Upholstery, a beginners journy

I won't call sms,at 1 time as they were starting they tried to buy my old stock materials offered 1-2 dollars a yard.A friend smi retired 2 years ago,lots of old stock,they offered him 2 dollars a yard if he inventoried and let them cherry pick. They do however have some good stuff and have some milled to match. Jack

 

Whelp, after a week of soul searching, I've made a decision.
I'm going to stick with the tweed. Nothing else really tickles my fancy, well one other did, but it's $98/yd To rich for my first trim job.

Sweet, thanks for the info.
Here is the Front Passengers seat, and my plan.
Green pleated inserts running back and up, light grey for the outside.




And here is a pic of the door panel, and my plan.
Green pleated running vertically on the bottom.
Light grey on the top.
The marker line running through the arm rest will be my split line. I've got some nice SST pieces for the line. It will continue straight back through the 1/4 panel. The garnish moldings will be black like the dash.



I've also browsed through a bunch of pictures here, and I'd like something like this pattern for the back seat.
pic stolen from BrandyMcCoy, thanks

 

Looking good, Thom! I'll holler at you in a couple of weeks when I get home.

 

Hi Your choice will be fine Thommy. If you don't want to make the seats in all those pieces as factory just redraw the seam lines to carry thru as you want.Like the backrest welt line can be carried straight around instead of turning in 2 places.If that makes any sense.Just a personal thing but I don't take the covers off,I pin my materials on and mark. Use chalk or china markers.Make lots of witness marks.Those seats should make up nice.If they aren't split bench,they are exact opposite,so just reverse the same pattern. Jack

 

Great thread, Thommyknocker. I like trying to do as much as I can myself, and I rate upholstery up there with wiring in difficulty!

 

Good seat choice...

 

Thanks guys.
Whenever you got time or projects you need help with Buddy, I'm around.

Jack, thanks for the input, I do want to make the front seats more simple.
It is a 60 40 split bench with an arm rest. I understand what your saying about running the insert straight across, but I think it would be better with 2 separate ones because of the gap and armrest in the middle



Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

I would run it straight across as well. I think it would look weird having two different sized inserts with the horseshoe all the way around both of them. It would look way better IMO just running the insert right to the inner edge of each back.

 

Oh! I understand now K13! These seats arnt like that. I measured them and the pleated area is the same size on both seats. The drivers seat is 4" wider for the armrest, which is not pleated. Here is the best pic I have of them installed



Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Those back rests Should be the same, just a mirror image of each other. If you saw that candy stripe seat I did a while back it was basically the same seat. I think what Jack was talking about was the backrest side band going straight instead of diving in to the center. I would suggest the same.

I strip the cover off. If I'm making a new design I draw it out with a black sharpie on the foam. Then use 4 mil clear vinyl like I use for the trim panels. Use 3m 77 to lightly tack the clear vinyl down to the foam and use a sharpie again to draw those lines on the clear vinyl. That is now your pattern. There may be a few more steps depending on the piece being covered.

As a beginner I would start with the bottom cushion of the seat withOUT the armrest. It is the simplest to cover. When you look it, it really only has TWO pieces - a top surface and a side band. Start with the top surface. It can be made many different ways as long as in the end you use the old surface or pattern you make as the template for its finished size. You should be able to use the old side band as a pattern.

So you dream up your pattern for the surface, sew it up allowing for shrinkage for pleating and sew in allowance so it is a little larger than your pattern and sew on the rear stretcher, lay it out possibly even stretching a little and stapling down to a table, lay the pattern on top and mark with chalk or marker, sew the welt cording just inside your line.

Make the band just like the old one (could be one,two,or three main pieces with stretchers at bottom edge).

So you have the two basic pieces again! Find the center of each or some line up marks you may have made. Start in the center and sew out each direction being carefull not to stretch either piece. You should end up with the cushion cover.

To put it on turn the band inside out so it is standing up, line up the surface to the markings on the foam cushion, hog ring the rear stretcher of the surface to the frame, stretch and pull the top surface front corners rolling the band down and over the front and sides, hog ring the front and sides to the frame underneath.

Hopefully this makes some sense. Tough to explain in written word.

I think your plan for the door panels will work well.

Good luck, Jake

 

Yea Jake ,I did mean the vertical welt .For a beginner 1 band will be much easier. Thommy you can design those or any seat to suit, sometimes you can design yourself into a corner that is a bitch to get out of. Keep at it we need the practice typing Jack

 

Ah, now I understand. KISS" is good. I see how that is much more simple. Sorry I missed that.

