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Thanks everyone! A bit of foreshadowing: I **** at sewing. At least initially.

While sewing is needed for the seats and door panels there are a couple of trim pieces that don’t require sewing – I can start with those. The back seat has a trim panel that goes between the seat and the side of the car. These will be a great place to start. These trim panels were not...

I thought I made a mistake once. But I was wrong!

Extra vinyl? What is that??? I ended up ordering close to three times as much vinyl as I originally calculated was needed. The reasoning behind this? 1. I'm learning. I'm going to make mistakes. If I don't like the way something turns out I will throw it away and start over. 2. The order...

Good idea. I'll do a post on the sewing thread when things are a bit further along.

With the shop and materials for upholstery work coming together I ran out of room for stalling on material. Time to make some decisions and place an order. The first big question was leather or vinyl? Leather is the leader for luxury – and is by far the most expensive option. Vinyl is good...

Nice! I also like the trick you are using of making sheet metal patches to hold the clips. My cardboard is rather chewed up - this gives me another way to deal with the door panels if I ever have to take them off again. Hmm.... What about designing a piece of sheet metal with a hole in the...

That is verging on genius! Never encountered this suggestion before. This is definitely getting filed away for future use!

That's a good idea on using heavy paper. I usually use cardboard for this, but paper would work better for locating the holes. Those old style clips are surprisingly hard to find these days - thank goodness for the Internet!

gahrajmahal, Wax and grease remover will certainly take off dried adhesive. I'm concerned that it might be strong enough to damage the vinyl. From what I've read, acetone is one of the milder solvents. So I start with acetone and it usually does the job. For interior work I try to stick to...

Hmm, that's a good question. Let me ponder it for a moment... The first step was to clean and arrange the workshop. Then keep it clean - often vacuuming every day. The new top for the welding table was largely to provide a clean work surface. It also got regularly vacuumed. Put things away as...

I will provide a full write-up on the process I followed. I glue the foam to the backer board and to the fabric - this keeps things from moving around when stapling. After gluing everything together, wrap the fabric over the edge, notch and trim as necessary, and staple. Plenty of staples - I...

Thanks! There weren't really any major pitfalls - just do it several times, learning to do it better each time. The curves were a bit tricky, but experimentation and practice ended up with a good fit. When I'm learning something I practice until I'm happy with the results and then do a real one...

I had enough scraps of 1/8″ hardboard left over from other projects to make the test panels and the first trim panels I wanted to do. Add in a can of spray contact adhesive and I was ready to get started! These first test pieces were just that – test pieces to be discarded after creation...

Also, while I'm thinking of it, the adhesive you want is Weldwood Landau Top and Trim High Heat Resistant Contact Cement Adhesive. This is the recommendation that comes up every time the topic is discussed.

"I have too many compressors" is not a valid statement on Garage Journal... I would suggest ordering sample kits for different brands of material from various online suppliers. This will let you see for yourself what the differences are.

And, while I'm thinking about it, any compressor is enough for a Meite stapler. You do enough stapling on an interior that it would be worthwhile getting a cheap pancake compressor just for a single job. You also end up using a lot of spray adhesive. The stuff in spray cans gets expensive and...

Ohmthis, looking forward to your posts! Jumping ahead a bit, I ended up going with SoftSeat automotive vinyl from Your Auto Trim Store. I ordered several different sample sets from them and liked the SoftSeat the best. If you have a compressor the pneumatic stapler is the only way to go. I get...

Since upholstery work is completely new the workshop needs to be reconfigured a bit to support it. The main features are a work table and an industrial sewing machine. I don’t have a sewing machine yet, but I have tracked down a source and hopefully will have one in a few weeks. In the meantime...

Now that has some character! What car is that? How did you choose that shade of orange? It looks great and really has some impact.