Upholstery Prices? WOW!

[409T]

Keeper gave you some good info. I did the same, purchased a sewing machine and material and did my own interior for my wife's car. Vinyl, carpet, foam and adhesive probably cost around $300 - $400, the cost of the machine is unimportant because you can resell it for what you paid for it. I also made a full wood drop in interior and then upholstered that while it was on the bench. I liked that idea best because you can wrap all your material around the outside and staple it where the staples won't show after it is dropped into the body. I don't remember exactly how much time I had in it when I was done, but I will imagine it took up most of the weekends for a couple of months. If you want to save money and have plenty of free time it is a good learning experience.

Jeff

 

[Zack]

Keeper gave you some good info. I did the same, purchased a sewing machine and material and did my own interior for my wife's car. Vinyl, carpet, foam and adhesive probably cost around $300 - $400, the cost of the machine is unimportant because you can resell it for what you paid for it. I also made a full wood drop in interior and then upholstered that while it was on the bench. I liked that idea best because you can wrap all your material around the outside and staple it where the staples won't show after it is dropped into the body. I don't remember exactly how much time I had in it when I was done, but I will imagine it took up most of the weekends for a couple of months. If you want to save money and have plenty of free time it is a good learning experience.

Jeff

I am seriously considering this option more and more. Thanks Jeff

 

[Youngster]

There is also a method call button/tuck that can be done without any sewing. However, It dose look better with the tucks around the sides sewn or a roll sewn arond the top edge and the front of the seat bottom.

Ron

 

[Zack]

There is also a method call button/tuck that can be done without any sewing. However, It dose look better with the tucks around the sides sewn or a roll sewn arond the top edge and the front of the seat bottom.

Ron

Thanks Ron, I will check that out as well. I am open for any and all ideas or suggestions

 

[engine24355]

When I reworked my interior I built the riser, seat bottom (with webbing), and back. I then had the bottom and back covered at a local shop matching the existing tuck and roll I had on the side panels. Everything including the special order material, foam, and labor cost me $360.00 for both bottom and back parts of the bench seat. I asked how much they charged for an entire interior for a T-Bucket and they said about $1,000 to $1,500 which I thought was high also.

 

[Zack]

When I reworked my interior I built the riser, seat bottom (with webbing), and back. I then had the bottom and back covered at a local shop matching the existing tuck and roll I had on the side panels. Everything including the special order material, foam, and labor cost me $360.00 for both bottom and back parts of the bench seat. I asked how much they charged for an entire interior for a T-Bucket and they said about $1,000 to $1,500 which I thought was high also.

got any pics of your interior you can post up? I would like to see it. I have looking around for other ideas as well.

Thanks

 

[Keeper]

Keeper how many hours do you have in making your own interior?

Honestly I couldn't really say. Not all that much really. I would say total maybe 20 hours? and that includes mistakes and remaking things.

The biggest part was making the seat frame and doing the foam work. Next longest part was the patterns, and again it was less then I expected. I used construction paper to make the templates, then made patterns with some clear vinyl. Once that was done, transfering it to the regular vinyl and cutting/sewing was pretty quick.

Once I got over the "here we go"

The actual sewing only took about 2.5 hours, and most of that was sewing the pleats!

I went to the extra setup of making the clear vinyl patterns as I knew I would be re-making another set of seat covers with the better quality vinyl, but it turned out nice enough that this will work for the first year or two, then once the bugs are worked out and the body is set for final paint/finishing, then I will make some new covers.



Before I started the interior, I did a couple projects to help me learn the sewing machine and the processes of making things.

- first up I refinished a bar stool. Easy, but it showed me how to use piping, and sewing different seam types.
- next up we had a leather computer chair that the seat foam was shot in. So I recovered it after I repaired the foam, for this project I took the time and cut he original seat cover apart piece by piece and used it as a template for the new cover. This one really showed me how things go together, how the seam allowance plays into things, and how not sewing things in the correct order will screw things up.
- last, our neighbor threw out a cool old 60's chrome stool, with a fold up step. It needed a new cover so I designed one from scratch and seen if i could create a cover that looked good and I tried a couple different seams for this one. This one showed me that its not as hard as I thought to design and create something.

