Pilothouse Upholstery

[grey beard]

I've been reading old archival posts from this forum, trying to stumble into any advice on Pilothouse upholstery restoration. Is Roberts the only act in town? Have any of you found a viable alternative?

My own interior is amazingly intact for being original. Headliner is now sagging and beginning to tear at the dome lamp hole and the drivers' side door panel is getting ratty, but all the oroginal patterns are still there. Even the seat looks good except for a seam that split since Ive begun working on it.

The two local upholstery shops I visited begin by estimating how much time they'll need at $50 an hour - goes right up to $500 in a hurry with materials. Have any of you had success using later model seats from another applictipn? i've read several threads on alternative headliner material but nothing definitive seems to have emerged.

Sure would be nice if someone found a better alternative to the cardboard stuff that was originally used, something that would last longer. I don't mind spending the money to do the job right, but it'd be nice if it would last as long as the rest of the restoration.

Your ideas and wisdom are welcome.

Thanks

[greg g]

Dave my first wife (and only so far) was instrumental in my decision to redo our coupe interior at home. We bought some material from the clearence bin at the local Jo Anns store, and some pattern paper and went ot work. Like the truck the bizzy coupe has only the bench seat but with 2 folding back rests. Basically with the seats appart we traced the panels onto the patern paper and then increased the size by 3/4 inch all around for a seam allowance.

Cut and sewed the fabric on our regular home sewing machine and with tacks and hog rings attached the right over the original upholstery. We made a couple of mistakes but they went whe you can's see them. I bought 9 yards of material which did the seat, the door panels and the package shelf. You should be able to get by with quite a bit less having smaller door panels and no package shelf to be concerned with. Does the truck have leatherette seats, and do the seams have piping between the pieces? this could make it a bit more difficult, but I did most of the sewing on mine after the wife cut out the stuff and pinned it together. Wasn't a bad project onece we got going.

[Dennis_MN]

The fellow who previously owned mine, covered the door cardboard by gluing the same carpet that he used on the floor. I think it looks nice and beats more brown. The seat has been reupolstered with the skin of a dead Naga.

Attached are interior shots..

Dennis

[Jim Shepard]

When I got my kit from Roberts I was dissapointed. The quality was good enopugh (confirmed by the upholsterer), but it was not an exact reproduction. My upholsterer said I could've gotten the same stuff from any upholstry shop. Having said the, I'm happy with the results, sans originality.

As far as I know, now one makes a kit for our trucks except Roberts.

[greg g]

Forgot to add, if you are looking for donor seats, check you local bone yard for something like a Volvo, Saab, Mercedes, BMW station wagon. I had a 900 series Volvo that had a real nice leather back seat. and it was a folding deal where the cushions flipped up and the back flipped down to expand the load area. I would think it would be the proper width, and would probably be easy to mount. the bottoms were hinged on a small welded on bracket. You could probably cut them out and weld them to the Dodge seat support. and the rear hinges were simaler, I believe just spot welded in. Upper catched were mounted to the rear fender bulge and could probably be mounted to the cab corners. Might be abouthteh same cost as re doing you seat but you get leather in the mix.

this shows the mount and release.

[Guest ColoradoChuck]

Hey- I found out that Reg Evans (member) sells the entire interior patterns so I ordered one from him. It doesn't include the seat but the door panels and everything else. My seat kit from Roberts was fine and I had a local guy do it who even knew about using the rings and it turned out fine. I have seen Roberts door panels and headliner and don't like them. Contact Reg Evans here on the site for those patterns and do it yourself with better materials-

[grey beard]

Dennis,

Be them dead naggas Minnesota naggas? Thought they were an endangered species. Your interior looks as nice as the rest of the truck You fellers with finished, driven Pilothouses are the inspiration for the rest of us to keep pluggin on. Thanks for sharing.

Greg,

I like the job you and firstwife did together. At least one of you are embarrasingly creative to tackle a job that big - unless you were anupholsterer in an eariler life. Looks good.

