The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Need Help installing JC Seat Cover Upholstery

Have Jim Carter's Spanish Grain seat covers and installation kit for my '53 3100. I've cleaned up the springs, cut and replaced all the padding, but can't figure out how to stretch the seat cover material over the springs and padding (seems like way too much material) Any suggestions, tricks, websites that show how to do it? Is there some way to compress the spings before stretching the material? Or do I just give up and take it to an auto upholstery shop? Sure would appreciate any and all help.

only help i can offer is to suggest that you turn the cover inside out and slowly work them on .it takes a lot of pullin,squeezin and tuggin but they will go on.kinda like a fat wonan squeezin into too small jeans. i have stuffed hundreds of cushion cores into sofas and chairs over the years and its pretty much the same thing.hope this helped..........dave

I watched a show where they reapulstered a set of seats they did turn them inside out an sprayed the foam with a silicon lube to help slide the covers on

Heat will also help ... doing it on a hot day; setting the covers out in the sun to warm up.

One of the best threads there is in my mind on reupholstery:

The H.A.M.B. link

Deals with it from making your own covers to installing them.

Hello,
The best way to get the seat cover over new foam or a seat build up is ......... I hate giving all of the secrets out but the stovebolters need the help! Get some of the painters plastic drop cloths, or rolls of painters plastic and cover the foam on the seat. Turn the cover inside out and center on the seat cushion. Next, slowly roll one of the back corners over the cushion and repeat this step on the opposite corner. Repeat this step for the other two corners as well. The plastic can remain under the cushion, trim off any excess around the bottom of the seat cushion and hog ring into place. Start from the center of the seat and work your way outward. Hope this brief description helps just let me know.
Restoman57

Alan,
Restoman57 here. Did you get the zipper foot for your machine? Let me know how this works for you. If you have to put a seat cover over the foam usually does not slid very well. Try my trick of the painters plastic ...... slides on like butter! Good luck to all of the stovebolter restorations, glad to help out.
Restoman57

Hey, Restoman57

Yes ... I got the zipper foot and have been using it exclusively ever since! Thanks.

If you haven't seen my projects, take a look at these:

Leather Steering Wheel[/b] (hand stitched)
[b]Elk Armrests[/b] (black & white)
[b]Shifter Knob (w/music note)
[b]Boots[/b] (shifter, hand brake & foot brake)
[b]Dolphin Gauges[/b] (leather trim rings)
[b]Canvas Saddlebags[/b] (for my bicycle)

The slip 'n slide is a good tip. Thanks Restoman57!

Alan - Your work is awesome. I'm glad my truck doesn't have armrest as that particular project looked difficult. I would have probably sewed my hand to the armrest if I tried it.

Don

Ok, ya all know me by now, I gotta stir the pot.
Restoman, doesn't the polyethylene left under the cover make a kind of crinkling sound when you sit/slid on it?
I’ve seen upholstery cushions that were vacuum bagged with it in production while they slid the cover over and then they simply cut it with a big knife and left the plastic inside. But this looked like it was a very thin material, didn’t look as heavy as a painters cloth.
Also you mention using hog rings, is there a problem with the barrel spring clips that the AD’s used for the covers? My original cover (1950) had them (70 count) and there wasn’t one spot where the material had torn near a clip after 57 years. Seems like it was a pretty good fastening method.
Puncturing the material with the hog rings since it is just a heavy piece of wire, does concentrate the stress in a very small area and there is a tendency to tear at that point.
I’m aware that hog rings are the industry standard for fastening auto upholstery, but I would suspect that the clips were replaced by the hog rings because of speed of application.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks, Don.

The armrests were a bit of work but the most work was fabricating new mounts out of red oak to replace those cheapo-plastic aftermarket mounts!

Alan,
I got to look at your handy work and some of the prior posts as well. I am right there with you ! I appreciate and know all of the time you take to document all of the information you are listing ........ hopefully all of the other bolters using this information realize all of the time and quality you are bringing to the stovebolt with this information. As a professional upholsterer myself we are a dying breed ...... best to pass on what we can to help someone else, hopefully they can fix mistakes I make as well. I will try and collect some of my own work and send you the pics as well. Always glad to help out. The pride in your work is apparent and reflected in the finished product.
Best always, Restoman57

Denny Graham,
The plastic I mentioned to cover the seat is very very thin. Probably about 1/4 of the thickness of a piece of paper. Do not use the heavy drop cloth material. Absolutely no noise what so ever. As far as the clips you are talking about you are right on for the year. Yes the spring clips are the only thing you can use that I am aware of ...... the hog rings have a tough time going through metal! Late nites and lack of sleep = error. Thanks for the save on the reply.
Restoman57

Thanks, Restoman57 ... your appreciation of my efforts means a whole lot to me, Brother. I'm all for sharing whatever I've learned and helping others out, too.

I look forward to seeing your pics -- and if you need help with a web site to showcase your work, let me know.

