With the rear seat done it was time to turn to the front seat with high hopes and expectations of replicating the successful work on the rear seat. Yeah, that is a bit of forsehadowing…
The front seat had to come out. Unlike the back seat, the seat bottom and seat back are all part of one assembly and come out as a unit. Or do they?
I had removed the front seat once before and did not look forward to doing it again. It is a 6-way power adjustable seat, weighs well over 100 lbs, and barely fits through the door. The last time it was out was before the car was painted; I’m now rather paranoid about scratches.
Since the seat backs have to come off anyway I decided to try removing them in place. Well, what do you know! Take off the side cover, remove one bolt, and you can wiggle the seat back off of its retainers. With both seat backs off it just takes undoing two bolts to remove the arm rest. Eyeballing the situation it looks like just the seat base will be quite a bit easier.
As mentioned, the front seat is heavy. Even with pieces removed. When I try to apply brute force I just do not have the brute I did in my younger days. No problem – drag the engine hoist out of its place of honor and hook it to one end of the front seat.
Since no lifting was required on that end She Who Must Be Obeyed agreed to guide the engine hoist and keep that end of the seat from hitting anything. I was able to lift the other end of the seat and guide it out, moving it about six inches at a time. After a few minutes the seat was safely on the garage floor with no damage, no drama, and no injuries.
Now with unwarranted confidence let’s dive into the actual work!
Tackling upholstery has been a learning experience in many ways. My usual approach when tackling a new skill is to get some books on the subject, see if any classes are available, start with practice pieces, and then tackle a simple first project. In recent years I’ve added on-line courses for things like Fusion 360.
This time I added YouTube to the mix. I’ve used YouTube with great success as a resource for things like changing the battery in a 2013 CMax – the first challenge is finding the battery!
There are many YouTube videos on upholstery. Seeing how a task is done is a very powerful learning tool. To the point that I’ve ended up using YouTube as my primary resource for learning upholstery!
YouTube creators show many different approaches from high end work to rather crude quick and dirty techniques. The creators themselves range from engaging to annoying. With a bias toward annoying…
Sampling the different channels and approaches I came across Cechaflo. This channel has several hundred videos posted and offers upholstery courses. While many of the projects are advanced, he makes them clear and approachable. They have an excellent set of introductory videos for someone just getting started.
I’m not sure where he is located, but it apparently isn’t in the US. Cechaflo uses a novel approach to his videos – there is no narration and no background music. The videos themselves have excellent production quality and are clear and easy to understand.
Cechaflo takes you through the entire process of accomplishing a task, going step by step in a very clear way. Instead of narration, where appropriate he uses written notes to convey information.
Further, Cechaflo is a craftsman. All of his work is high quality and he doesn’t cut corners. There are many ways to accomplish any given task – and Cechaflo often shows several different ways to do something. The difference is that all of the ways he shows lead to high quality results. With Cechaflo you aren’t learning bad habits or quick and dirty approaches.
After going through these videos I have a good idea of what to do and how to do it. The only thing lacking is the actual skill to execute. And how to apply the concepts from the video to my project which isn’t exactly the same. And perhaps a solid understanding of how to actually do what was shown on the video…
Which brings us back to all of the practice pieces I have been doing. Having a solid idea of what the end result should be, what steps need to be taken, and how to accomplish those steps is a great starting point. With that as a starting point, execute the basic steps over and over until you get acceptable results. Then move on to the next step.
Having a good understanding of what you are trying to do is a great place to start developing new skills. There is still frustration and making garbage in the early stages. But understanding the process and seeing what the final results should look like makes learning much easier.
I don’t think YouTube will replace books for all new skills I need to learn, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well it works for learning mechanical skills like upholstery.
In addition to the seat covers the door cards need to be replaced. Someone had started to do this job on the rear doors – the factory cardboard door cards had been replaced with hardboard, but had not been covered. The arm rests and door handles were in the trunk.
Rear Door card as it came with the car
The front door cards still had the covers on them, so I had a reference to work from.
Front Door Card. I really hate that lower carpet, so it is going to go!
The door card itself is fairly straightforward – just use it as a pattern and trace it onto the vinyl. For a more luxurious appearance the vinyl will be backed with some of the 1/4″ sewfoam. I decided to sew through the vinyl and foam for a richer appearance, similar to the factory. The factory door cards had a double stitch, so I tried that on a test piece. I liked the way that looked and decided to use it.
