Technical The upholstery thread to end all threads

Roothawg in an interior situation such as this the asthetics are more important than measurements so in this instance do what looks right as long as both doors look the same then don’t worry about measurements just make sure the pleats are the same throughout the interior

 

Just got mine back from the upholstery shop. Huge difference. I can now sit in it comfortably. Snowman ⛄️

 

I'm shrinking the top cap down to 4.5". We will see if that makes it look better.

 

What's your plan on the next panel. If you stay straight it will run out the top of the car if you level it your pleats will be at different angles?

 

Been practicing on blind stitches . Kinda figuring it out….

 

So, today we got excited and made all of the pleated pieces and did this one panel. It’s just laying loose. We still have to glue it to the panel. Pic is kinda crappy. I still hate welting.

 

So don’t use welting. Can’t you just stuff the roll to get any ripples out that the welting might have hidden?

 

Sid Chavers has done 3+ cars for me, and I think he is an incredible talent. I believe that he has an instructional video available. I realize that a skill and its instruction are entirely different things, but you might find it useful.

 

When I sew pleats like the ones you sewed. I stitch across the top and bottom twice. It locks everything in place and gives you a flatter surface when sewing on another piece. It has a tendency to come unstitched when trimming the panel down to size.

 

That's kinda what we did.

 

Everybody hates sewing welt at first. Buy the premade embossed welt. It makes life a lot easier. I rarely make my own welt. I think it looks better and it is more durable.

 

That was discussed today...

 

Just like hanging cabinets! Had a lady trying to tell us how do do a job one time. was walking around with her little pink torpedo level checking level. Wouldn't take no for an answer......so we did what she wanted. We "leveled" all of her cabinets doors. When done they were all wonky looking. She gave up and had us eyeball back to where the looked "right"

 

Are most of y'all using 5/32 welting? Who's a good source? My local folks are sold out.

 

I just bought the welting cord and made my own. It was easy to find, didn't need to worry about matching and there was nothing particularly difficult about making it. I believe I used 5/32 cord.

Lots of places online that sell premade if that's what you want. Just google automotive upholstery supplies. When I was looking for supplies and asked I got a different answer of who was good from pretty much everyone that replied. Kind of like anything I guess everyone has their favorite.

 

Real easy to make with a welting foot.

 

I have several.

 

I use 4/32” poly to make all my cording. The ready made plastic cording will not wrap around panels very easily.

Sid Chavers videos are very good. Even though I had upholstered for 30+ years when I watched them I picked up a few things.

 

It's not as foreign as it was before, but I still haven't done a complex piece, like a seat. My stuff is all flat so far.

 

I have yet another question.
I tried to buy the metal clips and the panel is too loose. How do you determine grip length? I am not a fan of the Christmas tree type, but I used them to keep moving forward. I used the Ford style and they are sloppy loose on 1/8" fiber board.

 

Do you mean loose on the panel board or loose fitting on the door? The Ford/Chrysler style wire clips are made with two different lengths of the shank that pops in the door. I’ll search for my old picture.

 

Unfortunately these are W&E numbers and they were bought up by AUVECO. You can look up a cross reference for the numbers on AUVECOs web site I think.

Notice the difference in the length of the shanks on 1213 and 2560. 1213 is the most common to use on 20s-60s cars because the door is flat. 2560 is designed for doors that have a ridge around the outer edge hence they reach farther. 2560 also works well for fiberglass doors that are thick.

 

They fit the panel ok, but when I snap the panel on it has too much play. Sloppy.

 

I use 808s usually, if not 807s when panel needs to fit tighter.

 

Here’s the W&E to AUVECO cross reference link…

https://www.auveco.com/medias/WE to Auveco Cross Ref. 2020.pdf

 

Thanks!

 

I’m now remembering what I had to do the last time I ordered some of the short shank clips. The AUVECO cross gives a long shank 8206 which is wrong. The correct short shank clips for flat doors is #2309. The easiest place I found them was EBay.

 

I have moths or something else eating my seats. What do you use to stop this?

 

How would I cover this? The blue back half is plastic from a 98 Honda, the cardboard bit is going to be some kind of plywood or something similar. I was thinking white vinyl for the bottom and the raised area in the front stained wood...