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Upholstery


alan32433

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Anyone had upholstery work done lately? I'm curious to see how much a quality "original style" job would cost for a 48 DeSoto. For comparison purposes, the DeSoto had all cloth interior with some vinyl primarily on the kick panels and lower door panels. If you had just seats re-upholstered, or just a headliner or some other individual work done, please let me know what you paid. Thanks!

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A friend of mine has had a couple of his cars done at our local Junior College where one department specialies in Upholstery. You should see if there are any school like that in your area and if you do then give them a call. All his work has been done to perfection and the price was next to nothing.

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...right down to an exact reproduction of the pinstriped wool broadcloth which Lebaron Bonney and SMS both had. Lebaron Bonney was $10 per yard cheaper and much easier to deal with so I went with them. I spent around $1500 on materials and a local guy did and exceptional job for around $2800 for labor. So I'm into mine for $4300. For comparsion sake, I should note that quotes in my area ranged from the low price I paid to over $10,000 and I'm sure my guy did better work than any of the other shops would have done.

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Thanks for all the posts, that's about what I expected, expensive. I've actually been toying with doing it myself. With a lot of home work research and patience I think I can do it. My parts car still has the original interior, it's severely tattered, but I can use that as patterns.

I refuse to tell my friends I'm taking up sewing though.

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...and will give you great satisfaction in addition to the savings. I considered it, but after spending that much on the material, I didn't want to screw it up and then regret "savings". I'm not much on sewing either lol...

Thanks for all the posts, that's about what I expected, expensive. I've actually been toying with doing it myself. With a lot of home work research and patience I think I can do it. My parts car still has the original interior, it's severely tattered, but I can use that as patterns.

I refuse to tell my friends I'm taking up sewing though.

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...right down to an exact reproduction of the pinstriped wool broadcloth which Lebaron Bonney and SMS both had. Lebaron Bonney was $10 per yard cheaper and much easier to deal with so I went with them. I spent around $1500 on materials and a local guy did and exceptional job for around $2800 for labor. So I'm into mine for $4300. For comparsion sake, I should note that quotes in my area ranged from the low price I paid to over $10,000 and I'm sure my guy did better work than any of the other shops would have done.

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David, really really nice car and your upholsterer did a fantastic job. Mine has the same striped broadcloth you mentioned. My car is Royal Maroon also. Thanks for the sources.

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Alan,

I have no problem telling people I took up sewing to do my interior.:) Did it all by hand too. Actually, all I sewed was the door panels and sun visor covers. I ordered custom made seat covers. All I had to do with those is put them on the seats with hog rings.

Now, like I said, my interior is not original like Davids. My seats, door panels and kick panels are done in leatherette vinyl, double pleated. So.......if you want original looking interior like David's, you'll probably have to do the sewing yourself for the seat covers.

The headliner is easy though. That you can buy. They come in either nap like the original in either gray or tan, like the originals were. Then all you do is install it and trim around the windows and door. No sewing involved.

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I decided to learn and do all my own upholstry work after years ago (1976 ) paying a small fortune to have some seats upholstered and realizing if I wanted to have more than one or 2 old MoPar cars and trucks I'd have to do all my own resto work. So I bought both a Consew and a Phaff industrial sewing machine to be free to do whatever I needed to do! Lots of satisfaction when you finish up a upholstry job. I've also made $$$ with the machines too.

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Maybe something to think about for a future car...

I decided to learn and do all my own upholstry work after years ago (1976 ) paying a small fortune to have some seats upholstered and realizing if I wanted to have more than one or 2 old MoPar cars and trucks I'd have to do all my own resto work. So I bought both a Consew and a Phaff industrial sewing machine to be free to do whatever I needed to do! Lots of satisfaction when you finish up a upholstry job. I've also made $$$ with the machines too.
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My front and back seats cost a total of $480 with material and labor. I had checked out LeBarron Bonney at first, but realized that I wasn't going to sacrifice two paychecks for interior. I also decided that the original broadcloth pattern used on the P-15's wasn't much to my liking, as it resembled a man's suit. I found an upholstery shop in Pomona, California run by a Mexican gentleman who had been doing upholstery since the 1950's. He saw my car and I told him what look I was looking for. He showed me a roll of gray striped hi-lo material that he had in the back. I was afraid he was going to bring out the typical crushed velvet crap, but what he showed me looked very period correct...almost like NOS stuff from the late-40's. I asked him how much he would be willing to sell 9 yards of material for my seats and panels. He told me the only way he would sell it is if I had him do the work. He quoted $4500 to do the whole interior (seats, panels, floor and headliner). That was way out of my range, so asked him how much for just the seats and he quoted me at $400. After all was said and done, he realized that he had undercharged me, but kept up his bargan because it's what he quoted me. He did exceptional work and the material is very well made and should last for years.

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Not stock material but my wife and I did ours. the original stuff is still under most of it.

bought pattern paper and cut the new pieces. You need to add about 1/2 infh for what is known as seam allowance. Bought the material from the clearence bin upholstery fabric and used regular sewing machine and heavy duty thread.

Being a business coupe there wasn't a lot to do but once we got going the rear seat wouldn't have been a big problem.

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The material he installed for you is a near perfect match to the V-105 option that was correct for P15s. So you not only got a great price, but a correct material as well! Congratulations!!

My front and back seats cost a total of $480 with material and labor. I had checked out LeBarron Bonney at first, but realized that I wasn't going to sacrifice two paychecks for interior. I also decided that the original broadcloth pattern used on the P-15's wasn't much to my liking, as it resembled a man's suit. I found an upholstery shop in Pomona, California run by a Mexican gentleman who had been doing upholstery since the 1950's. He saw my car and I told him what look I was looking for. He showed me a roll of gray striped hi-lo material that he had in the back. I was afraid he was going to bring out the typical crushed velvet crap, but what he showed me looked very period correct...almost like NOS stuff from the late-40's. I asked him how much he would be willing to sell 9 yards of material for my seats and panels. He told me the only way he would sell it is if I had him do the work. He quoted $4500 to do the whole interior (seats, panels, floor and headliner). That was way out of my range, so asked him how much for just the seats and he quoted me at $400. After all was said and done, he realized that he had undercharged me, but kept up his bargan because it's what he quoted me. He did exceptional work and the material is very well made and should last for years.
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I'll be redoing my 39's interior soon. Since I can use a sewing machine and have some experience with it, I will be doing it myself. My wife is a clothing designer and seamstress by trade...so she'll be helping as well. The labor in this is most of the expense when having it done. And it is well worth having it done right. Materials should cost around $300 tops...if I use a period style velveteen pinstripe material bought at a garment district. I will also be adding some mild custom period styling with a bunch of plaids and such for pockets and arm rests and such. This should take a while...

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I'm sure you can find a pin stripped material that looks similar to the original seat coverings at some sewing store by the yard. But.....my guess is, they only pin stripped material would be of the type used for clothing. Automobile and furniture seat coverings are made with a heavier, stronger broadcloth than clothing is. Because of that, the cost is higher. Usually material by the yard for automobile seats will run you about $22 to $28 and up per yard, depending on the type material purchased. Automobile seat cover material is also supplied in widths of 54", then by how ever many yards long you need. So.....you have to compare apples to apples when comparing.

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