1956 Upholstery Project
October 30th, 2015, 11:59 AM
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1956 Upholstery Project
I thought I would relocate this post from where I placed it so the title would reflect the subject.
I have started on the upholstery to break up the monotony of cleaning parts. here are a few photos. I had said I would chronicle the upholstery job as I go. I am not sure this is the right place to do it. I will do the first post here and if you guys think I need to move the project to another location please direct me where you think best.
The first two photos are of the drivers side door panels. The first is the rear and was the best looking of the four. The second is the front and you can see how deteriorated the arm rest is. I tried to buy some Chevy ones in hopes of modifying them to fit. They were to large and made from the wrong material. I was hoping to see a couple of cars at the last cruise night to compare but it was rained out. It appears the rears are smaller on the Chevy and I thought they might work. I suppose I will be fabricating my own from some material I purchased from McMaster Carr. Fortunately the rear pad is in almost mint condition and will serve as the pattern.
The next two are of the door panel removed and the back of the front door panel. For those of you who have not removed one before you can see the fasteners and tabs that need to be bent back and removed. If anyone has specific question please ask and I will do my best to answer. I am not including every photo and step in the process here so you will need to ask for more detail.
The next photos are of the rear door panel stripped and ready to be traced onto the new door panel material. I have read much about the debate over the type of material used for the door panels. I chose the original water resistant cardboard for several reasons. You can see from the photo the panel board is fairly complicated. The cardboard will be much easier to cut. Since this will be a complete restoration I will be installing new window seals and gaskets to seal out the moisture. The car probably wont see much weather so I suspect they will last my life time. The other more important reason is the upholstery is sewn directly to the panel. This limits the type of material needed for the job. If the machine you have available can not handle the material and cardboard, you will need to sew the vinyl together and then staple it to the panel bending the staples over on the back.
My machine is a Singer 96-10 from 1918. It is a high speed tailoring machine and really not the ideal machine for upholstery. You can use any home machine for upholstery provided it meets a few minimums. A presser foot that can lift at least a 1/4" and be able to take a #18 needle for use with #69 or Tec 90 thread. You will find a few times were sewing will be difficult but if you work your way through the area by hand ( turning the hand wheel ) you will be successful. If you have never sewed before you should read the manual for the machine and then take some heavy paper and draw a series of lines and curves with a pencil. Take the tread out of the machine and practice following the lines as you punch holes in the paper with the needle.
The next photos are of the completed panel blank and the tools used to complete the job. A sharp utility knife and a few passes will cut the outside. An inexpensive set of gasket punches and a scrape of wood to back them up. A real sharp set of chisels are a great time saver. Just gently rock them from side to side to cut through the panel, there is no need to beat on them with a hammer. Tool abuse is a shameful thing!
I hope you all like the first installment. As I said previously I can provide more or less detail as we go just let me know. The next installment we will make the patterns, discuss materials, substitutions and possibly do a little sewing. Ho Boy!!
Jeff K.
Attached Thumbnails
I have started on the upholstery to break up the monotony of cleaning parts. here are a few photos. I had said I would chronicle the upholstery job as I go. I am not sure this is the right place to do it. I will do the first post here and if you guys think I need to move the project to another location please direct me where you think best.
The first two photos are of the drivers side door panels. The first is the rear and was the best looking of the four. The second is the front and you can see how deteriorated the arm rest is. I tried to buy some Chevy ones in hopes of modifying them to fit. They were to large and made from the wrong material. I was hoping to see a couple of cars at the last cruise night to compare but it was rained out. It appears the rears are smaller on the Chevy and I thought they might work. I suppose I will be fabricating my own from some material I purchased from McMaster Carr. Fortunately the rear pad is in almost mint condition and will serve as the pattern.
The next two are of the door panel removed and the back of the front door panel. For those of you who have not removed one before you can see the fasteners and tabs that need to be bent back and removed. If anyone has specific question please ask and I will do my best to answer. I am not including every photo and step in the process here so you will need to ask for more detail.
