Upholstery Dam Expensive try this!

[Dr Lebaron]

Seems upholsterers have gone the way of the corner blacksmith or TV repair, ect.
Used to be lots of upholsterers, because you didn't just run out and buy new cheap furniture back when the earth's crust was still warm.
I worked for several upholsterers slugging sofas.
All the greasers where doing their lead sleds w/o breaking the bank from upholsterers.

Need to slap the phone away from kids and say, here ya go, be a upholsterer and make big money without a boss.

 

[Aspen500]

As far as I know, there is only one automotive upholstery shop here. There are furniture places but furniture and automotive are two different things. The one shop is a one man operation so there's a long lead time. He did my front seats, took almost 3 months BUT, he did an outstanding job. Cheap? No, both seats were $1,500 but after seeing them done, that didn't seem all that bad (or as bad I guess). This is a metro area with a pop. about 105,000 and only one upholstery shop. One other bad part is where it's located. It's in an area that time forgot and the "road" (which is named West Cassidy Drive) is about 1 1/2 lanes wide dead end and unpaved. It's not even a goat path really.

On the insurance side topic. I've always had Grundy on the Aspen, agreed value $25000 and it covers everything and then some. Premiums are $208/year and in the 5 or 6 years I've been with them, the price only went up $15 over the beginning. No complaints. Never had a claim and hope I never do!

Dr LeBaron, you are right. It's a problem in the auto repair business. For every 10 techs that retire, there's only about one new tech to fill the void. Plumbers, electricians, carpentry, and many other trades, there is a HUGE need for people but they mostly seem to want to get an English Lit degree or something and then wonder why they can't find a job. An auto tech will not get wealthy, but if you care enough, know enough, are honest and do the best you can, you will ALWAYS have a job, even if the shop you work at closes or something. When the Ford dealer I worked at for 20 years closed all of a sudden, without warning, I was unemployed for a whole 2 weeks. Anyways,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I digress and am getting WAY off the thread topic, sorry.

 

[Jonnyuma]

I wish Bruceynz had come back w some pics.. I'd like to see how the covers turned out.

I got lucky w my Lebaron, the PO had the seats reupholstered... he knows a guy. Buuut... both of my pickups could use covers on their respective benches and $178 for the top-line covers Bruce linked (link still works) is about half of what a "real" upholstery set in vinyl costs.

When I do dis I'll come back w pics and a quick review. And hopefully not crash the internet... my trucks are Fords.

 

[Cordoba1]

I'm sorry I don't have a better picture, but I used semi-custom seat covers to clean up the interior of a 77 I had for some time. The leather was light blue, and looked really dingy. I also replaced the baby-blue shag with an off-the-shelf replacement carpeting. While I was at it, I ordered extra floor-carpet and recovered the door-kick-panels. One also needs a bit of carpet to finish out the sides of the center console. Pro tip: Upon installing the seat covers, they slid around a lot on the leather. I did not like the feeling, felt; well, like a seat cover. I took them off, took a risk, and sprayed the leather with Scotch 90 spray adhesive. I then re-installed the seat covers; and they of course, no longer slid around. I was VERY happy with the outcome. It really dressed up an aging interior, and did not cost a lot. I just sent several width and girth measurements to the shop, and they ended up fitting really well. Cheers!

 

[Cordoba1]

The complete set of pictures of "Baby Blue" the Cordoba: 1977 Chrysler Cordoba