car upholstery logan

bench seat

Auto Upholstery

Restoration    

   Auto upholstery restoration is the start of an exciting transformation of your classic pride and joy, no matter if it is a car, truck or bus. This can often make or break the appearance of a restored classic.

 truck seat repairs logan

Holden bench seat restored

When car upholstery logan takes on an automotive interior restoration, we make sure it is clear to all concerned as to what it is that you want. Always make sure you supply pictures or website links to any designs that you may like. Get this wrong and it can all end in tears. Also, listen to the advice of the upholsterer/trimmer. They have done all different types of things when undertaking car upholstery logan restoration jobs. They tend to know what will look good and what won’t.

So where can you get some ideas from? Well, obviously there are the car shows and car clubs. Also, different magazines will showcase projects that have involved a complete classic car upholstery restoration program. One place that I do enjoy getting ideas from are some of the cars shows on television. Some of these shows that deal with classic auto upholstery restoration would have to be Kingdig it designs as well as The Guild of Automotive Restorers. Of course, there are a number of others but these are probably my personal favorites. Oh, and you can’t forget Richard Rawlings of the  Gas Monkey Garage show. Just amazes me as to how people can afford some of those jobs.

 upholstery restoration

Ford Cortina seats

 

  I guess it comes down to what it is that the car will be used for. If it will only be a trailer princess to go to different shows, then you could use light colors like white or cream. If

auto restoration

Ford Cortina seats upholstered in new black with red UV vinyl. Also had the ford logo embroidered onto the seat back

you are wanting it as a weekend cruiser then you could still get away with light colors also. However, if it is to be used for family cruises then a darker color would be better off.

A lot of my customers initially come in wanting a black interior but sometimes a charcoal is a better option, especially if the car has a green shade of paint on it. What can make it look great is if you can incorporate the color of the exterior into the interior. Now that may only be double stitching or piping around the edges. Maybe an insert on the seat to also match on the door panels.

If you have decided to strip the car bare, please bag and tag all the bolts, nuts & screws. We don’t mind if you bring the furniture over whilst the car is at the painters. We can get a fair bit of stuff ready. Like seats upholstered, roof liner cut & sewn. Then when the car comes in all we have to do is final fit out. But we won’t be happy if the nuts, bolts, screws and such like are not labeled.

 

Car Upholstery Logan

 

So what does auto upholstery repair shops do? It pretty much covers everything inside the car. Or truck, bus, caravans and so on. It can be just a simple auto seat repair right through to doing custom car interiors. 

Let’s take an old car seat for example. Firstly it needs to be stripped down to the frame. From there, there may be some welding repairs that need to be done. It may need new zigzag springs. It may need a rust protection paint job. From there you need to cut out new foam’s, new cover and stitch together with sewing machine. Then hopefully it all still fits.

auto upholstery restoration

Hino Truck seat covered

Then you have door panels. If they are masonite boards, then you will need to know how to use different power saws to shape the new door panels. Once again, like the seat, you will need to cut the foam, cover and fit it all.

Then there is replacing roof liners. You need to know how to remove any electrical fittings and how to make them safe. Nothing like the smell of burning electrical wiring in a newly upholstered car to get you going!

So as you can see car upholstery repair can cover so many things

 

Automotive Upholstery Fabric

 

Making sure that you have the right upholstery fabric for cars is very important. Automotive upholstery fabric is totally different to furniture fabric

Myself, when doing auto upholstery restoration, I really make sure that the customer knows the difference between auto and furniture fabric. The leather is a big difference here. Because some leathers are not UV treated, they will break down over time if exposed to the sunlight a lot.

I use a range of UV treated marine vinyl’s that is hard to tell the difference from leather in appearance. It is also a whole lot cheaper than leather, plus comes with a three-year warranty. I have been using these vinyl’s now for some years and never had an issue with them.

What makes these products great is the quality and appearance of genuine leather. By the time we do double stitching around the seam’s, the average person would never tell the difference

Some of the other challenges with doing some car upholstery repair is matching materials. A lot of times the seat comes in with the side panel ripped, but you cannot get anything to match. Something else to get the thinking cap on.

However, here at Stockleigh Upholstery/ car upholstery logan will endeavor to get the best outcome