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How much would you charge?

39K views 114 replies 18 participants last post by  AFX 
#1 ·
I started redoing the interior in my 78 ford truck a while ago, first time Ive done basically a completely custom interior and have been posting my progress on another forum. Still have a ton of work to do though. Anyways I got a lot of good feedback and had a lot of guys ask about doing some work for them. I figured why not since Im running short on cash for my project and its good practice. Lately Ive been doing some dash pads and Im curious about how much a shop would charge in labor to do this. Obviously I havent been doing this for very long and I cant do it as perfect as someone whos been doing it for years, but theyre coming out pretty nice. So could someone give me an idea of what youd charge. I have a feeling Im not selling them for enough. It takes more time than I was expecting to fix cracks, landau foam the top and sew a six foot seam. Ive sold 4 so far.

Heres the ones Ive done for customers. The orange thread wasnt my idea, But it turned out nice.lol. Working on a red one right now. These are all done in symphony vinyl.







I can start up a thread if anyone wants to see how my interiors coming along, but Im not really close to being finished. Ive kinda stopped because Ive decided to do a few things to it that I wasnt expecting to do, and I dont have the cash right now. heres one of the panels I finished up a little while ago.

 
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#78 ·
The thread is $46 for a one pound tube. They screwed up and sent it to me already. If you just want to use it for your project, I'll send it to you, you can use it and then send it back to me. You just pay the shipping. I could also just wind some onto an empty spool and send it to you.
 
#79 ·
Would you be willing to wind up like a 4 oz spool, something small. And Ill just go ahead and split the cost with you, $23 and Ill pay shipping. I really have no need for a 1lb spool. It will sit around forever. I dont want to leave you with paying majority of the cost, so Ill just pay half of it. Thanks for the help.

Let me know when you want me to paypal it and the total cost with shipping and Ill do that as soon as possible.
 
#80 ·
I'll wind you up a quarter of it on a spool, but all you need to pay is the shipping, I'll use the rest of the thread. PayPal is fine, I'll let you know in a PM the e-mail address and how much the shipping is. I have a customer that I will use the charcoal up on. I use black for them now, but the charcoal will actually match better.
 
#83 ·
So heres what I used that charcoal thread for. Thanks for the help Dan.




And I finally got started on my seats. First set Ive ever done besides this barstool I used for a little practice. Used the barstool to help me practice with sewing with sew foam. The insert on the barstool is actually recycled leather from the original f150 seats.


Covers not fully installed on the seat in this picture, didnt have my listings sewed in yet. But I should have some finished pictures in a week or so. Im really happy with how theyre turning out, didnt expect it to come out so nice.

 
#86 ·
So I got one just about done. Waiting for some clips to finish the back panel off on it. For the back I screwed wood strips around the inside of the seat frame to tack my cover down and welded tabs for the back panel clips. I did the string technique on the back cushion listings to pull them tight and the bottom cushion listings are hog ringed down like the stock way.

My center inserts werent following the dip of my seat foam though . So what could be the reason for causing that? Im thinking my center inserts were sized slightly too wide causing them to poof up in the center. So what I ended up doing was running a tiny strip of adhesive right down the center to keep it from poofing up. Worked perfect, but I just dont like the fact of having to use adhesive even though I only used a tiny amount. Is this something that can happen when doing seats that dip down and is the adhesive acceptable? Ive heard of seats coming from factory with glued down listings so Im not too worried about doing it.

For a first seat project Im pretty happy, I learned a lot doing these.




Started with the console first before the seats since all I really needed to do was copy the stock cover. I ended up wrapping the entire thing and doing some work to the cup holders.

 
#91 · (Edited)
What can cause what you describe is the fact you used a different vinyl than what was on the originals. Or the sew foam is different, or one of a bunch of different reasons. This happens all the time. When I make patterns from the originals, I make the pieces slightly larger. I can always add padding, but if the seat cover is too small the fix is a lot harder to do.

BTW, you are way too critical of your own work. There is nothing wrong with your finished product. You have to stop thinking of upholstery work as precision work like metal work, or wood work, there are way too many variables in upholstery work. You are doing almost perfect work, and you need to be happy with almost, because it's not possible to do perfect upholstery work. I've been doing this for almost 40 years, and I haven't done a perfect piece of work yet.
 
#87 ·
Your progress looks really good. I had asked Dan the same question about glued listings and he affirmed it was acceptable but I should let him do his own talking. May I ask what brand of vinyl or leather you are using? It appears to be very workable material. I also like the texture and not too shines finish.