The next photos are of the rear door panel stripped and ready to be traced onto the new door panel material. I have read much about the debate over the type of material used for the door panels. I chose the original water resistant cardboard for several reasons. You can see from the photo the panel board is fairly complicated. The cardboard will be much easier to cut. Since this will be a complete restoration I will be installing new window seals and gaskets to seal out the moisture. The car probably wont see much weather so I suspect they will last my life time. The other more important reason is the upholstery is sewn directly to the panel. This limits the type of material needed for the job. If the machine you have available can not handle the material and cardboard, you will need to sew the vinyl together and then staple it to the panel bending the staples over on the back.
My machine is a Singer 96-10 from 1918. It is a high speed tailoring machine and really not the ideal machine for upholstery. You can use any home machine for upholstery provided it meets a few minimums. A presser foot that can lift at least a 1/4" and be able to take a #18 needle for use with #69 or Tec 90 thread. You will find a few times were sewing will be difficult but if you work your way through the area by hand ( turning the hand wheel ) you will be successful. If you have never sewed before you should read the manual for the machine and then take some heavy paper and draw a series of lines and curves with a pencil. Take the tread out of the machine and practice following the lines as you punch holes in the paper with the needle.
The next photos are of the completed panel blank and the tools used to complete the job. A sharp utility knife and a few passes will cut the outside. An inexpensive set of gasket punches and a scrape of wood to back them up. A real sharp set of chisels are a great time saver. Just gently rock them from side to side to cut through the panel, there is no need to beat on them with a hammer. Tool abuse is a shameful thing!
I hope you all like the first installment. As I said previously I can provide more or less detail as we go just let me know. The next installment we will make the patterns, discuss materials, substitutions and possibly do a little sewing. Ho Boy!!
Jeff K.
Attached Thumbnails
November 11th, 2015, 07:56 AM
#5
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 32
I am sill in a debate over armrest padding at this point so I decided to turn my attention to the seats. First photo is of the setup. It has been quite some time since the cover has been off Dad's sewing machine! I cleaned it up. oiled it and relocated it to the second floor of the shop.
The next photos are of the back of the front seat. I did not bother showing photos of the seat removal as it is a simple bolt removal. I will however suggest you remove the door panel first to provide a little extra room to get the seat out of the car. As you can see from the photos I started from the back and removed the hog rings as I worked my way over the top and down the front. This is one complicated seat with lots of hog rings.
To my surprise I found the seat backs where leather. Now I already purchased the vinyl, cloth and sundries from SMS including enough vinyl to do the seat backs. I was now in a quandary, do I save the leather or replace it? The vinyl was $55.00 a yard and it would be more money to restore the leather. Well I could not help myself so I decided, after some research, to restore the leather.
Before I continue with the leather saga there are a couple of things you should be aware of. As you know I purchased the original upholstery from SMS. When it arrived I unpacked it for inspection. The Mylar piping was sewn over hollow plastic tubing and the original was over solid plastic cord. This may seem like a small thing but there are some tight turns to be made and the hollow tube tends to kink and collapse as you make your way around. Second Item was the seat back material. It is made from a printed vinyl to mach the cloth front. I ordered 2/3 of a yard to be sure I would have extra. As it turns out the pattern is printed the opposite direction of the cloth. Now I have a piece not wide enough but long enough for three. Lastly they state they can help you out with how much material you will need. Figure it out for yourself or you will be buying way too much per their recommendation. As it is the price for all the material with out carpet or headliner came to just under $900.00. When I emailed to inquire about the piping and the seat back material, I was thanked for the heads up. I was also told that they should have noticed the pattern issue before it shipped but no offer was made to replace it? The rest of the material you will need can be purchased from a local fabric store. I was unable to find cotton batting in a high enough loft so I had to purchase synthetic. Not a real big deal but I like to keep things as original as I can.
I am sure there will be more incidentals I have forgotten and will need to purchase, but so far I am still within budget for the upholstery. Next post ....Fun with leather!!!
Jeff K.
