cheap no sew roadster upholstery

watch craigslist for a day or three and find a free leather couch close to home



she's a beaut' huh?

cut all the leather off and throw it in the wash with a bunch of detergent
tumble dry for a few hours on low heat

surprise the wife with the carcass





then show her what you get for the price of a little foam rubber and elbow grease





in the last couple weekends I had already swapped out the fabbed dash, SW gauges, Stude column and Superior wheel
for a stock dash, '36 Packard gauges and '42 Ford column and wheel, also streched the stick about a foot and swapped out the vintage 8 ball knob for an old truck knob I stuck an old penny in

 

Love the indian head in the knob.
Interior looks great.

 

Nice job man, way to recycle. And it actually looks good.

 

I VOTE NEW TECH THREAD CHAMPION!!!

Excellent idea

 

Cool! Though she didn't look surprised.

 

I use the term loosly,
there is little I can do to surprise her any more, she knows me too well

 

Upholstery job: Free.
Look on wife's face: Priceless.

 

Thanks,loved it all,photo to the max

 

thanks
the knob is made of something akin to asphalt, even with a nice sharp bit in the drill press it crumbled around the edges, I filled it with JB Weld and smoothed it up a bit till it matched the wear pattern and color of the wheel

 

Very cool!

 

Her expression cracked me right the heck up.

priceless.

i'm still laughing

 

I think it looks great! I wouldn't have thought about that.
Tom

 

Great idea,Paul! Do you have any in progress pics of how it went from the washing machine to the finished product?
I am a long way from being ready to do some upholstery, but i will be keeping an eye out for a free leather couch all the same!

 

sorry, no I didn't take any in progress pictures
I must be slacking

 

Cool, I had to show my wife the photos to show her what I was laughing at when I saw the look on your wife's face.

I did a similar job with discount fabric store vinyl on my 51 Merc a few years ago but it didn't turn out that good.

 

I dig it. Reminds me of an old baseball mitt.

The Glove Box, ha ha

 

Very cool.

 

Love the distressed look of the leather. Way to go Paul.

 

That is the best darn idea.Thank you for sharing.

 

great idea!

 

Bloody brilliant! I gotta try that.

 

Im currently sitting on my future Hot Rod Leather interior. Should be nice and seasoned by the time I'm ready for interior. I started planning it when I first purchased these sofa's. Too damn expensive to just toss out.

Looks great Paul.

 

Very sweet !!!! Bet you everyone is checking out Craigslist tonite for free couches.

 

Amen to a Great Idea, as well as awesome results...
Hmmmm.....wonder if my Mother in Law will miss her old leather sofa ??
Cheers.....

 

That looks great!

 

The last free couch we went to go get to strip the foam out of,,, smelled like cat pee

 

Wait, you washed leather in the washing machine?

 

That is so freakin' cool! Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

 

I had to pass on a beautiful 5-piece black leather sectional sofa for free just last week because nobody I called had a truck available. That damn thing would probably have upholstered the next 3 cars i ever do.

 

low heat wash with plenty of detergent, the trick is to dry very slowly
warm wash and low or no heat dry, towards the end of the drying pull the leather out and strech it by hand to keep it from shrinking unevenly
this works best with old warn leather
it will strip any oils and dirt out of it
this was an old dog couch and smelled like it too
the leather is now clean and has no offensive odors

I did buy all new foam for the seat and used upholstery spray adhesive to put it all together