Polar White and Rust - a restoration epic, can it even be done?

[Jessopia74 203]

MINT🍻

[IanMc 880]

Well I am now knee deep in the big final stitch - joining the fabric base of the with the Leatherette skirt.

Even though it looks OK so far I have been plagued with problems. I think that my machine is right on the edge of its capability and that even with a Leather sewing needle fitted. I have already broken one needle and had numerous birds nests of thread. I have also been struggling to keep the material flat and in the right place as it passes under the needle. 

As I could feel myself getting frustrated and trying to 'force' things, I have decided to leave it for the evening and resume battle tomorrow. This is what we have so far - the good news is the piping is nice and tight to the fabric and the Leatherette, so if I can just get right round the seat base without too many more snags it should look pretty good:

 

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Have a nice evening everyone  

[IanMc 880]

Surprise, surprise I couldn’t leave it alone and I decided to try one more time this evening.

I’m glad I did too as I managed to get one more long side done and about half the front edge too. So that leaves me the other half of the front edge and the two front corners.

If I can get those done tomorrow evening, then I should be able to do a trial fit!

[Jessopia74 203]

Seems like it’s come along very quickly.

[IanMc 880]

9 minutes ago, Jessopia74 said:

Seems like it’s come along very quickly.

I would like it to be a lot quicker Jess, but the fact that I am basically learning as I go is slowing things down considerably. I also have the added complication of having to constantly think if I have space to pass all of the material between the needle and the  main support tower of the machine.

I’m sure this job would be a breeze for most people, but it’s uncharted territory for me lol

[H-400 812]

Again an example of motivation! Respect! 

[IanMc 880]

A late night tonight. 

However, I did manage to get all the sewing finished on the Passenger seat base:

 

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With that done, there was really only one thing to do - see if it fitted... First job was to lay the old wadding over the top of the seat foam, then attach the upper hog rings. These sit about 2/3 of the way back from the front edge of the seat and basically prevent the top fabric from shifting around. In this photo the wadding has been moved away for clarity:

 

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Then it was time to pull the material around to see if it was OK - it kind of was, but still needs a lot of thumping and pushing to try to get everything in better positions:

 

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Then it was time to fit the rear hog rings:

 

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These pull the material pretty tight and this tests the strength of your stitching for sure. Mine is holding for now...

 

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Am I happy? - reasonably. If I was a Teacher, I would mark it 5/10 with a "could do better" comment.

 

Anyway - night all  

 

[Mike. 437]

Result IanMc,

you should be proud 👍

[1200bandit 238]

I fit new original Renault seat covers and they do not fit nice, a lot of pulley and tugging to get it fit right,So l whoud say yours are excellent ,and you you made they from scratch, excellent work 

[IanMc 880]

Tonight's little job was to try to strip down the Passenger seat back rest cover. We started with this:

 

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Then a few hours with the seam ripping tool and we now have this pile of junk - err, sorry I mean templates  

 

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Onwards!

[IanMc 880]

Only a small update this evening.

I used the old vinyl pieces as templates for the new items to be cut from Leatherette:

 

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Its pretty tough trying to hold things flat that have been bent double for 40 years I can tell you. Pegs are my new best friend  

Tomorrow evening I hope to get the fabric parts cut.

With Archery on Friday, that will set me up nicely to (hopefully) start stitching thee parts together at the weekend.

[®evo03 473]

Ian, is your machine doing all this? Even the leatherette? Do you want another one to do, think you have found your hobbie, extra money maker, 

I was thinking, there is no way a machine will sew, so i was thinking of purchasing an old hand or foot machine. 

[IanMc 880]

16 minutes ago, ®evo03 said:

Ian, is your machine doing all this? Even the leatherette?

 

Yes Sir!

Just finished marking and cutting out the fabric for the Passenger seat backrest:

 

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So that means that this weekend we can make a start on stitching it all together  

[IanMc 880]

And so (or should that be sew  ) it begins.

Some final marking out of stitch lines etc. I hadn't realised until a short time ago that the top parts of the seat are slightly curved where they come together. Its obvious when you think about it due to the curvature of the seat and the bolster areas etc. So I have basically revisited the profiles of each piece to check that they are correct - a few minor corrections were required!