The arm rests were a bit of a project. I started off trying to make a template from scratch, but quickly became frustrated. Fortunately I was able to salvage the cover from one of the rear arm rests, separate it into its three component pieces, and use these to create a template.
From there it was the usual routine of sewing the pieces together, fitting the new cover to the arm rest, and stapling it to the back. The end result wasn’t perfect, but I deemed it acceptable. Certainly better than what was there before!
The arm rests were done in the tan vinyl, same color as the seat inserts, to provide a bit of contrast.
New rear door card
With this the back seat project it done. I’m rather happy with the way this turned out!
Rear Seat
Now to move on to the front seats, using the lessons learned so far.
Well this is a milestone! The bottom of the rear seat has been completed and installed in the car. And it isn’t half bad!
The starting point was rough: worn, torn, pleats filled with crumbling foam (and foam powder), and just generally shot.
Factory seat cover (which was under the aftermarket seat cover)
Unfortunately I got focused on making and finishing the seat and forgot to take progress pictures as I went along. At least this spares you the long drawn out description of the process.
Surprisingly I didn’t have my usual gallery of mistakes, errors, and screwups to document. It actually went fairly smoothly. Maybe I’m learning?
Well, the big exception to no problems was the foam. The original foam was in horrible shape:
Seat bottom original foam
Yeah, that can’t be reused. Or even repaired and saved. Has to be replaced. Fortunately I had already purchased a sheet of 1″ thick upholstery foam for just this purpose.
The initial plan was to cut the new foam about 4″ larger on the front and wrap it down the front to avoid feeling the front of the seat frame. So I did that.
After sewing up the seat cover I did a test fit over the naked seat frame and it seemed to fit. Encouraging! Or a setup for calamity… In either case I forged ahead.
The first step in installation is to put a layer of burlap on top of the springs to avoid the springs digging into the foam and destroying it. Since I bought extra burlap I installed a double thick layer, securing in place with hog rings.
Now to lay the foam on top of the frame and test fit the seat cover. Hmm, not gonna work. Upholstery foam is quite dense – has to be to support my chunky butt. The “1 inch” foam is closer to 1-3/8 thick and doesn’t wrap over the front of the frame at all well. The seat cover doesn’t hold it in place and doesn’t fit at all. OK, time to take a step back and regroup.
If a 4″ overlap is too much, cut it down to 2″ and test fit the seat cover. Nope, still doesn’t work. This foam is just too dense, too thick, and too stiff to wrap over the edge.
Take another step back. Give up on wrapping it over the edge. Cut the front edge about 1″ oversize and bevel it at 45 degrees. The theory here is that this will allow the foam to squish over the edge a bit, preventing you from feeling the seat frame while sitting down, yet allowing the seat cover to fit..
NOW try test fitting the seat cover. Hmm, it seems close. It looks like the cover will be pulled into place making everything neat and tight when it is installed.
Duct taping my courage in place I flipped the seat over and grabbed the hog rings. After checking the left to right alignment of the seat cover I started in the center of the front. A few hog rings attached the front of the cover to the seat frame. I then went around the worktable to the back of the seat and stretched the center of the seat cover into place. To my amazement I was able to stretch the seat cover into position and hog ring it to the frame!
Well, that seemed to work. Holding my breath I flipped the seat over and checked my handiwork. To my surprise it looked great! The cover was tight enough to stretch into place cleanly, but not so tight that it would tear out. The few wrinkles easily wiped out – and looked like they would be pulled out when I finished the installation.
Flip the seat back over and continue installing hog rings. Keep working from the center out, alternating front and back to keep a balanced tension on the seat cover. Coming to the ends of the seat I worked the wrinkles out of the cover, stretched the cover into position, and installed the last of the hog rings.
Now for the penultimate moment of truth (penultimate is the fancy word for next to last): flip the seat over and work it for adjustment, alignment of seams and edges, and smooth out any wrinkles.
Umm, it worked… The seat actually looks good! the seams look good, it fits properly, there aren’t any wrinkles, and nothing jumps out as an issue.
Rear seatRear seat
Now for the ultimate moment of truth: installing the seat bottom in the car. Will it fit? Is the new seat foam so thick that it won’t go under the seat back or between the sides of the car. How will it look? Will it collapse as soon as I sit on it?
