TECH Sew at home upholsrety hot rod

An experienced sewer may be able to find an industrial sewing machine store that would let them use one of their machines, but I doubt they would let a beginner use their equipment. "Walking foot" is a generic term for alternating presser feet, and is a type of industrial sewing machine, it is not an attachment.

There is no attachment that turns a machine with a presser foot into a walking foot. Here is a picture of an industrial sewing machine that has a walking foot. The two rear vertical shafts hold the two parts of the foot, and go up and down alternately. (hence the name alternating presser foot) When one is up the other is down and vice versa. That means the machine always has some part of the foot in contact with the fabric and is able to sew the fabric together better. If you look at Dana's machine, it has only one other shaft that holds the foot, so it does not have a walking foot.

Also, this machine is compound feed, which means it has two or more feeding systems. This one has needle feed and drop feed. The needle pulls the work forward (needle feed) and the upper and lower feed dogs (drop feed) push the work forward. Home machines are almost always needle feed only.

There are a lot of things you can sew with a home sewing machine, but there are a lot of things you can't sew with a home sewing machine too. The thicker the work you want to do, the less likely you will be able to do it with a home machine. If you want to make a living doing auto upholstery, you need an industrial single needle, compound feed, walking foot sewing machine.

 

my mother used to do upholstry before she developed an allergy to the vinyl. her industrial machine was a beast! Had a couple instances where she made door panels out of 3/16 plywood and sewed directly to it! She had a fellow upholsterer that sewed 3 fingers together with his old singer he used...

 

An industrial machine will easily sew through 1/4" plywood. You can't go real fast, and your needle will be shot when you're done, but it will do it no problem.

 

Thanks DanTwoLakes,
That's some good info for letting those that don't know how the sewing machines are named and work.
Your for sure a pro at what ya do,I've benafitted from you super input on other site you run.
Your statment is very good from a tech standpoint.
"There is no attachment that turns a machine with a presser foot into a walking foot."
To clear that up a little;
They do sell for home sewing machines what's called "Walking Foot Attachment",it's a very wimpy type of thing ,but dose help pull things through under needle with plastic feet that do move down and back by a cam inside it,forced by the bigger arm hooked to needle screw,it is no way as good as what your talking about,yet helps when doing this stuff with the wrong type machine and it's limits ,are what this thread here is about.
Thanks for adding info.
The next task is rugs. Plan on holding them down with Velcro in the T-bucket so they can be removed and cleaned as needed.

 

They may call that home sewing machine attachment a walking foot, but a true walking foot has two separate pieces attached to two separate shafts that alternate between up and down. I think a more accurate description for what you have would be a floating foot attached to the presser foot. Your foot always stays down. The only thing pulling the fabric through your machine is your needle, not the foot.

 

BTW, the model number of your machine is 158, and the last five digits are the serial number.

 

D.B., tried the velcro thing , black carpet, when the sun warmed it up, the "super adhesive" let go , double face indoor/outdoor carpet tape works good {for me } used snaps to hold my floor mats , easy to take out & clean .

dave

 

DB Great job, bucket coming along nice.

Dan, welcome!


I plan on sewing my door panels to 1/8 baltic birch (I already have it on hand) figured the machine can do it, why fight with glue

 

Thanks for the tips gang.
About the rug,I'll be screwing an gluing velcro to the floor[it's 1in. plywood] plus sewing top of velcro to bottom of rug in the ditch maybe by hand,my son said he don't what snaps showing.

It's set up so the back of seat leans forword for storage behind it,like FixAFlat, some tools,jumpers and a small trap. The bottom lifts up to get to Bat box and brake cly,plus the radio is under it[remoto controled] with two speekers under dash.
There is little to no room ,if ya don't plan ahead on this stuff to make stuff open up to use every in. of space!