Thanks

[greg g]

Thanks Dave, Neither one of us is over creative or overly adventurous. It was a relatively simple job. Which we had a good time doing together. If your upholstery is shot you could pull it off an use the old stuff as a pattern and guide for the new stuff.

[racerboy9]

SMS Fabrics has the original vinyl available. Not cheap but its the right stuff.

[Reg Evans]

Hey...thanks for the commercial Chuck.

The patterns include the kick panels,door panels,back of cab and headliner panels. The cost is $40 including printing and S.& H. PayPal is an easy option for payment.

[anthonyb]

Dave,

With Reg's patterns you could go this way to hide any minor mistakes. Also good for concealing small spills. Just be careful where you park if you want to find it again.

[Young Ed]

I had a neighbor do mine. He used the original seat and door panels to make new ones. I am quite happy with the result and it sure makes it alot nicer to ride in. I think I'm sitting about 2 inches taller now.

[Jim Roach]

Ed, what's with the ford in the background? Oh I know, it makes you appreciate your Dodge truck that much more. All kidding aside, the seat looks great. I chose to go with the naugahyde trim with cloth inserts. Of course that was before the elusive nauga became extinct. Now everyone uses real leather.

Thanks for the pictures, Jim Roach

[Young Ed]

Better look again. Thats a 94 dakota I parted out. I've got 2 dodges and 2 plymouths. Plus most of a 40 plymouth pickup to make vehicle #5. I need to take a picture now with my door panels installed.

[grey beard]

Wow! I'm enjoying this thread. Anthony, that camo is far out - I understand about hididng spills and finding lost items. I think I'll take a trip to a few tame junk yards and see what I can find in the way of a donor seat, and maybe get the headliner and door panels from Roberts.

Have any of you used Roberts headliners? Are they a reasonable substitute for the original? My own panels are way good enough to serve as patterns for the original, if I knew where to get the panel board with the correct pattern. Any satisfied Roberts interior customers on here? Would you do it again, knowing what you kinow now?

Thanks

[H Suhling]

I installed a interior kit in my '51 B-3-B was satified with the seat cover and padding however the back of cab and headliner leave a lot to be desired. the back of cab is in three pieces instead of one and do not fit together and leaves gaps you can see through. The headliner is two pieces sown together in the middle which allows it to sag big time you will need to find some way to hold it up.

I think the reason they cut them up is for easier shipping, but as I said sure leaves a lot to be desired.

H Suhling

[Byronb3b]

Resoration specialties has the cab liner material in their catalog and I think a better quality than offered by some of the restoration outfits, available in quite a few colors, listed as painted cowl board, fairly inexpensive to buy, but really expensive to ship. Byron

[Vintrader]

I've been reading old archival posts from this forum, trying to stumble into any advice on Pilothouse upholstery restoration. Is Roberts the only act in town? Have any of you found a viable alternative?

Sure would be nice if someone found a better alternative to the cardboard stuff that was originally used, something that would last longer. I don't mind spending the money to do the job right, but it'd be nice if it would last as long as the rest of the restoration.

Your ideas and wisdom are welcome.

Thanks

I have been wanting to try this for awhile. I think it worked pretty well. It is 1/16" temperd masonite I stained it to make it a litter darker, but looked good even before the stain. Both sides with hardware about $15 bucks. Dutch

[Tony_Urwin]

Dutch, how difficult was removal of the doorhandles and cranks? They seem to be pretty tight on my truck. I ask because I've managed to destroy a few escutcheons while removing Mopar handles in the past.

[Vintrader]

Dutch, how difficult was removal of the doorhandles and cranks? They seem to be pretty tight on my truck. I ask because I've managed to destroy a few escutcheons while removing Mopar handles in the past.

Tony, it is sort of a two part process, the escutcheons on my truck are spring loaded. I pushed them in and then slid in a spacer on the top and bottom, I used a couple of 1/2 nuts. Then taped the pin that goes through the handles and shaft out with a small hammer and punch. Hope this helps. Dutch