The next photos are of the back of the front seat. I did not bother showing photos of the seat removal as it is a simple bolt removal. I will however suggest you remove the door panel first to provide a little extra room to get the seat out of the car. As you can see from the photos I started from the back and removed the hog rings as I worked my way over the top and down the front. This is one complicated seat with lots of hog rings.
To my surprise I found the seat backs where leather. Now I already purchased the vinyl, cloth and sundries from SMS including enough vinyl to do the seat backs. I was now in a quandary, do I save the leather or replace it? The vinyl was $55.00 a yard and it would be more money to restore the leather. Well I could not help myself so I decided, after some research, to restore the leather.
Before I continue with the leather saga there are a couple of things you should be aware of. As you know I purchased the original upholstery from SMS. When it arrived I unpacked it for inspection. The Mylar piping was sewn over hollow plastic tubing and the original was over solid plastic cord. This may seem like a small thing but there are some tight turns to be made and the hollow tube tends to kink and collapse as you make your way around. Second Item was the seat back material. It is made from a printed vinyl to mach the cloth front. I ordered 2/3 of a yard to be sure I would have extra. As it turns out the pattern is printed the opposite direction of the cloth. Now I have a piece not wide enough but long enough for three. Lastly they state they can help you out with how much material you will need. Figure it out for yourself or you will be buying way too much per their recommendation. As it is the price for all the material with out carpet or headliner came to just under $900.00. When I emailed to inquire about the piping and the seat back material, I was thanked for the heads up. I was also told that they should have noticed the pattern issue before it shipped but no offer was made to replace it? The rest of the material you will need can be purchased from a local fabric store. I was unable to find cotton batting in a high enough loft so I had to purchase synthetic. Not a real big deal but I like to keep things as original as I can.
I am sure there will be more incidentals I have forgotten and will need to purchase, but so far I am still within budget for the upholstery. Next post ....Fun with leather!!!
Jeff K.
November 12th, 2015, 07:19 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 32
Fun with leather
In this installment we will be restoring the leather seat backs. I did a little research and found that leather seats made prior to 1992 were colored with lacquer by the factory. Armed with this information and not having anything to loose I decided to scrub the leather with lacquer thinner.
I removed the stitching to free the leather panel from the rest of the seat cover. The other parts will be used for patterns for the cloth and vinyl portions. I am not sure if I had mentioned this before but the interior parts of this car seemed to be multi colored. The confusing part was what you would expect to have faded to a lighter color was actually darker. When I inquired at SMS they told me that the there was only one color of vinyl in each color scheme. As it turns out the leather was re-panted at some time along with some of the vinyl. As I began to scrub the seats with the thinner the topcoat began to lift with some of the factory applied lacquer beneath. The leather was in much better shape than I first thought. You can see from the photos that there was some light cracking and a few larger cracks and scars. After striping half the finish I felt confident the leather was salvageable. I decided to do some more research on the process involved. I will save you the gory details and say that I settled on Leatherique products for the re-finishing.
I sent a sample of the new vinyl from SMS to Leatherique for a custom color match. I also asked if their product could be used on the plastic parts in the car. They told me that the dye color could be used for all the trim parts. I went this route for two reasons. I have used the spray can vinyl paint before and it dose a pretty nice job but looks a little plastic like when finished. The second reason was color and sheen match. The last reason was the prep product and there compatibility with the final finish.
The first thing after completing the stripping process was rejuvenating oil. There are instructions for there product so I will not elaborate on that here but rather note my findings during use. All the sites that sell leather products sell some kind of re-hydrating formula and they are all a contradiction. If the surface of the leather is coated with a finish that protects it from absorbing liquids, how dose it absorb the product they sell? Since I had stripped most of the finish I figured there would be some penetration. I also asked the company if I should apply this oil to the flesh side (back) of the leather and was told that it would be wise. The face took about an ounce to cover, the back was difficult to spread fast enough as it absorbed so quickly. I did not want to soak the back and it used 6 ounces as it was. The company suggests to close up the car and park it in the sun for a day or so to heat up and be absorbed. I decided to put the rack in the dryer to prevent the hide from tumbling and heat it on delicate cycle. This worked well but seemed to need more heat. I increased the temp to the medium setting and re-did the heating for 45 minutes. It worked wonderfully and saved several days of soak time.
