Re-Covering Interior Cloth?

hurd69 · Post by **hurd69** » January 23rd, 2005, 10:08 pm

i see most people when they do their interior, they actually re-cover the doors and such with a differant fabric. how do i go about doing this? do i just take off the part, and staple the new cloth on there tight? how else have you guys done it?

perry · Post by **perry** » January 23rd, 2005, 10:33 pm

Hi,
The doors are tricky. You have to carefully remove the cloth. If the foam remains you can glue, yes glue not staple the new material. The panels have a compound curve so getting the material smooth is imperitive. Cut the material larger than the panel. The insert is not removable so the edges need to be glued very well. There is a groove surrounding the insert. I like to use a premade piping cord to finish off this groove. To finish the groove perfect is difficult if using vinyl. This is where the piping finishes the edge off perfect. I unfortunatly can't give away all my secrets but hopefully this helps.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » January 24th, 2005, 7:13 am

Piping is a good idea for the edges. The inside shape of the compound curves is a def PITA though. I have some nice grey leather to put on and am considering placing a fresh layer of foam under it and punching/tieing through with leather covered buttons spaced out over the leather fabric. You see this done on some other car's leather covered door panels from the factory. Hopefully this will still allow for a nice soft wide enough armrest area and glueing the leather will only be needed at the edges. Tieing the buttons through the door panel will be how the inside curved shape is mantained.

perry · Post by **perry** » January 24th, 2005, 10:45 pm

What may happen is the leather will not conform to the inside curve properly and the leather under the buttons will be the only area touching. You will lose the point of having a nice inside curve.

Too much Time · Post by **Too much Time** » April 4th, 2005, 2:29 am

Alright, I know this is an old post but I didn't feel like making a new one. I'm in the process of redoing the interior. Seats in front, back, panels, headliner, everything.
I did a dry test fit a while ago and it doesn't look like it's gonna fit nicely. I'm using charcoal faux suede, it seems like it's going to go in nice but It CLUMPS up a lot. Seems like a huge PITA and I've seen a lot of people feel the same way. I did a fairly good job of getting the old vinyl off and now I have a nice even peice of foam to work with.
HOW the helll do I make this sort of material stay nice in the corners? Would doing seperate peices help?
I'm not in a huge rush to put it in, I might start again in a week or so cause of school.

Any trimmers out there? I noticed that in the back, the stock back panels fabric was bubbling and a lot easier to take off. do these pose the same problem?