What happened to T.J. Upholstery jobs?

. . . when I was a teenager in the 50's we would load up a car and head to Tijuana Mexico for a cheap tuck 'n roll upholstery job. While the owner was spending the night "supervising" the others would hit the main drag, get shit faced, maybe laid, certainly broke. You should have seen the little Mexican kid helpers tear apart an interior before the Upholstery experts began their work. Screws, brackets, everywhere. But, miraculously, the job got finished and didn't look half bad.

Would expect that some of you characters might give it a go . . . try actually UPHOLSTERING one of the rods that would likely never see it . . . go to TJ and look em up. I be they are still there. Let me know, neither of my rods are upholstered, but it would be a rare treat.

 

Was a thread a couple years ago about a HAMBer who actually still takes his cars there. Had pics and everything (not of what his friends did though).

 

My Ranchero has a relatively recent TJ job.

 

Took my 58 Ford there in '65. Took my '48 Plymouth there in 2005. Wrote a story about the adventures. Send me your email and I'll shoot you a copy of the story in word format with pictures .

 

I want to do my own upholstery for some strange reason? I was taught to sew by the parachute riggers while serving at the Army Parachute School and kinda enjoy it. Got pretty good too, they even let me repair parachutes!
I cant see a basic job being all that hard?
Not to mention TJ is a HELL of a drive from here.

 

Axle was telling me he just took his '36 over there, it looked good! I saw it at the GNRS

But you do have to "supervise" them. I have heard stories of people's seats getting stuffed with baby diapers etc. and other rags and stuff.

 

Well that explains a lot...

 

wasnt there a movie

starring KELLY LEE(from bad news bears)

that they were sweatin getting a 57 stuffed with cow manure

 

You know, I looked for an old post by axle telling his dealio down in TJ. Alas the post is not in the archives anymore!

 

more to worry about than baby diapers and rags, a guy up here took his truck down there, didn't have any problem till a couple days after he got back home when he went outside to see his truck had been broken into and the seat ripped apart, he was a drug runner and didn't even know it.

 

I heard in the 50's some guys used to take their own thread too. that way you know they used the good strong kind.

Ive seen a lot of really nice jobs, but you just gotta watch them. You cant just go off and get drunk and come back expecting it to be perfect.

 

See if axle wants to re-post his info? That thread was really good, to bad it was so far back that it is not in the archives

 

I took my '62 Vette to TJ in 1968 (I was living in Oxnard at the time) for black tuck & roll - seats, carpet, door panels, kick panels, dash cover and a tonneau cover for the grand price of $125. It's all in a box up in the house garage attic still. The car has been gone for 29 years - traded for my '40 Chevy convert.

Suppose I oughta haul that stuff down and put it up for sale - back in the day upholstery?

Charlie

 

Axle from the Shifters just got his 36 done in T.J. and it looks RAD>>> and it
don't smell like poop...

 

Maybe he can get his money back...???!!!!

 

I will have to agree with Justin B.
If you do not watch them they will stuff your interior with drugs and follow you through the border crossing. If you get busted they go back and do it again to the next guy and you go to jail.

If you make it past the border crossing they follow you home and retrieve the drugs in a day or two.

Back when I was in High school I used to live in San Yisidro CA (spelling?) that is the first town north of the border. Rembemer the McDonalds massacre? I applied for a job there about a year before that but did not get it because I did not speak spanish. Used to ride our bikes down to the border crossing after school and walk into TJ and see how far we could talk the shop owners down on stuff then walk away. Didn't have any money to buy anything anyway. I learned a lot of spansih cuss words that way

I was into cars back then and even when I moved north to Oceanside so I have heard the story over and over again. If you stay and watch you can get a good job but you have to go early and let them know they must finish while you are there. Not all shops are there to rip you off but enough of them have done it to make it risky.

 

Thanks for your response. Are you happy with the Ranchero upholstery? How did the price compare with stateside jobs?

 

Dude, whatever. If they stuffed a couple big bench seat full of weed, smack or blow I am sure it would not roll through so easy........not to mention the fact that you might pick up on it? Many reasons, we do not need to get into details......

 

Gotta bust out the Google search for that one, Shinsei....

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52867

Bryan

 

haha,,i know,,haha,,

,,,whats up,,,he cant even remeber the name of the city where he went to high school ,..oh well..

 

I bow down to the fuckin master! Serious, nice search man. Thanks!

 

"Losin It" was the name of the movie. It had a cool little A roadster in it as well (with a Lasalle transmission...or at least he mentioned it had one in it).

 

i lived in imperial beach for 13 years and thats right on the boarder i know a lot of dudes that went to tijauna for interiors lowriders , hot rodders and even bikers and ive never heard anything about any dope shit this is some kind of urban legend crap .. now the getting a piss poor job from not watchin them do the work hell yeah it happens ..my 2cts

 

PM Axle, he just had his 36 coupe done, B&W tuck and roll, $600.

 

Wrong! read it again
Can't remember the spelling of the town of one of the many schools I went to, I actually graduated from oceanside I only went to the other school for a year. My father was a lineman so we moved a lot. Been in every state west of ole Miss. My brother still lives in oceanside. Also spent the 4 years I was in the Navy stationed in San Diego and did a few cars then But never had an interior done in TJ
back in the late 70s they did not have the drug sniffing dogs that they have now and the border was much more open with Gringos being waved through pretty easy.

PS dad was a forman on the San Diego trolly line

 

thats more information than i required but thanks for sharing dude ..

 

theres a story like this in the garage mag, I will try to find it

 

i say we get a group to go down there and get the interiors done in all are cars.......im in...

 

So lets see....

Price to have the custom interior I want shipped to my front door:
$2767.31, and then I have to install it.

Or,
Me and the Girlfriend drive the '57 down to TJ, 4500 mile round trip. [no big deal to me,,, I drive for a living] @ 21 mpg = 220 gallons @ $3 = $660

Plus 5 nights at the el cheapo deluxe motor in @ $40 a night = $200

Plus 2 nights at a nice Hotel in SoCal = $200

Plus $500 "mad money" for souveniers and fun stuff.

And then [less than] $1000 for the complete interior, installed in 1 day...

Total:
$2,560...............Hmmmmm........... I sense a ROAD TRIP in my near future

 

It's in Issue #12