Vintage Car Interior-Upholstery Restoration Tips
Restoring a vintage car interior is a less challenging project today as compared to what the restoration enthusiast faced in the past. There are now kits available for car upholstery restoration and those that will allow you to repair a cracked vinyl dashboard. Additionally, kits are at the disposable of the restorer to replace headliners which have deteriorated and need repair or replacement, and there are kits which the restorer can purchase to aid in the restoration of door panels that are showing the effects of wear and tear.
Because of the kits which are being made available on the market today to re-cover worn and torn seats, the enthusiast can elect to take on this phase of the restoration project themselves, and in so doing reduce the cost for an important part of their restoration. More importantly, the satisfaction of transforming a vintage car interior into something special to behold and the final result of doing it yourself is second to none.
If the car your restoring has bucket seats you’ll be able to remove and do the upholstery work alone. An important tip to remember when covering bucket seats is to do one at a time, which makes it possible to use the completed seat as a guide for the work you’ll be doing on the other. With a bench seat you should follow the guideline of doing each cushion separately.
Obviously, the first thing which should be done is the actual removal of the seats, followed by setting up a work area to do the necessary re-upholstering. The best place to do this type of work is on a work bench because it provides a perfect height from which to do this work. You may also want to consider covering the surface of the bench to reduce the possibility of dirt or grime becoming a part of your new upholstery kits fabric.
Every car upholstery restoration project begins by taking the seat apart. Start by removing the folding side supports that attach the seatback to the bottom cushion. Incidentally, the rear seat cushion is removed separately and typically requires no additional disassembly. Having completed this part of the removal process you can now remove the seat supports and slide rails.
During the removal process it’s a good idea to take all of the hardware such as the screws, springs, nuts, bolts and washers and store them in some type of container so that you’ll know right where they are when its time to reassemble the seat.
When the removal process is complete you are now ready to reupholster your seats, and if you’ve purchased one of the new kits which are available on the market today, these frequently come with some type of instructions to aid in the process.
However, whether the seats you’re reupholstering are bucket seats or a single seat you will also have to inspect the seats frame. In many cases, with older cars it isn’t unusual to discover that you will also have some repair work to do on the frame as well.
In any event, when you car upholstery restoration is complete you’ll be one step closer to having the vintage car of your dreams!