 

The 1/2in.plywood seat frame work can be seen here,it has a pocket in center bottom for radio that only sticks up into foam about 3/4in. at high point,so you can't feel it setting on seat at all,and there even a little storage space for odds and ends to each side of radio. It drops inplace with a lock lip to hold it.
Ok I'll try photo again,it got lost in space

 

Well hopefully here's photo,showing how seat frame was done,it's tipped up here to show better,radio dose go up into foam at back corner about 3/4in. but you can't feel it setting on seat at all,room is golden
Trick in that is the design of plywood seat and wood frame needs to alow for a little were you know your going to have some vinyl come around and be stapled,so that dose not make things fit bad,plan ahead is key,just think about what is going to be were and make room.
Note that there is a wood lip on bottom of seat plywood that when down,keeps it from sliding forword at all,so all stays in place. Upright on floor is held with 4 big screws so it can be removed as needed,radio will not come out with out that.

 

Nice post, thanks for sharing your tips and tricks.

I too bought a yardsale sewing machine awhile back but havent gotten around to trying my hand at seats yet. My mom has done a few interiors for cars and boats and gave me the same advice you did....find a machine with steel gears.

Again, thanks for the info and sharing the tips
Bobby

 

The longer you sit on the seat, the more chance you have of bottoming out the foam and sitting on nothing but plywood. If you cut out openings in the plywood in the areas you sit on, (leaving about a 2 1/2" border of plywood around the edge and a 5" strip down the middle from front to back) , and staple elastic webbing criss-crossed over those open areas you will not only have a more comfortable seat, you will eliminate some weight. You can do the same thing with the plywood for the seat back.

 

Great thread! I've been thinking about doing upholstery myself when the time comes. My dad has an industrial machine he found somewhere and it just sits in the corner of the shop. I think I'll give it a try next time I'm over there.

 

DanTwoLakes,
Thanks for the tips on foam , I got some very good foam,there are cheep foams that brake down faster and thanks to you pointing that out over on your site,I knew to get the good stuff for how I did it. The webbing way is very good,I just don't have room under,plywood is the floor in this small rod,he didn't wish to set up too high out of it,and he didn't like the way some do that.

Dave,
Check to see if your dads sewing machine is a real walking foot design,it's lot EZer to work with then slipper foot like the housewife designs come with and some industrial machine also only have slipper foot as well ,so are not that great ether. There is one more thing as well to check,and that is at what speed it sews,some are very fast and just not controlible by some one new to sewing.
If it is a walking foot,but sews too fast ya can get a better drive motor,called a Servo motor that for about $200 that will let ya control it speedwise like a housewife one dose.

 

No matter what you call it, walking foot or not, if I can get through one vehicle, it's great.

I'll worry about other vehicles when the time comes.

I was planning on using canvas. I know on the HAMB there has been discussion about using military surplus canvas seat covers as material.
I wondered if new manila colored painters tarps from the home improvement store would work. They come in different weights and are really cheap.
One 9 x 12, 10 or 11 oz drop cloth should easily do a couple bench seats and/or door panels for a P/U. Cut them to rough dimension, wash and dry a few times, steam or iron out, and stitch 'em up.

 

Here is what I did for ends[boxing or caps] to seat covers,you see here right lower bottom corner of the back that is out of site anyway ,but you can get idea of how the other corners are the same,none show much when it's all in car. The Franch stitch is for the art of it mostly,it looks better then just blind stitching it only. To do this with my Kenmore machine I had to do it from the back side with salvage glued down,then lifted and cut off after.
As we did not wish a seam running from side to side on top of back or along front of bottom,the caps/ends needed this type of angle. I had to remove a little foam near bottom to clear door panel nicely. The notch at BTM end is for seatbelt,there are two like that near center also lets four parts of belts clear.
I tryed to do some tests making a "S" corner,but housewife machine will not do small "S" with out notts and screw ups,so junked that idea. Key is do testing and be sure you can get a shape you need before messing up good parts.

 

Again great info and thanks, whats the info/link to Dantwolakes' site?

