Web Forum for Singer Cars

I agree Brian, but so far I have been unable to find any alternatives: neither Woolies nor Martrim supply traditional materials. I'll have a search for upholstery suppliers as they may have something better.

The leather is unpadded and the seat back is also unpadded but I just wanted to get an idea of how it would look. From pictures of JG's car there is a lot of padding under the cover particularly towards the top which I plan to provide with a firm foam. I have some 1/4" scrim foam that I will cu...

I bit the bullet today and sewed up a seat back. I did it with the same method as the original which was easy to set out because I only had to mark the calico as the leather was simply folded in with it. The flutes are 3" so I marked the calico at 3 1/2" intervals according to Brian's advi...

All the materials have arrived from Martrim so I'm cutting out the backing sheet from the heavyweight calico. My helper Max is providing invaluable assistance!

I'm going to leave them alone for the time being Brian other than trying to shine them up a bit. I have a picture of this area on John G's car, which is pretty original, and they seem to be just polished brass.

I have ordered the trimming material I need for the seats from Martrim so once that package arrives I can get on with them. In the meantime I have been fitting the carpet and experimenting with ways of dealing with the edges. John Griffiths hand-sewed a binding on his; I tried that but my carpet is ...

Merry Christmas to you and yours, Brian!

While waiting for materials for the seats I have had a go at cleaning up the plates that are fitted between the door pillars. They had a strange dark coating which may be corrosion or perhaps some kind of finish, but I know from John's car that they should be chrome. I tried a variety of ways of cle...

Thanks Brian. The flutes on the Six are more like 4" but your suggestion of adding 1/2" per fold is a good one. The pictures show some of the originals which don't look too bad, but the leather is very brittle and the stitching has largely failed. Not any use in the final car but good for ...

I tried the method suggested by Brian using hessian, but unfortunately the hessian just bunched up and would not progress through the machine. I'm sure it would be better with calico, but as my machine will cope well with 4 layers plus I can clip the pieces together to ensure they don't move during ...

I welcome your advice Brian so please keep it coming. I get the idea of your suggested technique and it does look to be quite effective, so I'll have a go at that method tomorrow.

I did a larger test piece today which went well so I'm fairly confident about the whole thing. This test is only stuffed with a bit of foam and Linda tells me you need to put far more wadding in than you would ever imagine would be necessary to plump up the flutes. I'll have a go on a full sized pan...

When I said hessian for backing I probably meant calico, which has more body. Woolies have it in stock, but my lovely wife (who did an upholstery course before she did cabinet making and built her violin) says she may have some. I had forgotten about her course; it will be really helpful as I get on...

I get the idea Brian - so I sew just the hessian and the leather as in my experiment above, then pad it out with wadding afterwards. It sounds as if that is easier to sew than trying to sew the padding and the backing together. I'll have a go at that.

I had a trial with some bits of scrap leather and foam which definitely gave the correct look (ignore the line of stitching which was from a previous experiment). So the main question is whether I can carry this off with the large pieces needed for the seats. I suppose the only answer is 'Have a go ...