For now, I lumped all the pre-war cars together, I would LOVE for there to be enough demand to split it into groups (hint...hint, post here about your pre-war Singer)
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 pretty tough and I found it to be impracticable. John's original car had piping secured under the door plates and so I tried that as a solution with the carpet pulled tightly under the edge of the binding. The carpet is currently secured with large tacks but I have some small ones that will be completely hidden within the pile. It looks pretty tidy to me, so i will do the other doors the same way. If necessary I can run Hidem banding along the edge too but I don't think that will be necessary.
I will mention as a warning to others that as I was trimming the carpet edge my index finger slightly overlapped the ruler so I sliced quite a way into the flesh with the Stanley knife (box cutter). Fortunately I didn't bleed all over the carpet! It is so easy to be careless and this will slow me down a bit for a couple of days.
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.
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 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 advice and sewed it with 1/4" seam. It has turned out surprisingly well; not perfect but good enough. The flutes are not stuffed yet so that will puff them out ready for fitting to a seat. I am grateful to Brian for encouraging me to have a go at this as it has two significant benefits: 1) I am learning a new skill and 2) it will save me about £2,500!
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 cut to size and fit into a couple of the flutes as a trial. I doubt if it needs anything thicker but, if it does, Woolies is just up the road from me!
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.
I found this place on-line which has traditional upholstery materials. I have ordered 3m of skin wadding which is a wool-based version of the original cotton wadding. Ordered today and already in the post! https://www.upholsteryshop.co.uk/
I have sewn the first seat base cover and I'm preparing the springs for recovering so I can complete one seat. The springs are in fairly good shape but have some surface rust so I'm soaking them in Bilt Hamber's Deox which is quite gentle. The springs need re-fixing in places, so once they are fully soaked I'll get on with that while waiting for the padding to arrive.
I see the top layer with thin springs, are these available too there?
And what is the official name?
(My seats also needs a rebuild and the top is complete rusted)
I haven't found source of the mesh on the top layer Teake I'm afraid. If I find some I'll let you know. I plan to tie mine in with soft wire where they have lost connection with the frame but I'm hoping enough of the mesh is still there to do the job.
Mesh spring bases were available the last time I looked but have to be custom made and were prohibitively expensive. A common repair is to stabilise the springs with string. I used Spiralwrap (used by electricians) to protect the edges.
Thanks Brian - i will be doing something similar between the springs, which is a method outlined in an upholstery book my wife recommended. I have also ordered a piping foot for my sewing machine as my next adventure is making the seat bases!
