Materials and Supplies - The Lucky Needle · PDF fileVinyl is the most used and most versatile...

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Materials and Supplies

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Vinyl

Vinyl is the most used and most versatile fabric in upholstery. It is also known as

pleather, imitation leather, faux leather, Naugahyde, Etc… Vinyl comes in various

qualities depending on what you will use it for. There a many different ways vinyl

is graded and tested for its durability. That information is usually available on the

back of sample book. If it’s rated for automotive or marine use it will be good for

what we are doing. You’ll want to be careful using furniture grade vinyl because it

usually does not have as much UV protection as auto/marine vinyl will.

Vinyl usually comes 54” wide and in some cases you can find 60”. You need to

keep this in mind when planning you project and calculating how much material

to buy. Vinyl as well as most fabric is sold by the yard, half roll and full roll. Usually

a roll is 30 yds but that can vary by the distributor. Most suppliers also offer price

brakes on half roll and full roll. Remember that because sometimes it’s cheaper to

buy a ½ roll (15yds) than it is to buy 12 yds of material. They usually won’t tell you

that so make sure you ask!


Leather


Leather is a very common material used for automotive upholstery. Leather can

be very expensive. It usually cost $5-$10 a square foot and around $450 to $750

per hide. This is why I recommend you learn with vinyl before using leather on a

project. If you are using leather you need to make absolutely sure it is automotive

grade leather. Some small upholstery supply shops will tell you their leather is

automotive grade but it isn’t. If the price seams too good to be true it probably is.

There is a huge difference with the UV protection between automotive grade and

furniture grade leather. I have seen people use furniture leather in cars and it

looks completely faded and dried out in less than a year.

Leather is sold in full hides and half hides only. It’s not common to find a place

that will sell by the foot. One hide is typically 50-60 square feet and sometimes a

lot of that gets wasted working around scars, brands and imperfections in the

hide. The best leather comes from Europe because cattle are free range and they

are not damaging their skin on barbed wire fences like we have here in America.

Above is a diagram of the sections of a leather hide. Section A is the strongest

most durable part of the hide and should be used for areas that will get a lot of

ware. Example: the face of a seat cover that gets sat on, an arm rest, steering

wheel, Etc… Section B is the belly of the cow and is not as tough. This should be

uses in areas that won’t see as much wear. Example: door panels, sun visors,

sides of a seat, Etc… The section labeled flank is usually not useable except for

small parts.

Leather is technically a skin like ours and it needs to be taken care of properly or

else it will dry out, crack and fade. You need to regularly clean and condition

leather with quality leather cleaner and leather lotion. These products are all

available at your upholstery store. Doing this will not only keeps your project

looking nice and new but will add years to the life of the leather.


Velour

Velour is a fabric with a fuzzy face. It is usually used in auto upholstery to contrast

vinyl and sometime for a full interior.

Tweed

Tweed is a course woven fabric used in upholstery. It comes in many colors and

patterns. Tweed was huge in the 80’s for custom auto interiors but is not used as

much anymore.


Suede

Suede is used to give a very luxurious feel to and interior. “Alcantara” is a brand of

automotive suede but has become a universal name for automotive suede. All

automotive suede is synthetic because real suede it too delicate to use in cars.

Headliner

Headliner material is usually cloth or suede backed with 1/8” foam. It comes

60”wide and is used on the headliner and sun visors of cars.


Carpet

Automotive carpet has UV protection so it is important to use quality automotive

carpet. Carpet comes it two forms, Cut pile (top left picture) and Loop pile (top

right picture). There is also marine grade carpet that is UV and mildew resistant.

You can use marine carpet in cars but you can’t use automotive carpet for marine

applications.

Jute Carpet Padding

Jute is used for padding underneath carpet. It also acts as a great sound and heat

barrier. It is usually sold 36” wide and in 20oz or 40oz thickness.


Foam

Upholstery foam has two ratings that are important to understand when choosing

foam for your project, density and firmness. Density is how much the foam

weighs per cubic foot. If foam has a density of 28 this means that it weighs 2.8

pounds per cubic foot. Firmness is how much weight it takes to compress the

foam 1/3. If foam has a firmness of 25 this means that it takes 25 pounds to

compress the foam 1/3. When shopping for foam these ratings are usually

represented with density first then firmness. Example = 15/30 this would

represent a foam with a density of 1.5 pounds and firmness of 30 pounds.

When choosing foam for your project the most important consideration is the

density. The higher the density the longer the foam will last before it starts to

loose shape and firmness. The firmness is nice to know but your feel is the best

way to judge what is best for your project. Also keep in mind when choosing foam

that once you make and install your cover on the foam it will feel more firm than

with no cover. Knowing this it is better to use a little softer foam to start with.

Foam is also available in marine grade and outdoor foam. Marine grade foam is

mold resistant and is used mostly in boats. Outdoor foam is very porous and does

not hold water so it dries much faster than normal foam, witch can take days to

dry out completely.