To my surprise – nay, to my amazement! – it slid into place, looks great, and sits comfortably,
Rear seat
The biggest surprise, and one of my greatest concerns, was that the inserts on the seat back and seat bottom actually lined up! I had been sweating this and wondering if the inserts were actually a good idea.
The inserts line up!
While the rear seat isn’t perfect it is rather good for a first attempt – better than I was really expecting when I started this project. It is certainly much better than what was there before!
With the seat backs done next up was the arm rest. You know the drill by now: take the old cover off, take the old cover apart, use the pieces of the old cover to make templates, cut out new pieces, sew them together, and re-install.
Like the rest of the seat, the after market cover was installed over the factory cover, allowing me to use the original factory cover to make the templates.
Arm rest foam core and new cover.
The biggest surprise was that the arm rest was nothing but a chunk of plywood and a big block of foam. For some reason I had assumed that it was a plywood box with foam padding on the sides.
In this picture you see the new cover, which is made inside out and then turned outside out when installed. You can also see that the foam block is covered with cheese cloth – this makes it much easier to install the tight fitting cover over the grabby foam.
With the new cover installed the arm rest doesn’t look half bad. Maybe I’m actually making progress!
The test cover was just that – a test. The actual vinyl is different – heavier and harder to stretch. And the test cover could have been a fluke.
One way to find out – stop stalling and make a real seat cover! Drag out the production vinyl, arrange the templates, find the marking tools and scissors, grab a cup of coffee, and start making things real. Or making real mistakes; time will tell…
The first step was to make the pleated insert. Sharp eyes will notice something wrong with the inserts – they have square corners. I really wanted the rounded corners, but ultimately decided that my skill level just isn’t there. Yet.
Even using the square corners I still cheated. Recall that the panel shrinks when sewing padded pleats. I compensated for this but the insert was still a tiny bit off in size. Since the insert isn’t full width it requires additional panels on each side. I cut these panels over size, sewed them to the insert, and then used the template to cut the entire panel to the exact finish size.
Once the center panel with pleats was done all that was left was to cut out and sew the rest of the seat back. Which may have been a slightly larger job than this sentence suggests…
In any case it was finally done. It took a bit of time and brute force to fit the finished cover over the seat back and line up the corners, edges and seams. I had to take the cover off, move it a tiny bit, and fit it again. Several times. But things finally looked halfway decent. Take a deep breath, flip it over, and start securing the cover to the frame with hog rings.
This is really the critical stage. This is when you stretch, pull, and tweak the cover so that everything lines up and there are no wrinkles. Hopefully. I tackle this job by working on opposite edges (top and bottom together then left and right sides together) going from the inside out and repeatedly checking for fit.
With the last hog ring installed it was time to flip it over and (hopefully) admire my work.
The verdict? Not too bad! Not perfect, but good. I know where every little issue and flaw is, but no one else will notice. I’m happy with it for a first attempt.
I got focused and didn’t get pictures of the build process, so here is the final result:
Time to bring all of the pieces together, make a complete seat cover out of junk vinyl, and see if it actually fits. No, I’m not concerned at all. Nope, nope, nope…
Step one: cut out all of the pieces:
Step two: sew it together:
Step three: install it:
It actually fits! Still some improvements needed in my technique, but it looks like it is time to make a real seat cover!
The old style seat covers in the Imperial wrap around the back of the seat frame and are secured to the frame with hog rings. The factory sewed cloth extension onto the sides of the seat for this attachment, which made sense when the seats were made of leather. See the gray cloth in the pictures below.
For me, however, this means multiple extra pieces that must be layed out, cut, and sewn together. Since I’m doing everything from scratch, it makes sense to just extend the existing side panels to directly incorporate the attachment points. “All” that this requires is combining two existing pieces into a single new piece. Easy, right???
Side pieces with cloth attachmentSeat back with cloth attachment
Fortunately the layout was fairly straightforward. It required considerable thought on how to deal with the seam allowance when the two pieces were combined. Further, all of the edges that attach to the frame were reinforced with piping to improve resistance to the hog rings tearing out, so a piping allowance had to be included.
And, of course, based on my experience I had to double and triple check that I wasn’t combining the pieces upside down, backwards, or on the wrong side of the part, including the wrong seam allowance, or measuring from the wrong datum.
After considerable tracing, cogitation, measuring, drawing, and cutting I had three cardboard patterns for each piece:
The pattern of actual final net shape of the piece. This is used for fitting, checking, and for tracing the seam allowance lines onto the vinyl.
