8/22/03
Upholstery XIX: Rear Seats and Door Pockets
I had one more seat cushion to upholster today, so I picked up where
I left off from last week. After fitting the leather cover to this seat,
I realized it was going to take a little more padding to make the leather
cover sit wrinkle free on this cushion. Not two seat cushion are the same
because I made them from scratch, so everything will need adjustments to
make the leather fit. The covers were sewn with care to match in width,
and size, but when fitting them to these seat pans, things can change,
so I added some thin foam where it was needed.
Here is a detail of the foam edge that makes the distinct shape of
the rear seat cushion. This took quite a few tries to get the cut to form
the right shape.
I also added some fill material to make up some space behind this section
of the seat cushion.
Once I got the extra fill in the right places, it was time to start
gluing.
This inside edge was tricky to get it to anchor well, and take out
the wrinkles on the other side.
It takes slow methodical gluing, stretching, and fitting to get the
seat cover to fit right. I had these covers on and off at least a dozen
times to get everything to fit just right. All this time I had to make
sure the pleats were straight, the stitching followed the contour of the
seat pan, the wrinkles were taken out as I anchored the leather to the
seat pan, and that the seats matched each other! I think they look pretty
good!
The next major step was to get the door pockets done for the door panels.
I laid the old leather over the frame work to get an idea of how they covered
these pieces at the Pininfarina Factory. They managed to cover 75% of the
pocket frame with one piece of leather. It would almost seem impossible
had I not seen the original piece. This was done so there would be no visible
seams, so I had to try my best to replicate this piece of leather.
I cut a piece roughly into shape, and began gluing it to the frame.
The corners were the tricky parts, and this is where they managed to utilize
one piece of leather. The leather is REALLY stretched over the corners
to make it form over the framework. Frank had me wet the leather to give
it more elasticity so it would form to the corners. The glue would only
hold for a little while before the water would make it unusable, but there
was enough there to hold things in place. Eventually as the leather dried,
I was able to re apply glue to tack things in place.
By the end of the day, I had covered one pocket frame and fitted the
door and courtesy light to check it for fit. There's still plenty left
to do on this door pocket from fitting the hinges, the stops, and the return
springs, but the next one should be easier considering I now know what
to expect!
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