher end cars (Ferrari, Rolls etc.) had Connolly leather, I understand it is no longer available?
Connolly are back in business selling hi end leather in the original grain / colours as used 30's through to the 60's but it's $15 dollars a sq ft
Good advice being provided to suggest marine grade vinyl.........have 76,000 mi on my 29A RPU now and don't regret chosing vinyl over leather.........as my upholstery guy said "it's the same shit chain restaurants use" as it cleans up easily (I use Simple Green) and feels good with a conditioner applied after cleaning which is 2x yearly.........only drawback is the heat from direct sunlite, so my good wife bought some same color towels @ Costco and made me awesome seat covers.........local bud with same 29 RPU used leather & is switching to vinyl as it won't stay clean like mine.........
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