Recovering VN interior
Post #1 for mr toyota gone holden
Ok basic run down, was selling my turbo mr2 for a volvo tow car when a guy turned up with an SS VN and wanted to swap, towball, 276 cam, headers, group A front, high kms but solid. A good tow wagon so I said sure and tada I have a VN SS
However the interior on top of being pretty mediocre is worn, stained and the headliner falling off. Now I had a set of leather seats I was going to use but the rear seats are not much better and a couple door cards are clawed by what looks like the farm dog, the foam smells to so the idea of recovering things has popped to mind. I poked round a bit but found most people using Ebay kits and going to upholsterers and the ones that did briefly posting "yeah it was easy only cost me 3 hundy" then disappearing back to the depths.
Want to do the seats with vinyl in grey with red inserts and the doors the same. So anyone have example threads or tips on the door cards? I'd just like an idea of how easy this is for a starter outer who is fairly acquainted with a sewing machine and adhesives. I have some trick glue that the pros use and have worked with fabric before having handstitched my own steering wheel when an upholsterer said he wanted nothing to do with it cause they are too tricky, turned out great to. I'd of just used some used original parts but by the time you buy a couple door carts and a set of seats plus the fact you are left with some old worn crap I might as well experiment on the old stuff before I try replace cause I have a lot of what I need already minus hog ring pliers and fabric, vinyl is cheap anyway. Foam I have some old hardly used foam matresses of perfect firmness, I tend to use what I have a lot.
Kinda rolled an intro into that long gas off but you get the drift, people that have graced the mr2 forums will know me cause I take on and do some cool stuff. Upholstery is one of the only things I've never done full on, covered some small stuff but nothing like this.
covering commodore door trims? eek. from what i can tell there moulded and high frequency welded. doesnt look fun. im a 2nd year apprentice and have never had commodore door trims come into work. but having said that we dont have a big demand for custom trimming where i live. not saying it isnt possible but your definately gonna have a phat time trying :P
second thought though your not covering them with the weld lines and back to original. shave it all flat start gluing your vinyl off...just leave plenty of excess around the edges to you can pull it around and keep it neat.. only place your really going to have trouble is the big dip where the arm rest is. and that shouldent be a huge drama if youve got some good glue and a bit of patience( a good quality vinyl with nice stretch that is going the right way will go a long way too). im not the best at explaining things as you can probably tell (weve got a young bloke starting work with us atm and im a fail teacher lol) but if you need some advice just send me an inbox or something.
Oh no that welding doesn't concern me at all, prolly leave it off. Just they need replacing anyway and for what a little vinyl costs I would like to have a little go. The steering wheel I covered I stretched a long way to get a super neat fit that followed the whole curve.
Redoing the absolutely horrendous twist join wiring from a previous owner which took 12 hours I knocked the soldering iron out of the holder and holed the passenger seat (goddamn that pissed me off) so I'd really really like to recover. I don't know what the covers are like underneath till I get it apart but I think I have the basic idea of how they are with the hog rings and everything. I just need to balls up and give it a go using the old fabric as a template to make a new seat. I've seen others do it with patience and I'm sure I can if I take it slow and make sure I make strong joins and straight stitching, can't quick unpick vinyl either cause it leaves holes :\
The interior I keep thinking is not bad till I stare for a minute and see the stains etc I couldn't get out. Also it's gone loose in places from sun and foam sag ew ew ew. Gave it a full service today and it has nolathane bushings and everything though, oil was fairly clean but I changed it anway and the brake fluid was black so flushed it. So I'm mechanically happy with it just visually the interior is shyte.
sounds like your definately on the right track. just make sure you crete mark everything and mark where your listings go etc. take your time and make sure you use 9m to back up whatever material your using, and sew JUST inside your chalk mark (or whatever you mark with) to make it that tiny bit tighter. if your pattern are loose and fit like shit maybe consider making your own patterns off the foam. but its really quite sucky. i still cant get them to sit perfect. love having a good pattern to go off in the first place. yer unpicking vinyl covers sucks. gotta sew back just inside the stitch holes. or be epic and catch your old holes :P should get them sitting nice with some luck. you definately are on the right track. you know alot more then any jo blow off the street so good luck! bit of practice will go a long way. just give it a crack. you going to be top stitching/french stitching? piping? or just try cover them for a start?
