The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 51 3/4 ton upholstery question

I am putting the new upholstery on my seats...first the burlap, then a layer of foam, 2 layers of cotton and now have the new vinyl seat material over all of it. Everything fits well but my question is do I use the clips that attach it to the seat frame over the vinyl AND the burlap or just the vinyl? It seems very tight either way so I thought I would ask before finishing the job. Thanks for the help!
Bob

Upholstery Bob? Sounds like your getting real close to taking her out for a joy ride. The barrel clips just hold the vinyl cover to the outer frame rail, which is flat-formed steel. The padding is hog ringed onto the inner wire frame with standard hog rings. Take a look at these pictures; they should answer your questions. http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/ad_interior&page=4
My cover from JC didn't really fit all that good and there were wrinkles that I couldn't get out. Next time I'll do it myself or have it done at an upholstery shop.
The original cushion was burlap-cior (horse hair)- single layer of cotton and then the cover. The back was just burlap and cotton. I stayed with the original padding stack configuration and the seat is surprisingly comfortable. My wife and I have traveled close to 8,000 miles in her, sometimes a couple hundred miles at a time and we don't have any complaints about the comfort.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

I also attempted to use covers from JC: an eight-piece (expensive) Suburban upholstery set and installation kits and clips from Jim Carter. I will use a professional upholsterer/installer on the two trucks I am now restoring (I'll provide the material, if necessary).

1. The JC upholstery fit fine without wrinkles, after I added additional layers of burlap and cotton. However, the burlap provided by JC does not provide as much support as the woven "matting" under the cotton on some of my original bottom cushions. The seats bottoms are now, literally, a pain in the *** (bottom).

2. The style/patten for the 4 seat bottoms did not match each other (I did not notice this until after they were installed). Someday, I'll get it done right (JC also did not have the correct-original 54/55 Chevrolet Suburban upholstery color combination, which I knew when I bought the sets).

It is no fun sitting on these seats for 200+ mile trips. I'll not make this mistake again.


I always learn something from your posts. Your use of the word "cior" (coir) caused me to look up a few words/terms:

burlap (synonym: hessian, outside the USA) is a coarse woven fabric usually made from jute or other vegetable fibers

Natural/vegetable fibers for matting or burlap:

sisal (an agave (think tequela) that yields a stiff fiber traditionally used in making twine, rope and also dartboard)

hemp (soft, durable fiber that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus (think weed))

jute (vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads used to make rope and burlap bags)

coir (a coarse fiber extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a coconut)


How many people (or professional installers) do you think use those original "barrel" clips (we did, but it took a while to get used to them)?

Bob, thanks for posting this. I am working on my 59 apache seat. Am wondering where to purchase the seat cushion cover horse hair - coir mat, and cotton layering material? Denny thanks for adding the link to your pictures, that will help a lot! Another question I have is whether a guy can re-use the barrel clips? On my 59, they were only used on the top and not the bottom from what I can tell. Thanks again for any info anyone can provide. Niobrarafun

Denny, Thanks for the description and photos...exactly what I needed. I got all of my parts from JC. I'll know how well it goes together next weekend. I am certain that I will have her on the road this Spring and will get to meet you for that cup of coffee. I can see all of it coming together now...kind of exciting. I just need some more time! Thanks again for all of your help. Bob

Yes Tim I am dyslexic, “coir” and jute were actually what was used under upholstery, floor mats and behind firewall covers back 50+ years ago. The products the vendors offer today have turned Jute into a generic term for their “original padding” and in reality it is just synthetic carpet padding that they are selling.
The coir pad that was used in the seat cushion was coated with a binder that looks like rubber and the pad cheek and wrapper was sewn together. The coir pad on mine was like new and didn’t have any mold, mildew or mouse pee smell to it. I guess I got lucky and got to reuse mine. It really does a great job of spreading out the weight evenly and like I said, it is quite comfortable.

Nubie, yes you could reuse the original clips in fact I think they are much better quality than the replacements. I didn’t break any of the original clips removing them but since they were just blackened metal and some were a little rusty I decided to use new ones. I broke a hand full of the repro clips because of improper heat-treating, but they are cheap so I bought plenty.

The problems I had with my covers was due to them being sewn incorrectly. There was no way to fix that unless you ripped the threads and re-sewed it, which would have taken up the extra material and eliminated the wrinkles.

And Bob you’re welcome, glad to help.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL