Wow. There ya go. I can't make it behave in the Juki(good thing but I think I have only one large spool). It's like monofilament in clothing - can't stand it(impervious to sweat but it pokes me)! This is all more reinforcement that if a customer brings materials you can't guarantee the inner properties of it and I would put that in writing. Won't stop complaining when it goes sideways but at least it's a checkpoint for yourself that you educated about materials. Some don't know the difference between split, corrected, and full grain leathers. No crime but there is a huge difference in what will work and what is cheap. Price often drives the decision and the upholsterer is expected to make it all look the same in the end. There are a bunch of surplus hides in my area over the past decade or so. They aren't horrible but they are about $100 a roll. Obviously corrected so I can see the appeal. Great stuff!
I was once quoted $3k to do the interior in my avatar ( ten years ago) . I had to respectfully decline ( first I didn’t have the cash and second I had shows that I wanted to attend)
My original hub pad had been cut some time in its life. I am guessing for a mic trigger. I was quoted several hundred dollars by a local automotive upholster to repair it, I found a seamstress who decided it was easier and would look better to make a new one using her husband's old motorcycle jacket for under $100.00. I think a lot of these guys think they are doing an interior for a Pebble Beach or a Grand National Roadster Show car and charge as such, whether they are working on that caliber of car or even skilled enough to do that level of work.
Got my first interior done in 1958 at a Cadillac dealer after hours. Over the years, I’ve had trim work done by talented craftsmen that didn’t have a clue as to what their work was really worth. On the other hand, I’ve had work that was shoddy and overpriced. I maintain the belief that a craftsman is entitled to make a profit. Over the years, I’ve spent over $5,000 for the seat and back in my avatar with three different trim guys. The third time was a charm and I have no regrets about the money I spent.
Robert Palmer, It's great when someone else is willing to sacrifice their own goods to make something for another for cheap. But that is hardly a sustainable business model for anyone doing upholstery. Not criticizing as it meets your need and expectation but this is what many want as a cheap, quick job. That works for many of our projects but what one thinks is a great come-up the next complains about. My OCD would mean I would have to make a truly round center pad. I couldn't deliver it out of round and without any finished edges to someone even if it is what they gave me and said it was, "good enough." It's an expectation thing on both ends. I'm glad there are seamstresses willing to do that work. I have seen them offer repairs on vintage WWII jackets and really mess them up as they don't understand the collector value side of it. When you tell someone what all has to be done to do it correctly, many go with the cheaper solution. Same issue with so many things. For me the struggle is real!
That center pad was used from original hub pad, and reused on the new one. It was never round! Here in lays another issue everyone seems to think that things like this hub pad were one off custom tailor made, it wasn't it was production work. Further more this is for a race car!! The hub pad is there to protect my arms, head, chest with an (soften) impact with the steering wheel in the event of a crash. It doesn't make the car go around the track! Just as an interior and upholstery doesn't make a car go up and down the road! Several hundred dollars goes a long way toward buying parts, tires, race gas, fuel for the tow vehicle. If you had read my earlier post in this thread (see the following quote). You will see by my work I am hardly a Close Enough is Good Enough type of person! Chassis and running gear need to come first!
Yes and I agree 100% with you on all accounts. Many shopping for upholstery do not judge things the same as you. My car would look silly with a perfect interior, others would expect nothing less. Many values, expectations, and interpretations here. Your pad is a perfect example of what I was saying earlier. Supplying materials, reusing parts, and/or not requiring finished edges will give a different result than what some here would expect - especially if paying top dollar. For your project, you feel it was the perfect balance and that's the key. You are one of the lucky ones. Others would complain - trust me. This whole thread has done one thing for me - convinced me to do interiors only for myself. No insult to your fabrication skills was made nor implied.
How about some blankets on the seats and then you have about 14,735 bucks to ply your friends with bevrages.
Hey, Dave: "Interesting for sure. Today, paint and interior are judged by luxury standards rather than utilitarian standards. Race cars at Pebble Beach are nothing like they were really raced, etc. If we could magically sneak in an NOS car that was somehow just as it was the day after production, it would come in last place among the restored. I think we are in an era where we really don't want an "original" interior(thus, custom) and we see so much that is so well done(read: show cars), meanwhile, we drive around in our new uber comfortable, leather, modern interiors that are always showing off new annual styles. We have become desensitized. I think our ideas have us not knowing what we really expect in the end except to be "wowed". It's hard to satisfy such an itch - especially if the customer wants to keep cost down." I think you hit on something here. Until Studebaker quit making cars in '64, interiors were stitched by people, on machines. & the interiors were good(or at least OK in terms of fit/etc, & yes, parts of them were heat-pressed), not perfect - much less show-quality(Except for a few of their actual show-cars). If you could somehow take a modern OT interior, esp a sorta higher-end OEM, to a car show in the say 60's ->80's, maybe even Riddler or AMBR, the quality & detail of todays' interiors are probably good enough to take top honors. IDK, how much/many of these new OEM interiors are done by computer-controlled systems? So that has become the ever-escalating new norm of expected quality, & folks not having a clue as to the cost. It's not unreasonable to see that happening, as it's also happened in the bodywork quality since the 90's, maybe even the early 80's. Not monkey see, monkey do; but a realization that it can be that way. Of course, the bar keeps getting raised, & I suppose the gd rr's are a rebellion to that, although by the early 70's, we had "beaters" & "reachers", which were just that, nice, decent, safe mildly done hotrods - usually later model versions good for hauling family around too. Seems not many folks want that anymore, either. & since the costs are going up, & the ability to pay is going down(for most), well... ;( . Marcus...
Naturally, I couldn't agree more! LOL I also feel this thinking was the birth of the resto-mod interior. Except for the tilt column(Once I find the spot I never move it again anyway!), this style appears to seek modern comfort and convenience in an old package. When I see one I always think, "Why does that guy hate old cars so much?" But to each his own. We are extremely spoiled by what we can get in a new car. I love old cars but I love my A/C. Never the twain shall meet! D
BTW, I am happy to announce that my one spool of tex 135 nylon thread has not yet rotted! Since I hate the stuff, I have found a good use - measuring true axle drop.
A little off topic but I just watched a vid by Make It Kustom on YT and he charged $6K for a custom all metal centre console (no paint) for an OT vehicle. Lots of work for sure, but I’m sure it took him less than a week, but at $150/hr and 40 hrs, you’re at $6K.
I wonder what a Tony Nancy interior cost in 2022 dollars? A calculation shows a $15000 interior today would have cost $1520.. in 1960.
nrgwizard shared with us that an old Car Help Guy radio host in the 80s claimed to have used a company with: Here's how the magic works. These are shots of our dog's bed foam. She's been laying on it folded for some reason as we have doubled up beds for her.
After the magic: It works on old seat foam but not sure how long it lasts. Que the cheesy Youtube commercial: "It's the secret Big Upholstery doesn't want you to know!" "It's toppling the billion dollar foam industry..."
This is the interior I made and put into my own personal 32. I have about 15+ hours just in the headliner...and 75% of work put into the wood backing panels to hang it you can't even see. Tons of time in the trunk. Multiple fabricated wood and aluminum panels for the doors, inside quarter, and kick panels. Hours and hours of time making templates, transfering templates and cutting wood, drilling body and panels for blind fasteners, and fitting everything before any sewing starts. I stopped counting when I hit the 100 hour mark. This is one way to do it..it's expensive because of the amount of time it takes. I've seen some really nice interiors also with panels fastened to the car with trim screws and done in a single layer panel too. It just took less time to do..but still looks nice. I do it that way for folks also. We sit down and discuss what type of job best suits the car and the budget.
The costs involved today in building a car are very high depending on what you want. $10,000 interiors and another $10,000 to $20,000 for a paint job are just a few reasons why I no longer have a cool car sitting in my garage. The costs to play and have big boy toys is just too expensive these days, so I sold my last car to someone with deeper pockets ! Jimbo
Some of these interiors I would hate to or have a buddy jump in with a screwdriver in his back pocket. Or be parked at a show and have them throw a colored flier in the window like they seem to do around here. I have more fun with my cheaper cars than my expensive cars that you need to babysit. my cheap cars who care if you or your buddy have greasy clothes on when you jump in or driving down that gravel road putting stone chips in the faded paint.
I am not sure why you would advocate destroying someone's hard work to get their car the way they wanted? Hotrods and customs are our personal expressions. It's fine if you don't like it, but you should realize someone people do and worked hard to achieve their goal. Freedom of expression,eh? I am wondering how much of your stance is sour grapes?
Hmm, I didn't read that into it at all. I tend to agree with him in that most of my friends work on airplanes then jump in a plane, car, or truck and go to lunch. In "real world" use, not garage/hangar queen or trailered, show car use, I think he has a point. Doubt he advocates ruining his own or anyone else's interior just by acknowledging that "real world" happens. I don't advocate destroying my DD truck's interior either but somehow, over time, it is beginning to happen. Everyone has a right to have as nice a vehicle as he wants. Personally I did that in high school/college and I no longer want the babysitting, upkeep, or rep of being the "Don't touch it!" guy.
The cost of putting an interior in what there is of an interior in my early Falcon was likely exceed the current value of the car. Given the choice between having my beach blankets hog ringed over new foam, or building another vehicle, or just using that money for something else, I'm sticking with my blankets.
In the middle is where I want to be. My car is nice enough nobody is jumping in covered in grease, but I don't sweat it either. Driver quality baby, that's me.
I found a local guy (WYCO Rods in K.C. Ks) who does quality work out of his home shop at what I considered a reasonable price. Seats, door panels, carpet, headliner and package tray, $5000. First nice interior since i bought the car in 1977.
Now I know why there is a shortage of Weldwood at my supplier in Kansas City. It takes me a month or two to go thru a can. And this guy has 5 cans. That`s 25 gallons of glue.
The Jalopy Journal