John L
 
#92 ·
Thanks Dan for that advice on not being too critical. After doing all of this Ive kind of figured out thats its pretty much impossible to get %100 perfect work when doing upholstery. Because of all the variables like you mentioned. But Im a wacko so I dont think Ill ever not be critical of my work, I guess thats good in one way because I want to get better, but sometimes it drives me nuts. At least the areas Im not too happy with I know how to fix on any next projects. Doing my own interior really helped me with getting used to working with the materials and getting good practice on a sewing machine.

So this is almost finished. Just some bolt on stuff, main one being a steering wheel, and fixing a few little problem areas and its done. Id say not too bad for never doing any upholstery until earlier this year. Ive learned upholstery isnt easy to do, and it requires a lot of skill especially if you want to do nice work. I wish people who want top notch work for almost free would understand that.

 
#93 ·
Well....

This gives me confidence that even a beginner can turn out work that's acceptable to an experienced trimmer. Excellent work dude!

I was wondering though, and maybe I shouldn't hijack your thread, but how do you go about making patterns for you seats, and more importantly, the dashboards.
 
#96 ·
OK, do you tack the cheap fabric onto the dash or your just lay it out and mark up the seams. I'm asking because I saw some guy's work on another website, Fiberglass Forums - Powered by vBulletin, which is downright amazing... completely self taught. Looks like he had pics showing how he did the templates, and then took them down before I caught on!

I'm into older BMW's, not necessarily domestic cars, so the dashboards have more complex corners and shapes, so I'm not sure how it's possible to make accurate patterns without cutting individual mockups and tacking them down somehow. Am I off base here?

I joined this forum many months ago, and thought I would be much farther into upholstering than I am. I got as far as settling on which machine to buy, thanks to Dan and everybody else on this wonderful forum, but I've been living out of a hotel for almost a year. Thankfully, I'll have an apartment in Februrary so I'll have somewhere to put the machine!
 
#95 · (Edited)
I make my patterns from chipboard, which is the very thin cardboard they put on the back of a tablet of paper. This is much easier, and more accurate, to draw around. Look at this thread if you want to see how I do my patterning: http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/truck-seat-upholstery-tutorial-118011.html The picture shows some of the patterns that I have made over the years. I just threw away a lot of my old patterns, and the load weighed over 500 lbs.
 

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#97 ·
Really complex corners are very hard to do with fabric of any kind, no matter how much it will stretch. Dash pads are extremely difficult unless they are as straight forward as the ones in this thread.
 
#102 ·
So I finally did some work in leather, almost finished with all of it. And after using leather I really dont ever want to touch vinyl again, so much nicer to work with.

Im trying to figure out how much leather I would need for a set of buckets or something like a bench seat. Whats the usual amount required for that? I have an idea of how much in vinyl, but Im kind of unsure on converting that amount to sqft of leather.
 
#103 · (Edited)
The average leather hide is 48 to 55 square feet. Fabric, or vinyl, or anything else (other than leather) is measured by the running yard, which is 54" tall and 36" wide. That makes a leather hide about equal to three yards of vinyl, including the waste factor.

A bench seat and rear seat, done in leather, will take about 2 1/2 to 3 hides.
 
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#106 · (Edited)
Just checking this now since I posted. Not really sure what the ^above comments are about. Looks like some got deleted. If they were intended toward me sorry if I gave off the impression that upholstery was "easy". Im the last person that will say upholstery is easy, Its very difficult and underappreciated. I know Im trying to teach myself, maybe that makes it seem as if I think its easy. Im no dummy though, I tend to comprehend things better than most people and have skills most people dont have. I take learning and doing this type of work seriously.

I just simply wanted to make sure I was on the right track with estimating out leather. Havent used it much yet. Hides cost a lot of $$$ and its kind of intimidating making sure I get the correct amount ordered. I know its "basic math". I estimated out the sqft in a yard of vinyl and then figured out how much is in say a 55sqft hide. Always nice to double check and get the opinion of someone whos been doing this for years and is a proffessional.

Anyways I always appreciate any answers to questions I have, theyre always helpful.

Heres another one that would help me out. What is good for removing excess adhesive off leather? Doesnt come off as easy as on vinyl.

This is what I just did in leather along with dash pad, visors and door carpets. PVC board as suggested by Dan really helped me out with these. My new favorite material.



What I started with.
 
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