Thread: Upholstery questions

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I am just starting to make door and kick panel patterns for my roadster interior. In the past I have always used 1/8" mahogany door skins for the panels, but it is really too thin to hold a staple, so the naugahyde can only be glued on the back side not stapled. Also, I have always screwed them onto the doors using screws that go thru the naugahyde, foam, and panel and used the vinyl covered snap on buttons to cover the screw heads. This time I would like to use the upholstery attachments that kinda look like small Chrismas trees, that fit thru a hole in the panel and snap into holes in the car door metal. The heads are very flat, so are hidden under the foam and upholstery material. What do you guys recommend for panel material, and where is a good source for the attachers???? that I have described. The man who is sewing the patterns in my upholstery panels and covering the bucket seats says that he uses lexan, but my model A doors have areas where the metal in the center of the door is higher than the edges, so I am thinking of using 3/16" marine grade plywood and gluing filler peices at the edges wherever there would be a gap. This would look a bit weird (thick edge ) when the door was open, but wouldn't show when the door was closed.Any tips would be greatly appreciated---I do this upholstery thing about once every 10 years.

Interesting question - I'll be looking at the answers. The originals in my '57 Chevy were a fiberboard material, like you'd use for a kid's science fair exhibit. I hadn't thought of the Lexan concept, but it sounds good.

The "Christmas tree" clips that I've seen have generally been in newer cars, with formed plastic backing, and once the're in, you can forget taking them off without replacing at least the clips and, in the case of a couple of Fords I've got, the door panels.

The Shelby has metal spring clips that fit into holes on the door interior, and they're available from Mustangs Unlimited, American Mustang, Year One, and so on. They'll fit on the fiberboard backing, since that's what's behind all the fancy formed foam on the Shelby door panels. For the Chevy, unless I hear of something else here, I'll probably go to the upholstery supply shop (I think I saw one in Marysville, CA), and get some weather resistent backer, and use the clips.

But there's bound to be a better suggestion show up here...

More from the RodDoors seminar. For the edges, use 1/4" foam tape. Set the tape so that it overlaps the edge of the trim panel and trim it off to match the panel. When you run the material and glue it to the back side of the panel, the foam will be on the edge. When installed on the door, the foam fills the gap.

I built all the panels for my Roadster... I also used the "Christmas Tree" plugs you are talking about... As for the main material I used 1/8th inch birch panels...

I started by making paterns out of poster board then used them to cut the panels from the birch material... Once I had the first piece of birch cut to shape I taped them in place and used a 1/4" drill bit to drill through the panel and into the inside of the body then inserted the plugs into those holes... I finished off the panels by cutting another piece of birch off of the same patern then glueing it on top of the first piece of birch... Next I used another piece of birch to cut the design I wanted to to appear ontop of the panel... Overall this makes the panel 1/4" thick except were the design is and that area is 3/8" thick...

I hope this helps...

Dave Brisco

Dave,

Where did you get the fasteners?

Swiftster---Tell me a bit more about the foam tape---do you mean that it gets glued to the back side of the door panel to fill the gap which I said I would have to fill between the panel and the door edge in some areas, because their are raised areas on the inner door skin surface that would hold the rigid panel from setting tight on the door edges in some spots?----also, Snakeherder seems to feel that there are some issues with the christmas tree type fastners---what is your opinion? I will probably have to install and remove these panels a few times to get everything right, and if you screw up one of these fastners after the panel is upholstered already, your pooched.

After cutting your panel to size, run the foam tape on the back side of your panel. The foam will fill the gap between the door shell and your trim panel. Also, in using the ABS plastic instead of wood, the plastic is strong enough to keep from breaking, is as light or lighter than the wood, and is weather resistant if the back side gets wet for some reason.

3M has a product called dual lock. This is extremely close, if not indentical to velcro. RodDoors recommends using roughly 10-15 1" square pieces to hold the trim panel to the door. This makes sense on a lot of levels, as you don't have to worry about the panel coming loose, makes removing and reinstalling the trim extremely easy in case of servicing anything in the door.

Set four pieces of Dual Lock in the four corners of your door. Make sure you allow about a 1/2" to 3/4" (give or take) to allow for the foam edging. Pull the tab off the Dual Lock and press the oversized panel against the door shell. Mark the trim panel against the door shell. Pull the panel off the door and cut along the scribed line. Run the foam tap along the edge of the panel with the edge of the tape hanging over the edge of the trim panel. It's easier to trim the tape to the edge than run the tape straight.

As most of the material is roughly 1/8" think as it wraps around the panel, take a sanding block and sand an 1/8" off the panel (and eliminate the rough edge) and the tape will be sanded at the same time to conform to the panel. All they used to attach the material to the abs plastic is spray clue. Even when wrapped around the panel, the material was simply glued.

RodDoors has prefabed flame style trim panels (amoungst others). The how-to video is $29 (I found my catalog).

By the way, if you trim the plastic the right way (if you order a prefabed panel), it should leave you enough for the kick panels.

Those Christmas tree type fasteners really are hard to use, cuz once you snap them in there they're a major bitch to get out! There are actually really cool and easy to use clips made of a heavy gauge wire. They have sort of a flat area on the top that slides on to the 1/8" board you're useing and basically holds on to it from both sides if you can picture that! then theres the
lower" part that is sort of spring loaded and goes into the hole in the door, or whatever, and holds the panel on. I know this sounds weird but they work great! When I do upholstery panels I use "1/8 " door skin" that you get at home depot etc.

Hey Henry...

I was able to purchase a couple of boxes of those fasteners at my local auto body supply store... They had several different sizes in stock...

Hope this helps...

Dave Brisco

Originally posted by Henry Rifle
Dave,

Where did you get the fasteners?

The plastic X-mas trees work just fine long as ya get the tool to remove em with, Mac,Snap-on,cornwell etc.etc, has em, haven't broken a clip since I bought one... I think they're around $20...
By the way Ace hardware and Lowes is a good source for the plastic clips.....

Go to "www.YourAutoTrim.com" and go under supplies, tools, category and look at their variety of Auveco clips. I read about their AUVECO Clip 11406 and bookmarked the site a while back for when I redo my interior. They also have a FAQ section that may help you out. Later!