Scrim Foam

Scrim foam is foam with either a netting or woven fabric covering one side. The

reason for the netting or woven fabric is to catch the thread and not tear through

the foam when sewing. It is most commonly available in ¼” and ½ “. Scrim foam

is used for two main purposes. One It is used to back the parts that we sew

together to make our covers. This gives the cover a nice tight and filled look.

Second is for sewing pleats and other decretive stitches.

Closed Cell Foam

Also known a landau foam because it is the used on landau vinyl tops. This foam is

much stiffer than other foam. It is mainly used on panels that you want a nice firm

but not hard feel. For example, door panels, kick panels, firewall, etc… You can

also use this foam to cut designs in it to make panels with custom designs. Closed

cell foam is most commonly sold in 1/8 and 1/4 thickness.


Clear Vinyl

Clear vinyl is sold in different thicknesses. Usually it is available from 4 gauge to

40 gauge. The gauge indicates how thick the clear vinyl is. For example 30 gauge

is equal to .030 of an inch. It is most commonly used to make flexible windows.

We will also be using thin clear vinyl to make templates for our custom covers.

Dacron

Dacron is a polyester filling material. It is used to wrap cushions to help fill the

cover and make a nice tight fit.


Batting

Batting is another filler material made out of cotton. It is most often used to fill

low spots on old worn out cushions.

Thread

Thread is what holds all our covers together. It is very important to use quality

thread on your projects. Thread comes in many different sizes and materials. For

just about everything you will be doing I recommend “UV coated bonded

polyester size 92”. This thread is very versatile, reasonably priced and will hold up

in the sun very well.


Zippers

Zippers are sold in numbered sizes. The sizes are #3 to #10. Smaller sized zippers

are usually sold in a roll and do not have a stop built in. (picture on the left) Also

known as zipper tape. The larger sized zippers are usually sold in premade lengths

with stops built in.

Snaps

Snaps are a very useful accessory for making thing easily removable. You will see

them a lot on boats and also tonneau covers on cars.


Grommets

Grommets are used to make a strong finished hole with brass or stainless steel.

Staples

Upholstery staples are sold in sizes from 1/8”to 1/2". You can get staples that are

stainless, galvanized or steel. I recommend using stainless staples whenever you

can, but they are much more expensive than galvanized or steel staples.


Hog Rings

Hog rings are a common fastener used to secure seat covers to the seat frame.

You need to use hog ring pliers to install hog rings.

Panel Clips


Panel clips are used to attach upholstery panels to the interior sheet metal

structure of a car. There are hundreds of different types of panel clips. Above are

some of the most common types. The top left is my favorite clip to use because it

is easy to install and reusable many times. The bottom right is a very common

type of clip used on most cars from the 80’s to now, But keep in mind this clip can

only be reused maybe one or two times before it need to be replaced.

Webbing


Webbing is a polyester woven strap material that you will see used in many

different ways. It is sold in various widths and colors as well as UV stable and not

UV stable.

Shock Cord

Shock cord is an elastic cord or “bungee cord” material that is used in various

ways. It is sold in multiple thicknesses.

Velcro

Velcro is sold typically in 1 inch and 2 inch wide, but you can find bigger if needed.

Most common colors are black, white and beige. You can also buy Velcro with an

adhesive backing to install Velcro on things like metal or plastic. A tip when


working with adhesive backed Velcro, if you heat up the adhesive with a heat gun

it sticks much better to whatever you are installing it on.

Binding

Binding is a piece of fabric that is folded over on two sides and glued down. This is

sewn on to the edge of material to create a nice finished edge.

Welt Cord

Welt cord is what is used to make welted seams like in picture on the right.


Contact Cement

Contact cement is what we use for gluing pretty much everything. Weldwood

Landau top contact adhesive (Picture above) it the best you can use. I wouldn’t

recommend you use anything else. This stuff works great and won’t cause you

any future problems after the project is finished.

Panel Board

There are a few types of panel board you can use when creating your interior

parts. My favorite material to use is 1/8” ABS sheet. ABS is very durable, easy to

work with and also waterproof. The only downside with ABS is it warps in extreme

heat, so if you live in a very hot place and plan to leave your project in the sun, it’s

not a good idea to use ABS. My next choice is 1/8”plywood witch is a much


cheaper option than ABS but it is not waterproof like ABS. It is a good choice

when you are concerned about warping in the heat. The other material you will

see is black panel board. It is basically just thick hard cardboard. It works ok but if

you can use another material I would recommend it. Black panel board is

susceptible to warping from moisture and typically cannot be reused.

Chip Board

Chip board is a hard cardboard we use for making templates and patterns.

Edge Wire


Edge wire is a spring steel rod that can be used to repair wire spring seat frames.

It can also be sewn in to a fabric channel on seat covers to give something for hog

rings to hold on to. Edge wire usually comes bare or wrapped in paper (see

picture above).

No-Sag spring

No-sag is used to replace broken or worn springs on seat frames.

Baker Clips


Baker clips are used for repairing seat frames. They hold in place springs and edge

wire. They require special Baker clip pliers to install them.

Materials and Supplies - The Lucky Needle · PDF fileVinyl is the most used and most versatile...

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