Projects 1st time upholstery

After pondering on it for a while, I figured I'd take a stab at redoing the seats in my 48. I went to Wally World an found some material that looked similar and would go with my new carpet and bought two kinds, a softer velvety type material with a strong canvas type backing and and a striped pattern that was canvas too. I also bought a couple yards of a soft fleece type material to use for backing on the seat backs and sides. I completely disassembled the seat and took all the springs out of the bottom. I put them back in over a piece of 3/8 plywood and tied them all together with some left over rebar tying wire to stiffen up the bottom seat. I then wired three rods across the top to stiffen it up more. I cut apart all the original material to use as templates and cut out the new material from them. I sewed them up using a cheap $70 machine I got from amazon.com. It did very well. I put it altogether tonight and I think it turned out OK for about $50 in materials and two weeks of my time working in the evenings and on the weekends.

Before, thoroughly worn out and saggy as can be...





After, sits and looks much better...







Sorry about the picture quality. All I had was my crappy phone and it doesn't take the best picture in my dark workroom.

 

Wow, nice job! 100% better.

 

Great job!

 

Ain't nothing wrong with that job at all, it looks great.

Don

 

Wow! That's some great work! And a great price too!

 

Thanks guys, I'm thoroughly surprised at myself. I've never touched a sewing machine before but I did a lot of research on what to do from the fine folks here and over at the P15-D24 site. Plus I'm a cheap bastard and I figured for $50 I couldn't mess it up so bad that a pro couldn't fix it. LOL. I still have enough material to do the rest of the car so I'll be drawing out some patterns and redoing the door panels, kick panels and the panels behind the seat on vacation. I'll post up the completed interior when done. The only thing I will buy ready to install is the headliner since it has so many complicated shapes and I don't have one to make a pattern from.

 

Hats off to you man. Really looks great, admire your gutty approach to gettin er done. ~sololobo~

 

That does look nice, now can you make me a blue pin-striped suit please....

 

Well, I finally had some time today to do some more work on the interior. I finished the door panels and kick panels. I have the quarter panel pieces cut out and the piece that separates the front from the trunk cut out, the hinge in place and the top covered. Tomorrow I'll finish that panel and the two quarter panels and put on the arm rests. Here are a few pictures.

I started with the door panels, I covered the entire panel front and back with a layer of hardwood floor underlayment. It's got a plastic film to keep moisture off the panel and it has a thin foam layer.



I then covered the top part in the same material that is on the seat.



I bought a sheet of thin plastic from lowes that is meant to cover a commercial flouresent light fixture. I cut it out in a shape that pleased my eye and glued the bottom material to it.




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I then topped that piece with some chrome door guard trim and stapled it to the panel.





Then I added another layer of foam to keep the smooth appearance and glued the material down on the lower part of the panel. I lapped it over the back and glued it down. I think it turned out pretty good.


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I put the door panels on the car and started on the kick panels. I waited until the door panels were on to do the kick panels so I could line up the trim.





Then I got started on the back panel. I cut out the panel from plywood and cut it down the middle to attach a piano hinge, I covered it in the foam and the top part in the seat material.




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I started work on the armrests. I cut out the backbone from a 2x3 and shaped it with my bandsaw. After the roughcut, I sanded it to the final shape.



Then I cut out the patterns from the seat material and sewed them together.



After I attached the covers to the foam covered base I wound up with a finished product.




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I'll put up more pictures tomorrow after I finish the rest of the pieces and put them in and mount the seat. What do you think guys?

 

A very nice job that should last a long time. Your P15 is now a happier little car.

 

Look damn good.

 

I'm planning on doing my own interior in the Plymouth when that time comes around! But I'm gonna get my wife to sew it up! I've been looking for a way to get her involved any how!

 

Looks good! Who knows, maybe you'll shuck your old career and do affordable upholstery.

 

Some times it pays to be a cheap bastard. Good job!

 

Nice job on the interior Allen! Impressive.

 

Thanks Eric, that means a lot to me.

Here is the back panel and the two quarter panels.



I didn't get time to install them but I might be able to today or tomorrow. I'll get up better pics then. Thanks to all for the words of encouragement.

 

Not to bad...i like it...

 

nothing wrong with that! i plan the same thing when I get to that point with my model A.

 

I got it all installed yesterday. I still have a few tweaks to do to the back piece to make it fold open and closed easily but it's in there. I still haven't vacuumed or done the final cleaning, that'll come before the next cruise in this weekend. Here's the pics...











I'm sure glad it's done...now on to the trunk. Ugh.

 

Vhat is dat Velvet? It's beautiful!
Very nice job!
KK

 

Nice work!

 

Beautiful! (and certainly a whole lot better than I could do.)

 

Now I don't know about that, your work makes mine look like a retarded monkey did it.

 

I have been doing upholstery for 40+ years and never thought of using that door guard for chrome interior trim. Genius and I will be using that idea myself. Good to see a first timer jump in head first. The problem you will be having now is all the friends bugging you to do theirs cheap too. Ask me how I got started!

 

Do you wanna do my interior ??