Top stitching scares me cause I dunno how straight I can get it :/ I think I could do welts fine though if I want the edge around the backseat to remain
topstitching really isnt for looks in my opinion. it looks ok but i usually only do it when i need the seam to lay nice and flat and look isnt really the whole point, boot seem is more for looks (otherwise known as french stitch) or piping, you just have to take your time and guide the side of your sewing foot right on the inside of your seam. at work we use the old clunker 132 machine but it really depends on your machine, feet you use, needle size etc. its all practice. just do some seams on some scrap vinyl and practice. and go slow keep it even. :P goodluck
Oh I can sew fairly well and run lockstitches etc so it doesn't fall apart but this is a big job and a lot of fabric. I wanted to start this long weekend but the red hasn't showed and neither has my roof suede. I ordered a satin kind of material for the roof at first but they sent me white not grey so I had to reorder something from another company and decided screw it we'll see what suede looks like
Turned the satin into a bedsheet, the vinyl into the first part of the interior and have a sore back from hours and hours of sewing, The first seats are going to be the worst cause I haven't figured out how deep to stitch, if my pattern is going to work etc etc cause the vinyl is stiffer than the cloth so doesn't shape the same. Plus everything was rusty as hell from spilled drinks and I couldn't find the hog rings, cloth was so rotted from moisture and the rusty rods in it that it had rotted off the rails which would explain in part why the seats were loose where they shouldn't have been.
For the love of god don't spill coke in your car cause one day things are going to suck for people like me.
Haven't put the rods in and pulled things tight yet but I think I'm doing pretty good? I honestly have no idea lol The french stitching on the curve up the side is a PAIN and so was the piping but I'm learning as I go.
What I have so far, still no idea what I'm doingBut it seems alright and just needs some working. Bought hogring pliers cause there was no way I was doing that with 2 longnose pliers
cant remember seeing anyone stitch up an interior on here.. usually they pay to have it done... good on you dude looks great. cant wait to see it finished
Great job mate.. Its great to see people making there own stuff and giving it ago.. Are you doing the back seat as well?
Mate that looks great, I was going to suggest finding a better set at the wreckers or you would devalue your car, but by the looks of what you are doing its an improvement. Well done great skills.
Looking good so far, good luck with the rest and post a finished photo. You could do a how to as well for the rest of us novices.
Neither can I, this job sucks lolOriginally Posted by hi_ryder
Kinda have to or it would look funny, might even land up doing it after the headliner cause I'm still using the car and want to leave the drivers seat till last, will check if it uses the same pattern as the passenger seat (think it does) then whack out another cover and do the drivers seat one afternoon with no down time.
Still can get some wrecker seats but this way I can have a play and learn some stuff
Oh god not another how to, I've done a few before on lots of things so I guess I could but I am a TOTAL noob at this, don't even ask why it's turning out well cause I really don't know. I do nice jobs when I want to though, I did alot more than the pics show like some new padding on top to soften it up for sitting on again plus you can't see the detail
Got a bit to do but will keep at it, went rallying today in my racecar and I snapped the front wheelstuds off on a corner and went for a 3 wheeled ride so better fix that asap
America just kicked in yo
Looks great very tidy work can't wait to see it when finished
got a pic of the sewing machine?
Bernette 66, basic machine. not very powerful so going slow and punching through the plastics that need to be attached is hard but it certainly works. No computerized embroidery or flash commercial walking foot which means I have to take things slow and make sure the layers don't shift. Just run a lockstitch at the start of each sewing line then carefully feed things through. I've had to unpick minimal amounts by just being careful
Getting better and picking up tips as I go, might get a heat gun onto things to try carefully to even things out but it's not bad, not bad at all
New dizzy to go on with rotor, flushed the brakes and put in nice new fluid to replace the old crap, new panard rod bushings just pressed in and greased. Still dunno if I can be bothered threading the shaft for an alloy handbrake button or just lathe the middle of the button out enough to slip over the shaft and use epoxy resin on the thing. Oh and I polished it after removing the rear seat cause I was happy I found $1.40 under the seat. Then I took it for a drive to get a few things and instantly got pulled up cause I'm a young guy in a V8, woman looked inside and saw the removed rear seat and missing headliner before just letting me go....god I must of looked like a boy racer #### lol
BTW I'm still not an upholsterer, not even close. Looking at the drivers seat one of the rods in the centre is sticking through the fabric from wear and there are wrinkles in the CLOTH. Well and truly baked, not to mention the stains you can see. 20 years of wet farts to D: If you are keen eyed I moved the welt further back on the front seats to hide the tighter bend better, just made more sense to me and looked better *shrug* One of the main draws of vinyl was it is cheap and easy to clean and look after which is good for a practical car which for me is using as a tow vehicle so I do tend to just throw junk in the car.