The first thing that I will do is to stitch the Leatherette back to the side pieces - here we are getting ready for that:

 

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[IanMc 880]

Not too much done today as it is Mrs Mc's Birthday today - so we have been pretty busy with all the usual treats  

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of quick jobs though:

1) The 'interest' lines were added to the main fabric of the backrest:

 

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2) The piece of Leatherette that attaches to the bottom of the fabric, had it pocket stitched up. This pocket is the home for the hog ring retaining rod:

 

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The sewing machine is still all set up ready to do more, but now we are all off out for Dinner, so that's it for the day I am afraid.

Have a nice evening everyone.

 

 

[IanMc 880]

Started stitching some of the Passenger seat backrest parts together this evening:

 

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Needless to say, the Boss was in attendance too:

 

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[Jessopia74 203]

On those interest lines, is it just stitching?

 

[IanMc 880]

30 minutes ago, Jessopia74 said:

On those interest lines, is it just stitching?

 

Yes Sir

[Jessopia74 203]

9 minutes ago, IanMc said:

Yes Sir

Thanks Ian, is it a special stitch ?

[IanMc 880]

6 hours ago, Jessopia74 said:

Thanks Ian, is it a special stitch ?

 

No, its just a short close linked straight stitch.

[Jessopia74 203]

5 hours ago, IanMc said:

 

No, its just a short close linked straight stitch.

Ok thanks, not like that means much to me, but interesting all the same. I will have to ask my Mother at the weekend what it is

[IanMc 880]

1 hour ago, Jessopia74 said:

Ok thanks, not like that means much to me, but interesting all the same. I will have to ask my Mother at the weekend what it is

 

Doesn't mean much to me either mate - all I can tell you is that its stitch setting number two and tension 2.5 on my machine - I'm too scared to try anything else yet  

[Julian 649]

4 hours ago, IanMc said:

 

Doesn't mean much to me either mate - all I can tell you is that its stitch setting number two and tension 2.5 on my machine - I'm too scared to try anything else yet  

Ian, I've just remembered that about twenty years ago I was in a big garage in Swansea and watched a woman who was repairing a coach seat, just like you are doing now, and every time she done a line of stitching she was putting a dab of glue, something like super glue, at the start and end of the stitching, I guessed why and mentioned it to her, she said that it stops the stitching starting to unravel.  Just thought that I would mention it. Your work is coming along well mate. Excellent work. I don't but in very often, but I'm keeping an eye on you'r work  all the time!!!

[IanMc 880]

3 hours ago, Julian said:

Ian, I've just remembered that about twenty years ago I was in a big garage in Swansea and watched a woman who was repairing a coach seat, just like you are doing now, and every time she done a line of stitching she was putting a dab of glue, something like super glue, at the start and end of the stitching, I guessed why and mentioned it to her, she said that it stops the stitching starting to unravel.  Just thought that I would mention it. Your work is coming along well mate. Excellent work. I don't but in very often, but I'm keeping an eye on you'r work  all the time!!!

Thanks Julian, that's a great tip! - I will try to remember to do that as I progress.  

I really appreciate your kind words, its all of the amazing people on this forum that keeps me going sometimes. I do have my 'down' days, but then I think of all your encouragement and kind words - it really does help!  

This evening I have been adding the padding to the backrest. Its not at all pretty from the back, but it will never be seen...

 

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Have a nice evening everyone.

[IanMc 880]

Houston we have a problem...

I was just examining the piping that goes on the backrest and saw this:

 

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Ooops! To be honest, I cant believe that I never noticed this before. The chances of finding something that is an exact match to 40 year old piping seems unlikely, so I am hatching a plan. It goes something like:

- clean it all up as well as possible

- cut out the affected area

- rob some 'good' piping from one end and try to graft that into the 'bad' area, using the inner clear pipe to make the joints.

- buy something close and just put that on one end (which will be in the area of the seat hinge) and hopefully that wont be as visible.

All other ideas and suggestions gratefully received!