 

Good info there also;
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/interior/

 

Lots of good info here. I've been a novice sewer for years and "discovered" lots of the stuff here. Just got a steel gear machine from egay. It's a 1932 model 99 for $40. I also just got access to a walking foot industral machine. Wow! Difference between idle and flat out is about 1/4". Whole new learing curve but it feeds the scrim (cloth backed foam) easy. I've found that tacking things together with glue before sewing gums up the needle. Take a sewing class, it will pay in the long run.

 

Willy33,
Sounds like you got good walking foot but too fast,try this if ya got$;
http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp10568.html#Click for More Images
It gives ya control of speed I'm told.

Thanks for reminding me to add some info too.
Glue and needles*,first don't sew in wet glue ever!,also I use a Q-tip sprayed with silicone lube on my needle just before starting a long sew line. NEVER ANY GOO THAT WAY.
Always start by checking if ya got enough in your bobbin before starting. If your using just a slipper foot,put a little silicone lube on bottom of it too,run a small peace of scrap though,then sew. It helps running at very slow speed to keep things going smooth
Housewife machines don't have the power of the big pro jobs,so these little tricks help a lot.
Even makes my Hand cranking around small corner EZer,gets stitchs were ya wish them to be!.

 

thank you!!!

 

Looking around the web,there's some very interesting ideas for door panels with no sewing at all;
http://www.clubhotrod.com/upholstery-interior/46465-diy-no-sew-upholstery-thread.html
If you already had some nice seats,ya could do a match up door panel that way.

 

Got'a make some patterns from paper or cardboard ,leve about 1/8in. to 1/4in. less all around,this lets your binding have room. You'll need to check fit with stuff your using for actul space=test. Deside what parts you need binding on and what part you can just sew together,or lay under others.
The rug I'm using here is auto carpet from upholstery supply store,it's just like speeker box cover as far as I can tell. There is a few dif types out there,but this one has very small bit of flex that helps bumps,but not much.
To add binding to rug, I cut a strip of vinyl 1.5 wide and staple it on top of rug ,vinyl upside down close to edge,you can stitch a line about 5/16in. from edge.Then turn it all over and remove old staples,then add new staples to hold vinyl around edge so next you can sew from top in what is called"The Ditch"= sew right along between rug and vinyl,this holds your binding inplace from the back side.
This should show what I'm talking about.
After sewing first line,remove staples,pull around and restaple it under.
Do not put any staples were your stitch lines are going.
Last photo shows stitching in the ditch from the top. This also shows how nice the edge of rug ends up looking
You can cut as I did the extra salvage off from that under lip so there is a bit less bumps under carpet.
We end up with a pro looking edge to our rugs that is also seen last photo.

 

Here it is together,or at lest most of it,will need to come apart to paint it all shiny,but he's having fun test driving now

 

Padding the upper lip of cockpit will need to be done after all gets painted deep shiny dark peril blue ,the plan is to have about 1/2in. high pad around top edge and then run inside about 1in.thick on inside down about 2in. plus were needed above back of seat ect. I worked out a way of fixing it to top lip;by putting pad cover vinyl under some 1/8in. thick alum strips that have countersunk screw holes that will have screws from there into cockpit top lip,that way I'm pulling vinyl up and around padding and down into cockpit,at that point will staple vinyl under wood that I have under lip and just above door panel.
I'll add photos as soon as I have any.

 

We're doing those finishing things now on Lance's "T" ,so soon I'll be posting the cockpit lip here on this tech how-to,it being the last thing.
My son has been doing a running blog site on how this build is doing,if any one wishs to check it out;
http://lancebarlow.com/

 

I put a photo in my album of "T" this is about;
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=2230&pictureid=352393

 

Well I see some real talent here! You should keep an eye pealed for a deal on a pro machine. Good upholstery guys are hard to find... fine job!

 

Well here is the new cockpit lip all done,so now to show you'all how I did it,next below post will have photo by photo of what I did. Had to fig out a way to mount lip to hold,even though my son and I will be getting in and out right over it=this would pull off most lip trim along to top lip.
I've seen more then a few trim jobs that in a very short time start to come apart,so this needed to be long lasting design.
One clink on photos makes them big for a better look.