First Attempt - Upholstery From Scratch

I burned the midnight oil last night and finished installing fatmat in the cab of the '58. Now the rest of the interior could go back in, starting with a new headliner. I used the old headliner for a template and cut a new one from a large piece of pleated vinyl. The only hard part was fighting to get the fossilized rubber retaining strip back in.



Feeling confident, I took the waterboard panels I made earlier in the week and glued on a layer high density of 1/4" upholstery foam.



The next step was to trim the excess foam on 3 sides with a good razor knife.



The foam on the upper edge was cut back about 1/2" to prevent excess material thickness where the finished panel is inserted into a "j-strip".



The pleated vinyl backing and filler was also cut back to reduce material thickness.



Time to glue the vinyl to the panel, the spray adhesive had enough working time allow repositioning the vinyl so everything was straight and square.



I used stronger 3M High Tack adhesive for securing the back side, the corners took a little time. (It looks so easy on TV)



Here's what the completed panel looks like. I'm going to try using self adhesive velcro strips to secure the panel so no screws will show.



I built kick panels using pretty much the same method. The hardest part was getting the pleats parrallel to the pleats on the door.



The upper panels will be recovered with plain white vinyl when the material arrives. In the meantime I have to put in some carpet..

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nice!

 

looks great!

 

Looks awesome! Who sells pleated vinyl?

 

FYI the pleats are done with a dielectric process, not s***ched. ..

http://www.allvinylfabrics.com

http://www.garysupholstery.com/foamback.html

 

You mean after all those years of dropping huge amounts of coin at the Upholsterers I could have done this **** myself????

Well played sir

 

man you make it look easy

 

Looks very nice....great to see someone tackle something they have never done and then it looks so professional. Saving money is what it's all about.

 

Exactly what type of mat is that, and are you happy with it so far? Does it smell like asphalt?

Also consider rare earth magnets to hold the panels on (try 'dealextreme.com' for the dime-sized magnets). I've heard that the problem with Velcro (sometimes) is that without some sort of mechanical fastener, it comes off the door so both pieces are on the panel and thus the panel becomes loose. You can sew part of the Velcro to the panel, but attaching it to the metal door is the issue.

 

The company is FATMAT, their product is supposed to be "as good as" Dynamat. I can tell you is it's not as expensive as Dynamat. Fatmat was easy to work with and sticks real good if you spend a little time on surface prep. I didn't notice much of a odor...

http://fatmat.com/

 

you can use a few pop rivets with large heads to stop the velcro pulling away from the metal door

 

Nice work. You make it look easy.Just wondering. How many yards did you buy to do you trucks??

 

beautiful work!

 

nice, good job.

 

Looks good.

I been planing on doing the door panels and package tray on my Galaxie here in the next few months.

What did you use for the door panels backing?

 

Looks great. Love the colors and you did a nice job!

 

Nice Job, very inspiring, a good thing to secure the panels with is 3M scotchlock. Its like Velcro on steroids. You can order it from most auto paint stores

 

Great---I think I can do some of my "T" myself now.

 

That looks great! When I did mine, I bought my material from Autocraft.

http://www.customseatcovers.com/

 

lookd great

 

It only took a couple of yards to do everything because the material is 54" wide.

Barney the backing is called waterboard. One of my coworkers gave it to me, it was left over after upholstering his '32 coupe.

 

There are small "clips" (kind of an X shape with a loop on the end) that can be put under the upholstery, protruding thru the board (or plastic panel -if you desire), then you simply drill a 1/4" hole in the door to match the clip and "pop" the panels on...and off...and on...and off. They are available at nearly any upholstery supplier...velcro eventually "wears" out and holding something as heavy as a door panel requires a lot of velcro...

R-

 

Really nice job. For a first time try, you nailed it

 

Great looking interior! You are giving a lot of guys some confidence to tackle that kind of job themselves. Well Done!

 

I really want to avoid drilling any holes if at all possible. I got a lot of tips from my friend Terry who has done several cars himself, he ***ured me that HD Velcro will work. I will try to source some of the 3M Scotchlok that loveoftiki mentioned, worst case scenario is I'll have to put a few screws with finishing washers along the bottom to support the weight of the door panels. My buddy UF stopped by to check out my progress and now he want's to do door panels for his '63 Galaxie, I'll suggest the clips to him and maybe we will give them a try.

I still have enough material left over for panels to cover the void between the door opening and the back of the cab. I'll post pics of them too when I get around to making them...

 

Looks good. Nothing like the satisfaction of doing it yourself

 

I'm going to keep this one for reference .

 

that looks *****in....good job

 

Looks good. But wouldn't "from scratch" mean sewing the vinyl to the backing and do each pleat yourself? Not buying already finished material....

 

LOL...don't screws need holes in the doors too...??? Or do you have some magical way of using screws without holes...???

R-