Then I took the leap and started on my seats. If you look in my build post I laid out my steps. If you have any questions I can try to answer and if I cannot I should be able to aleast point you to a group who can.

 

[Keeper]

Keeper gave you some good info. I did the same, purchased a sewing machine and material and did my own interior for my wife's car. Vinyl, carpet, foam and adhesive probably cost around $300 - $400, the cost of the machine is unimportant because you can resell it for what you paid for it. I also made a full wood drop in interior and then upholstered that while it was on the bench. I liked that idea best because you can wrap all your material around the outside and staple it where the staples won't show after it is dropped into the body. I don't remember exactly how much time I had in it when I was done, but I will imagine it took up most of the weekends for a couple of months. If you want to save money and have plenty of free time it is a good learning experience.

Jeff

I like the idea of a complete drop in. I may look into that over the winter when I take mine out.

 

[Keeper]

Become friends with your local upholstery supply shop, since buckets are small you can save a pretty big amount by buying the "left overs" of the foam. I did not realize how expensive foam was, but saved a good bit by being able to buy smaller pieces over one big sheet.

They can also point you in the right direction on thread types, glues and other supply questions you will have.

They also usually have a rather large bin of "ends", which is usually the last few feet of material on a roll. This is the stuff I used for practice, and to recover the projects leading up to interior.

As for the actual interior vinyl, I found "Marine vinyl" at Fabricland! They had about 5 different colors/styles on sale for $5 a yard, that's what I used for my actual seat covers. So the seats and door panels cost about $15 in vinyl.

 

[409T]

I like the idea of a complete drop in. I may look into that over the winter when I take mine out.

I think I have some pics if you decide to do it.

Jeff

 

[Johnny]

I did some more checking this morning and i was quoted 1500 and 3500 from 2 different people. I did find a man who is retired from a 40 year upholstery business that will do it at his home for 700. That is more to my liking and he has done t-buckets before so i will be making a short trip to Dallas in the near future.

If you use this guy and you like the work, would you let me know his name and number?
Thanks

 

[Zack]

If you use this guy and you like the work, would you let me know his name and number?
Thanks

Will do.

 

[donsrods]

I paid $ 1800 + a $ 200 tip for the interior in my 27, but he did a really nice job and I basically delivered a bare shell to him. The guy I had do it has the right idea, he works out of his home, has a year waiting line, and when one goes out another one rolls in. But after a year of hard use it still looks good and nothing has come loose. A nice interior makes a lot of difference in a car, both in comfort and appearance.

Don

 

[RESINATOR]

Zack, the interior photo you posted is one of CCR's Drop-in Interiors . This whole unit drops in and sits on the upper lip of the body, the seat bottom is removable from the riser and that has access holes cut out so you can get to your wiring or storage. By making your interior removable it makes for easy cleaning and allows you to finish the interior before painting your car.
Take jeff up on his offer of photos, I'm sure he did it right!. The Materials costs are getting out of control, but don't go cheap on foam or carpet and make sure to use Marine Grade material.

Jerry

 

[Zack]

I didn't realize that was a kit. Can you email me some info on it with pricing? cva59@hotmail.com

I'm just not sure i want to tackle doing it myself. I don't have enough alone time anymore to concentrate on a project like that. I may be better off saving up and buying a kit. How will the kit fit into my car with the wood i have already installed?

Thanks
Zack

 

[RESINATOR]

Zack, I had Diane E-mail some info today. The Interior kits we build fit our Bodies, I don't know who's body you have but we can always get dimensions and see what might work. The upper lip fitment is important to make things look right. As far as the wood installed in your car, the interior comes with the riser (seat base) installed, so any wood in that area would need to come out

Jerry

 

[Zack]

Thanks Jerry. I have a Wintec standard body.