I'll be referring back to your post often I'm sure
Here is the pic you referred to
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=8950&pictureid=420314

Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Is the seat bottom one continuous piece? If it is I would do it like the picture from Brandy you posted and then I would do the backs to look the same so the outer horseshoe (black in your picture) looks like it continues right across the top probably right at the height of the armrest when it is in the upright position and then do the arm rest in white but not pleated. But having said that I don't really know what I m talking about so it take it with a grain of salt.

 

I used to think that... when i was married... now i have a happy life 24/7 without her!
Funny how that works.

 

My favorite song by Roy Clarke ---Thank God and Greyhound She's Gone,
(My first one that is)

 

Before I put the sewing machine away, I stitched my little samples together.

 

LOL you guys are too funny!

Sodium Chloride applied
It's a split bench, almost exactly like the candy striped example.

One more dumb question for now. I'm laying out the pieces to see how much material I need to buy.

The green comes in 54" wide.
The back seat is 58" wide.

I'm thinking it would match the front if I put a 4 to 6" stripe of the grey down the middle. Or would it look better with a grey border on the outsides.

 

LOL I see. I personally still think it would look good like the picture you posted above by bandy. Like this example from Gilgonzales. Obviously there would be a split on the bottom as well but I think it would look good.

 

Just ordered materials, so I'll get started in about a week.
I got some extra material for when I screw up

Let's see how the door panels go.
If I'm more confident I'll look into changing the seat pattern suggested by k13.

If I struggle it's going to stay simple like Jake's example.

 

I am currently working on my seats which are similar to the pattern you posted by brandy and what I posted and it's not really that bad. By far the hardest part is sewing the surround to the insert. It is a lot of sewing, measuring and work but the inserts are just straight lines so not too bad.

Gilgonzales did an excellent how-to on doing pleated inserts:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=372599

 

sewing a curved insert or horseshoe can be rather daunting. If thats what you want I suggest sewing up a test piece out of cheap material. Witness marks and relief cuts are your friend, every two to four inches. And patience, lots of it!

 

Sounds like a plan Jim.

I'll need some black vinyl for other things, I'll do a few test pieces.....

With my fresh off craigslist machine. Thompson pw-301 I know it's not the biggest and baddest, but at least I can get the carpet under the true walking foot.
Best part is I paid $200. I'm happy, it doesn't look all worn out like the last one I looked at. IT took the a few carpet samples easy enough.

 

I stopped by hobby lobby and picked up some vinyl.
Here is my first experiment with welting. It would probably be easier if I used actual welt cord and not electrical wire LOL

Next I'm going to try and make a pattern for the front seat backrest. It will be all black vinyl, but lets see how I do

 

Shoot Thommy, you got it whipped! Looks good!

 

I am getting ready to tackle a headliner on a 46 Chev. Does anyone know if the black tarpaper looking insulation on the inside of the roof contained Asbestos? It's pretty crumbly but I haven't tackled removing it yet.

 

It shouldnt contain asbestos but to be safe wear a dust mask as there will be mold a mildew.

 

Well hi guys. If you think that has asbestos,do what I have always done,Just take it out, I have never worn a mask as we never knew better in the old daysBe more worried about the mouse stuff. Thommy looks like you'll figure the horseshoes out, GM used wire welt for a long time and it wasn't soft. Sure cost me a lot of needles! Jack

 

Jake,

I've got a good question on that seat you mentioned.
How did you pad the back and sides of the backrest?

I'm playing with a standard weight vinyl at the moment, no pleats yet. Just getting a feel for making patterns and moving the material through the machine. Of corse my first attempt is a bit loose on the backrest without padding on the back and sides of the frame.

 

The tuck and roll on the surfaces is a better grade 1/2" glued to 1/4" scrim foam. All the plain maroon panels have 1/4" scrim foam sewn to them before putting together. I have used headliner fabric with the foam on it in place of 1/4" scrim at times. Works well and uses up the scraps.

 

Perfect, thanks Jake.
I've got some sew foam on order now.

Here is the backrest. With just vinyl the formed valleys show through.
Is there a good way to fill them up?
Or will the scrim foam cover that up OK?

Thanks again for your time guys.
I'll try another test cover while I wait for the actual material to arrive.