re-upholstery of upper panel

[Rusty Marlin]

I stole that image from another post.
the upper pad is all apart on my dining room table, it was attached with 1mm long staples, little tiny short bastids. Any idea where to get these little devils? I've looked up all manner of staples and the shortest I can find are 1/4" (6mm).

 

[Tbkw01]

Following as I am about to do the same thing to mine. I know it would be tedious but could they be reused in a crisis? By hand instead of with a stapler. Also, if you used longer staples would it damage anything?

 

[Rusty Marlin]

The longer staples will blow through the plastic backer and stick out the face. I do have some high strength double sided tape, but I don't trust adhesive at high temps, like in car in SC summer.
I don't know if they could be reused, I thought about... for about a nano second... and decided there had to be a better way.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

finally found some 1/8" (3mm) staples, these are only 3x's too long as opposed to 6x too long.

 

[scottryana]

Man that is a good looking door in the first post.

 

[Red Merle]

If you use the tape, you would also gain a little thickness which might make the 1/8" staple possible. The good body type tape is pretty good though, the headliner on my Taco was held in place with that stuff and the truck spent most of it's life in AZ.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

OK, took a close, critical look at this and the reality is that the double sided tape just has to hold long enough to get the panel assembled as the screws pinch the lower material, and 1/4" staples out of an Arrow T50 stapler will be just fine.
Evidence of this to follow.....

I don't have a before pic, or the tear down, but its pretty self explanatory. Take panel off door, remove the screws, pull a few staples from the back side and the top armrest fairly falls off.
There was a siver dollar tear in the middle of the upper arm rest and it looked like dog poo.
The vinyl is a few thou think and without cloth backing. There is a foam pad under it though that is held on with rubber contact cement.

Once the pad is pulled off the glue has to be stipped to make a nice clean surface.

A few shots of carb cleaner (NAPA 8700) was used to dissolve the glue and it wiped off with a paper towel.
Walla! Spotless.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

So now, to the dinning room table, where the old pad is turned into a pattern for the new backer.
I couldn't find that foam at JoAnns so I went with a thick 100% wool pile felt.

Cut it out and glued it to the arm rest with 3M 77 spray adhesive.
Start at the top where the shelf is, and wrap it around the bottom, trim off the excess with a razor blade.

Laid out the cover material backing up, and stretched out the ratty old arm rest cover. I had to employ some weights I had laying around to keep it flat.

WARNING: some materials are directionaly sensitive to their viewing angle, figured this out the $$$$ way...#%$@&%^$@!!!!!

Here's where the staples come in, the backside surface, behind the window felt is where you staple, there is plenty of room.

For future safety I swagged the staples flat, buggers are sharp when you aren't expecting them.

 

[YMT]

Nice collection of "weights" you have there.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

There are areas that one can't staple, so the trim tape comes into play. This is some serious sticky stuff, it doesn't even like to release its own backing. I put this everywhere I wanted to stretch the material and have it stay.
this the flat behind the window felt, its covered in the vehicle by the rubber seal at the bottom of the rear door's half widow.

This the bottom endge that is held down ultimately by the screws, notice the material is notched out for the screws so I could get a good stretch and fold of the material. There is a tape strip between every screw.

And here is the finished product.

Don't forget to wrap the bottom inch of materal around the backside of the door panel and staple. This draws the ends nice and tight and take the wrinkles out.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Nice collection of "weights" you have there.

LOL, didn't take long for a comment.

The little one a 6# Tungsten Carbide core from a modern anti-tank round.
The Big Bastard is a 90mm AP round from post WWII.
And the one with copper driving bands is a 57mm 6# AP round from WWII. brought back from N. Africa by a neighbor who was there.

 

[Laisser aller]

How many hours do you think you’ll put into each panel... I am thinking you will laying out more pieces soon?

Looks great so far.

Wonder what you’re brewing? Follow’d.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Total time this afternoon, including scraping (err... creating a pattern) was probably 3-4 hours. The next ones will go Much faster now that I've got the concept down. I'm a "hard" parts mechanic, upholstery is a new skill.

Following hu? The truck's on a 3-5 year plan for mods. Only so much budget/month. Don't hold your breath waiting for the excitement. LOL
Right now: its all rubber hoses and gaskets and running gear, and when its raining, some interior stuff.

 

[Laisser aller]

years...? I get it all too well.

Great work just the same.