The pattern for the new piece with seam and attachment allowances added. These were clearly labeled with what other piece attached to each edge and where piping was to be sewn in.
The old pattern with seam allowances which did not include the attachment points. I don’t think I will need these again, but I will keep them just in case. These patterns had OLD written on them in several places.
Time to cut all of the new parts out of the junk vinyl, sew them together, and see if they fit the seat!
Having achieved an almost acceptable test panel with the junk vinyl, I decided to make one last test panel. This last test panel would use the actual vinyl I will be using for the seats. I also needed to change thread from the cheap Amazon thread I’ve been working with to the good thread for the actual seats. And this is probably a good time to change the needle.
The first step was to fill up several bobbins with the good thread and swap in the new bobbin. Then thread the good thread through the machine, using the old thread to pull it through to make sure that the machine was threaded properly. Next, change out the needle. Finally, make a quick test seam to verify everything, and start working on the final test panel.
The result was immediate disaster. Seams completely open on the back. Seams with the stitches very loose on the back. Not Good! Time to start troubleshooting.
Hmm, it looks like I installed the needle backward. OK, rotate the needle to the correct position and try again. This time I’m getting stitches, but they are very loose. That looks like the tension setting needs to be adjusted. Spend the next hour or so changing the tension adjustment to both tighter and looser with very little change.
With frustration rising it was time to walk away. Well, it was lunchtime. Grab a sandwich, fire up the Internet, and start researching the problem.
With a list of things to check, head back to the machine and return to pounding my head against a brick wall. After chasing several more dead ends, I started studying the threading of the machine. I knew this was good, since I hadn’t changed anything and had used the old (working) thread to pull the new thread through the machine.
Just a minute – something doesn’t look right here… In fact, if you look at it closely… It looks like the thread has jumped off of both of the tensioner disks. KRUD.
Pull out the user manual, study the section on threading the machine a dozen times, and thread it according to the instructions.
Grab another scrap of vinyl and run a test seam. MUCH better, but not perfect. OK, start adjusting the tensioner. This time it makes a noticeable difference. After a half dozen seams the machine is dialed in nicely.
Take a scrap of the seat vinyl, which is much heavier than the test vinyl, and run a test seam. Good, but not quite perfect. A few small adjustments of the thread tensioner and it is sewing perfectly with the seat vinyl.
Yup, as usual, the one thing that you know can’t be the problem is what bites you. Yes, further confirmation that I’m an idiot.
Now, I can finally cut out the pieces for the test panel using the actual seat vinyl and sew them together.This heavier material has a different feel, but I was able to achieve a successful result.
Final test panel
This panel is actually better than it looks in the picture – as soon as it is stretched all of the wrinkles disappear. After a roller coaster day I think I’m ready to start working on an actual seat.
With the main seat insert largely under control it was time to deal with the next challenge – corners!
“But”, I hear you say, “haven’t you already handled corners in multiple places?” Yes – flat corners. These are three dimensional corners where the top, front, and side of the seat meet. Further, they are curved. The corners of the seat are rounded. Rounded side to side and front to back.
This complexity is the main reason I’m trying to use the original seat covering as a template for the new seat covers.
But before that it made sense to start with s simple corner.
Test corners
After achieving reasonable success with this simple corner I ratcheted my courage up a couple of levels and cut out corner pieces for one of the seat corners using the seat templates. These were partial pieces – I just used eight inches or so from each piece rather than the full two foot long piece. This is the piece on the right in the picture above.
I then fit the corner together with staples. This fitting process was an exercise in frustration. I re-did it several times until it seemed close. With trepidation I took it to the sewing machine and stitched it up. Sewing seams that curve in three dimension out of heavy vinyl seems to be an acquired skill. The piece is fighting you all the way – it really wants to go off track, bunch up (creating wrinkles), and in general just be difficult. But I finally reached the end of each seam.
The final result was, indeed, a corner. And it did fit over the corner of the seat. But it still needs work. I need to take the lessons learned and do at least one more test piece.
Introducing the Imperial Deathstar, a black 1963 Chrysler Imperial. This is one of the largest production sedans ever built, and arguably the best luxury car of its day.
Join me what will probably be a never-ending saga of grease, aching muscles, and an empty wallet as I work to restore this over 50 year old survivor to a reliable cruiser.