Typical bull, easy job turns hard. Freaking rear tray went to cover it before putting in the back seat and instead of being all nice it's all broken from a previous owner using mad tyte skills to smash holes for the 16x9's. So have spent hours squaring that away and it's drying so I'll install that tomorrow with the back seat. I'll look like less of an ass with all the seats back in the car.
Gotta pull a bit more on the right hand side of the rear support to make it like I got the left side but it looks shit loads better than the old stained seats. And the suede parcel tray feels niace. In the mean time I've managed to break my rallycar, fix it, break it and have to fix it again. Not forgetting spending $$ to fix it all the while spending $$ on this holden treating it every opportunity. Still gotta do the diff oil and gearbox oil and rear tyres before I feel better, never ends.
Still working on the driver's seat cause I've had so much to do. But aside from my lack of speed in that department I've been hard at it when I can. New pinion seal and diff oil, was gunna do the trans but supersheep sold me the wrong oil so have to exchange. But anyway this thread has slipped way down the list so I'll update a little
Anyway mostly updating cause the VN handbrake button is quite frankly crap. I went into town, got some appropriately sized aluminium stock and drilled a hole in it then sanded it with 800 grit and put it on a calico bench polisher for a perfect mirror finish. The resulting button is great, much better than stock. Might get some better pics later but for now this is what I got from making it tonight. Button sits flush when pressed in to which is about perfect.
I also wouldn't mind making the same for the window wiper switch and headlights with engraved symbols but I fear that might be a tad overboard at least until I get a level 3 dash or something a bit more modern, that or make my own custom faceplates for the gauges. At this point I should also admit I'm a bit of a fabricator do things like this on a regular basis. I generally hide in the shadows cause people see things like this and I get endless messages asking to buy lol. I suppose if enough people asked I'd jump on a lathe and knock it out but otherwise it's a lot of hassle for something so small.
Got the bottom thing of the drivers seat done. Haven't been on this lately cause I ran out of grey vinyl so had to go get more. Also the piping on this seat was attached to well the seat I'm still using. The piping cord was in good shape so I've just been reusing it but the one around the drivers seat was broken up and on the seat still. So I needed a suitable replacement, local upholster didn't have any so had to think on it cause it's just hollow plastic tube, how hard could it be to find? Went to a plastic store and they didn't go small enough, went to an aquarium store and the same thing, walked around a general store while thinking and while looking at makeup stuff while I walked past it struck me. Wire
So went to an electronics store with lots of wire and found a type of wire that flexed right and also was the right diameter then bought a couple metres to use. Worked a charm
I've cut a lot of the stuff to sew up the rear support, just gotta get sewing now. Have racing this weekend so don't know when I'll get it done but almost there now! I'm also much faster on the machine than when I started, I can whack out a good seam quite quick and worry less about mistakes.
DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
^Somewhat descriptive of how relieved I am to have it done, well sort of. Haven't bolted the driver seat back in the car but it's finished all the same. There was lots of sag in in this seat so I used closed cell foam on the base to raise it, then 20mm foam on top to pad it out as well as repairing where the wire set into the foam had come free by making some wire tie downs for it and then using ADOS F2 to bond it back together where it had torn as well as pouring some special adhesive into torn open gaps, it's like magic glue my dad bought for something, $100 a litre but it's made of pure wizard blood and can fix anything. Anyway the back support I lay 10mm on it at first but it didn't seem tight enough so did another 10mm layer and that got it spot on for firmness and shape. I think it's not bad for the first time doing a full interior. Oh I also fixed that thingy that changes the back support, it had stretched and did nothing so I tightened it and now it actually adjusts.
I'll install and take pics of it later cause for now I'm beat, took me all night to finish this thing off and I'll sleep a bit so I don't collapse this arvo, I had the time to get it done at last
I've used about 1km of thread over this entire deal lol. Honestly didn't expect that, I did mess up a few times and some of it was probably wasted in my technique but still that is an asstonne of thread.
America just kicked in yo
looks beautiful!! well done although not to my particular taste there will be many who do like the colour combo. I guess it does stick to the original vn ss interior colour theme though hehe.
Well it's a red car and there was not a huge amount of choice on what I thought would look right. I'm pretty happy with it, have the seat back in now and reassembled the centre console I had apart as well as a general tidy. Very practical, already spilt things on it and just wiped up with a cloth, easy. And it is probably the more "correct" colour scheme as far as a VN SS holden goes. Least it stands out as "wow that is a tidy interior" rather than "wow that is a stained horrible interior"
Also a family dog had been riding in the car at some point and the cloth smelled. Not nice.
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