80 series cloth upholstery and center console top redo, and 18 oz canvas covers to boot! (1 Viewer)

[John Young]

The Holy Truck is getting close to completion. We have bits and bobs still to go and one of them was addressing the upholstery and another was armoring the seats and center console top against the paws of a good sized dog.

(Ella the dog likes to ride in cars very much. Here she is in the back of the Packard.)

I have given up on finding NOS OEM cloth upholstery for 80s. (I've almost given up on NOS OEM cloth for 100's, but not quite yet.) Hunting around Dubai for really serious cloth yielded very little. Everything felt flimsy. It would be nice for a year or two and then just no good. The Ancient Swede has decided that the Holy Truck deserves the best because it is to be a graduation present for my younger son and after I expressed frustration over not being able to find reasonable materials he went over to a shelf and found a box of OEM BMW M3 cloth:

This stuff is just what I was looking for. Thick. Tough and very nice to look at. I saw nothing like it in any of the upholstery sample books. The Ancient Swede had procured it for a project that had gone in a different direction and with great kindness he indicated I could use it. Beautiful stuff. Here's what it looks like in an M3:

I really would like this to be as good as I can get it so I took the recommendation of a friend for a high-end upholstery shop over an hour and two emirates away in Ajman. I liked what I saw and they had some very interesting projects in terms of quality and attention to detail.

 

[John Young]

The existing upholstery is not too torn up but it is badly faded and the drivers seat is a bit worn.

My plan is to use the M3 cloth as the center fabric and then a nice navy blue leather for the sides.

The seats will be a bit darker than stock, but I think they should look nice.

I left the shop and paid a visit to a friend of mine who runs the R&D at a very interesting place doing interesting things. Which I may not show you. But it was amphibious. And electric. And I immediately was reminded of the Proteus from the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage.

Only slightly more mundane was this interesting 70 Series:

 

[John Young]

As we were walking around I also saw some fabric used seats for light armored vehicle that excited me!

This stuff was 18 ounce waterproof canvas made of cotton and something else. you could tell that it shrug off most things without a problem. I had been thinking about the dog and the nice new seats and had bee intending to buy something off the shelf--we have Carhartt covers on the 80 in Florida which I am reasonably happy with except for the method of fastening. When I saw this fabric I decided I wanted to try to have covers made of it for all the 80s.

 

[John Young]

I obtained a couple of samples and brought it back to the upholstery shop to have a think about it.

And see if they could sew it.

It did not present insurmountable difficulties.

I suspect that my little project is not much of a challenge to this shop.

 

[John Young]

I have been anxiously awaiting results the past few days. Today I got some vids showing progress on the test samples.

 

[John Young]

And here is the completed upholstery:

and the completed sample cover for the upholstery:

Tomorrow I will go up and have a look in person.

 

[White Stripe]

I probably wouldn't do cloth if you have a dog. They crap, drool, and shed. All that will soak through the cloth and stay in the foam. With vinyl or leather at least you can just wipe it off.

 

[Malleus]

I wish Toyota would release the vendor for the 80 series cloth so we could buy reams of it.

 

[John Young]

I probably wouldn't do cloth if you have a dog. They crap, drool, and shed. All that will soak through the cloth and stay in the foam. With vinyl or leather at least you can just wipe it off.

Hence armored personnel carrier covers!

 

[John Young]

I wish Toyota would release the vendor for the 80 series cloth so we could buy reams of it.

Over the past few years I've been struck repeatedly as to how tough fabric Land Cruiser seats manage to survive here in the Middle East. I could not find Mr. Toyoda's cloth but I figured that German M3 cloth should have some pretty good durability. It feels durable.

 

[John Young]

Hence armored personnel carrier covers!

This is what I finally went with


I had to buy 45 meters in a bolt of this cloth to get it. Not cheap.

 

[shellb]

That’s the best BMW cloth fabric ever! Super rad!

 

[shellb]

I obtained a couple of samples and brought it back to the upholstery shop to have a think about it.
View attachment 3835203

And see if they could sew it.

It did not present insurmountable difficulties.

I suspect that my little project is not much of a challenge to this shop.
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View attachment 3835205
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Can you say more about that Merc?

 

[John Young]

Can you say more about that Merc?

I went and visited today to approve the test item. Looks good and more on that later. I asked about the Mercedes and there was not much information other than it is a fairly long-term project that has come back a couple of times to the upholstery shop. I did take a a few more photos.

It is an interesting shop

Rolls, Lambo, Merc and Nissan Patrol shorty

 

[John Young]

As mentioned above, I visited the shop to approve the upholstery of the drivers seat so they could proceed with the rest of the seats. The quality is good.

The leather has a nice heft to it and the color also is nice. The olive canvas for the covers is also a bit softer than the sample I approved, but I like it nevertheless.

They are rebuilding the seat foam which was apparently in fairly poor condition, which is not surprising given the state of the Holy Truck when I got it.

 

[John Young]

Keep in mind that the pull-back bars are not installed. When it is done it will be tight against the foam. I like the combination and I like the quality. This will last a good long time.

I then ask them to put the sample canvas cover on to see how it looks.

 

[John Young]

This will not be pulled back tight but with wear should conform to the seats. One of the things I made clear was that the seat covers needed to be removable without disassembly of the seats so that they can be taken off and cleaned. The other thing I aske for was a pocket on the back of the covers big enough for 4 500ml bottles of water with a velcro cover on the top. I think that will be a nice addition. I decided not to ask for a pocket on the bottom cover in the front because we have that in the Carhartt covers on the 80 in Florida and we have yet to use it.
I've got a lot of this material.

Enough for 4 complete sets at least. I am having at least 2.5 made while I am at it to cover the Omani diesel 80, the Holy Truck and the 80 in Florida's back seat. I've offered the rest to buddies in the UAE as I don't have any idea of what to do with the rest of this very nice canvas.

One other thing I did was ask about making a canvas cover for the center console pad. I had an extra pad that I brought along and they offered to quickly make up one with elastic to see if it was feasible. The camel leather I cover the center console pad with it tough, and amazingly shows no wear after years of use in the Florida 80 but, well, why not!

 

[TXMeatball]

And here is the completed upholstery:
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and the completed sample cover for the upholstery:
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Tomorrow I will go up and have a look in person.

Some bimmerpost guy is probably having an aneurysm over factory cloth in a toyota. Gorgeous results, can't want to see the final product.

 

[John Young]

Here is a video of the sewing of the little test.

It was just a quick proof of concept test so don't let the little bits and bobs bother you. I am going to try it on the camel leather-covered center console in the Holy Truck in the morning to see if the lid still functions, etc. Another design I have in mind would simply be a sock that closes with velcro along the entire length. Yes it would cut the height of the center console tray but it would avoid having bunched up fabric for the most part.

 

[John Young]

Some bimmerpost guy is probably having an aneurysm over factory cloth in a toyota. Gorgeous results, can't want to see the final product.

My ex-brother-in-law is a real serious BMW guy. He has a positive reaction to the idea of using the M3 cloth for the project (even pointing out the exact vehicle that it came from). I will send him a link and see what he says!