I'm starting to go pro with my sewing machine. There's a car show every Wednesday night here, only 2 blocks from my house and I'm riding my bicycle there. Yesterday was the first show and I already got an interior repair job out of it.

I personally think the heat, and inside out roll-over works very well. I did the entire interior of my '62 VW Bug with vinyl, and it worked find without plastic. If your seats were to ever get wet, that plastic will hold in moisture to no end, leaving the plastic out will at least allow your seats to breathe some. Take some time, and use some muscle, and even the toughest seats will be worth the effort. IF i do recall, no seats in history ever had the plastic installed like this from the factory! Imaging pulling upholstery all day long in a warehouse!
Just my $.02!
Thanks,l
John

I did mine without the plastic, but with the help of my wife. After tugging the vinyl onto the seat and frame, I left one edge (front edge or back edge, I can't remember, but I don't think that it matters) just hanging barely over the edge of the table. Here's where my wife really comes in. While I lay on my back under the table, she laid down over the seat starting at one end. She would hold the vinyl tight while I would put in a few of the "c" clips then we would move down to the next section. Once finished with one side-make sure to keep a nice even line with the vinyl-we switched to the other side and did it, then the two ends. I think it came out looking nice.

revted47, I encountered problems with the Spanish Grain seat covers for my '50 3100. I carried the covers and seat/back assembly to a local upholstery shop (25+ years service time) to have them installed professionally. The seat cushion cover went on slick as anything. The problem came when he tried to install the seatback cover. When he slipped it on the springs, the upper corners had way too much material. No manner of stretching or pulling would make them fit. After two or three calls to JC and talking to Jim, we all came to realize that the cover was cut with too square a corner for the upper corners of the seatback. All the covers they had were cut to the same shape. We ended up shipping the seatback cover back to JC and buying 3 yards of Spanish Grain yard goods so the shop could make a cover on-site. Luckily, the OEM seatback cover was in good enough shape to use as a pattern. By the way, if you go this route, you will have almost 1 yard of material left over.

So what your saying is the Spanish Grain Brown upholstery that I got from Jim Carter six weeks ago for my 1950, 3604 is not going to fit???? And that I should not even open the box but just ship it back to JC!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

DG, sorry to be so long getting back to the thread. Hope you have had better luck than I on the seat covers. The ones I bought were the Spanish Grain Maroon, so I can't vouch for the Brown, but I suspect that they probably are cut by the same pattern by the same bunch of Elbonian serfs. Like I said, the seat cushion fit like a factory cover, but the seat back cover upper corners were cut to the same radius as the lower corners. Looking at the seat back springs, you can see that the upper corners have a long radius whereas the lower corners have a short radius. Worst case--get a good upholstery shop to tell you how much material they need, and order the yard goods from JC.

If I had it to do over again and was going to have a local shop sew the covers, I would order the material from SMS Auto Fabrics. From the small sample they sent me they have a very good match to the original material that is on mine now. It's still about 90% in tact. If money were no object I would have the covers made by Hampton Coach, I saw a '50 with covers by them and it was an absolute match.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

This is a comparison of the “Brown Spanish Grain” seat upholstery from JC for the AD trucks. The old one is the original one out of a 1950, 3604.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2141725100098611668paYJWv
Hard to believe that the original has darkened up that much, or is the new one off color by that much. The door panels were also a darker brown much like the seat covers.
New Seat covers, arm rest, head liner, door trim panels, sun visors, all a different shade of brown, I guess the only way to get them all the same is to buy enough sheet material to cover all of them and do it your self!

I have yet to pull the cover over the springs and see if I am gonna have the same problem with the radius that cooterhead50 had with his. I'm waiting on another set of clips and hog ring pliers to tack the burlap/cotton padding to the frame.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny - Take a look at the photos posted by Delux. The color of the original seats is almost exactly what yours looks like;

Original seat covers

He posted a whole series of seat shots in his "My Babies" album also.

Don

Well I gotta admit that H.A.M.B. upholstery article is one complete lesson in covering a bench seat. I just spent the last four hours downloading it, and trying to print it out or save it to print out at a later date and all I've gotten is snippets from the page. It printed all the text but hardly any of the graphics and that which I spent one and a half hours saving is mostly incomplete just a few graphics like smilely faces and such. The pages just print out with the text and a framed square where the picture belongs with an X-box in the upper left corner. I give up!!!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Yo, Denny

Check THIS out.

Yo Alan, ya been keeping a pretty low profile lately, what are ya doin’ managing to get some work done???
That’s what I need to do, get off this dam% confuser and get some work done. I’ve got about ten irons in the fire right now and can’t seem to get any of them hot. Waiting on parts, waiting on people, etc.
Just what I need, another lesson in upholstery, I’m 12 hours into this session and still downloading pictures from the first link, now ya got me into another. I’m not gonna get out to the garage till midnight!
Anyway, thanks bud! I am always thirsty for more knowledge, I'll look into it bukas.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I'm here every day ... I just don't post unless I have something to say.

Waiting on my truck ... the painter has most of the body work done ... gonna get together next week to make the final color choices!