Next step was a cleaner and it was pretty straight forward. After the cleaner had time to dry I started work on the cracks and blemishes with the 2 oz container of crack filler I had purchased. This was also a straight forward process with a pallet knife. I did not want to have glaring smooth spots where the repair areas were. As a result it was a bit tedious trying to fill the damage without filling the grain. I found that if you wipe the area around the damage you are filling with a paper towel it will remove the excess from the grain. You can see a lot of white in the repair areas in the photos. Those spots are a very thin film left from wiping the filler out of the grain around the repair. Like everything else, several light coats are best. The material tends to shrink in deep areas as it drys and will require several fills. Patients is key here!
Now the final step before color is a prepping agent. The process calls for wet sanding with the prep agent. I elected not to sand. The finish removal was done with a stiff plastic brush and lacquer thinner and I felt the surface was quite well prepared with out the need to sand off more. The sanding seams a little strange a method to me as it would only touch the top surface of the grain. If it had required more abrasion I think I would have elected to use a very fine scotch brite instead of paper.
The color process was another debate. There are many instructions and tutorials on the application of the color. I used a piece of scrape vinyl and tried them all!!! There is very limited info on the spray technique and I can only assume it is due to the average DIY'er not having the equipment. I am sure it is how it is done at the factory and I seen a few videos of professionals using spray application. Now some times the pros use a technique for expediency rather than quality but this dose not seem like one of those cases. I own an airbrush and decided that was the method of choice for uniformity and control. It seams the goal is the thinnest possible coat with complete coverage. I also bought a cheap Harbor Freight air brush for my son some time ago for model work. To my surprise it works as well as my expensive Pasche. So for those that are in need you can get a compressor and airbrush for $89.00 or just the airbrush for under $20.00.
You can see my setup in the photos. It was pretty simple and the product is water based and non toxic. The instructions for spray finish are again straight forward. The key to success is a dry light coat. I used a heat gun in between but a hair dryer would work just fine. The heat gun is probably overkill and you do not want to over heat things. The end result can be seen in the photos. I am more than pleased with the finish as it looks factory fresh. The color was not a dead mach for the vinyl sample I sent and I should have made a test panel first. Had I tested it first I would have sent the test panel and product back to the company to adjust the color ( they will do it for free ). As it stands it is close enough that i do not want to do it over. In truth the color they sent looks better than the color of the vinyl. I am not sure the vinyl from SMS is really the original from 56 anyway. The cloth and printed vinyl are the only ones I am sure of. Note the two close ups are of the same area showing a before and after repair.
Last I cleaned one of the plastic pillars with the supplied prep agent and maroon scotch brite and it turned out equally as well.
Hope you enjoyed this installment. Next up will be complete the seat back or revisit the arm rest pads. I have not decided!
Jeff K.
I removed the stitching to free the leather panel from the rest of the seat cover. The other parts will be used for patterns for the cloth and vinyl portions. I am not sure if I had mentioned this before but the interior parts of this car seemed to be multi colored. The confusing part was what you would expect to have faded to a lighter color was actually darker. When I inquired at SMS they told me that the there was only one color of vinyl in each color scheme. As it turns out the leather was re-panted at some time along with some of the vinyl. As I began to scrub the seats with the thinner the topcoat began to lift with some of the factory applied lacquer beneath. The leather was in much better shape than I first thought. You can see from the photos that there was some light cracking and a few larger cracks and scars. After striping half the finish I felt confident the leather was salvageable. I decided to do some more research on the process involved. I will save you the gory details and say that I settled on Leatherique products for the re-finishing.
