Saturday March 12, 2006I took a shot at doing the upholstery on the 48. I started with the rear seat back. I have to admit that this is the hardest and most tedious task I have done on this car to date. Spent countless hours with my wife in Jo-Ann Fabrics buying the materials and trying to look macho. Purchased the seat material and the headliner material along with the leather for the kick panels and seat trim. Of course we also bought all the batting and other stuff including heavy canvas backing to go over the springs. Below is the blow by blow. |
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Here is my original rear back panel of the rear seat. |
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A shot of the bottom springs. I have to replace the straw with hard foam. I chose 2" hard form for the job. |
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Cleaned and painted the Springs. |
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I disassembled the old material and used it as a pattern for the new. I decided to reproduce the original tufting details. At this point I had already cut and trimmed the canvas which I attached to the spring bed. It is used the same as the strapping when you reupholster a chair. |
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The tufted details were created by sewing 1" batting material between the seat surface material and a cut piece of canvas on the back. |
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Not finished but looking real good. At this point I have invested 14 hours of labor. The material has pin stripping lines that run top to bottom This makes the stitching very easy since you can use these lines as guides. This material is very close to the original. I am glad I choose this since running a straight stitch down a solid color material without the lines to go by would be.., for me impossible. |
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My hat is off to people who do this for a living. Very,
very tedious work. At the rate I am going and I figure things will
speed up after this first seat back.
It should take me at least another 30 man hours to finish the other three sections. |