I sent a sample of the new vinyl from SMS to Leatherique for a custom color match. I also asked if their product could be used on the plastic parts in the car. They told me that the dye color could be used for all the trim parts. I went this route for two reasons. I have used the spray can vinyl paint before and it dose a pretty nice job but looks a little plastic like when finished. The second reason was color and sheen match. The last reason was the prep product and there compatibility with the final finish.
The first thing after completing the stripping process was rejuvenating oil. There are instructions for there product so I will not elaborate on that here but rather note my findings during use. All the sites that sell leather products sell some kind of re-hydrating formula and they are all a contradiction. If the surface of the leather is coated with a finish that protects it from absorbing liquids, how dose it absorb the product they sell? Since I had stripped most of the finish I figured there would be some penetration. I also asked the company if I should apply this oil to the flesh side (back) of the leather and was told that it would be wise. The face took about an ounce to cover, the back was difficult to spread fast enough as it absorbed so quickly. I did not want to soak the back and it used 6 ounces as it was. The company suggests to close up the car and park it in the sun for a day or so to heat up and be absorbed. I decided to put the rack in the dryer to prevent the hide from tumbling and heat it on delicate cycle. This worked well but seemed to need more heat. I increased the temp to the medium setting and re-did the heating for 45 minutes. It worked wonderfully and saved several days of soak time.
Next step was a cleaner and it was pretty straight forward. After the cleaner had time to dry I started work on the cracks and blemishes with the 2 oz container of crack filler I had purchased. This was also a straight forward process with a pallet knife. I did not want to have glaring smooth spots where the repair areas were. As a result it was a bit tedious trying to fill the damage without filling the grain. I found that if you wipe the area around the damage you are filling with a paper towel it will remove the excess from the grain. You can see a lot of white in the repair areas in the photos. Those spots are a very thin film left from wiping the filler out of the grain around the repair. Like everything else, several light coats are best. The material tends to shrink in deep areas as it drys and will require several fills. Patients is key here!
Now the final step before color is a prepping agent. The process calls for wet sanding with the prep agent. I elected not to sand. The finish removal was done with a stiff plastic brush and lacquer thinner and I felt the surface was quite well prepared with out the need to sand off more. The sanding seams a little strange a method to me as it would only touch the top surface of the grain. If it had required more abrasion I think I would have elected to use a very fine scotch brite instead of paper.
The color process was another debate. There are many instructions and tutorials on the application of the color. I used a piece of scrape vinyl and tried them all!!! There is very limited info on the spray technique and I can only assume it is due to the average DIY'er not having the equipment. I am sure it is how it is done at the factory and I seen a few videos of professionals using spray application. Now some times the pros use a technique for expediency rather than quality but this dose not seem like one of those cases. I own an airbrush and decided that was the method of choice for uniformity and control. It seams the goal is the thinnest possible coat with complete coverage. I also bought a cheap Harbor Freight air brush for my son some time ago for model work. To my surprise it works as well as my expensive Pasche. So for those that are in need you can get a compressor and airbrush for $89.00 or just the airbrush for under $20.00.
You can see my setup in the photos. It was pretty simple and the product is water based and non toxic. The instructions for spray finish are again straight forward. The key to success is a dry light coat. I used a heat gun in between but a hair dryer would work just fine. The heat gun is probably overkill and you do not want to over heat things. The end result can be seen in the photos. I am more than pleased with the finish as it looks factory fresh. The color was not a dead mach for the vinyl sample I sent and I should have made a test panel first. Had I tested it first I would have sent the test panel and product back to the company to adjust the color ( they will do it for free ). As it stands it is close enough that i do not want to do it over. In truth the color they sent looks better than the color of the vinyl. I am not sure the vinyl from SMS is really the original from 56 anyway. The cloth and printed vinyl are the only ones I am sure of. Note the two close ups are of the same area showing a before and after repair.
Last I cleaned one of the plastic pillars with the supplied prep agent and maroon scotch brite and it turned out equally as well.
Hope you enjoyed this installment. Next up will be complete the seat back or revisit the arm rest pads. I have not decided!
Jeff K.
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