VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Upholstery - Interiors & Glass What's your opinion?

Hampton coach is going to send me samples and the price of the upholstery for my '31 coupe. If it were you, would you do it yourself, get someone to help that knows something about it, or let a regular upholstery person do it with a good reputation? Bear in mind money is a factor, mine will be a driver and will cost an extra $2,000 just to get it installed. I guess my question is, is it that extremely hard to do or with two guys it could be done in a neat fashion? Would appreciate any comment from any one who did this type of work. Just a note: we did our own wood work and I think it came out really nice. Thanks

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Since you need to save money I think you may have answered your own question.

:) :grin:

In reupholstering my '38 with a Hampton Coach complete interior kit, I found their instructions are seriously wanting. I have bucket seats and there were no instructions what-so-ever on how to do them. I called Hampton and sent them a letter before they finally answered a couple of my questions and sent me a needle with some basic hand-drawn instructions. I still haven't done much of the work yet as I have been busy with other things, as always, so I don't know what other problems there may be. I think one of the keys to doing the work yourself is, does your car have it's original upholstery? As I was taking my back seat cover off, I took lots of pictures as well as notes. I would not have been able to put the new upholstery on without that help and relying solely on Hampton's instructions. Also, the burlap they sent me was 10" narrower than the original. I called them and they said that was what everyone uses. I went to JoAnn's Fabric during one of their big sales and bought several yards of wider burlap for about $8.00. I could have used the narrower stuff but then there would not have been enough to wrap the bottom edge of the springs. Since they were originally wrapped, I wanted to wrap them also. As I said, I don't know what other problems I may run into but I am confidant I can finish the job and have it come out looking fairly decent. The folks in this forum are really helpful if you do get stuck. A lot of them now have digital cameras and can email you photos of problem areas to help you. If you don't have one already, invest in a good tack hammer!! Good luck. Beamer

For a nice driver, one you don't plan to show, I would contact some local independant shops and get an estimate. The shops in the DFW area do a lot of quality work at a reasonable price and will do a simple replacement or custom job have many choices of materials. I bet you can find a good place locally, ask around. Most will give you an estimate. Also consider having the cabin floor, firewall, doors, and ceiling insulated with a good glue in quality sound proofing material prior to installing the new interior. You won't regret it.

Many years ago I did my 1934 4 door which had more "pieces" to cover.
I never regretted it and would do it again. Just make sure everything lines up befor nailing, use a few nails and recheck. before installing all the nails. The windlace position is important. They had very good instructions at that time.

I learned the hard way that the difference between an ok job and one done by a competent professional is not a lot compared to doing it over; however there can be a huge difference in appearance and also the fabric will wear better if properly installed.If you feel comfortable doing it yourself I would try doing a door and see how it comes out.Keep in mind Hampton Coach makes a kit from a pattern that did not come from your car and it may be necessary to make adjustments.

I agree with just about all of the above.

However, one comment from me is that an upholstery shop is going to hit you with a ton of labor if he has to use the HC kit! He will no doubt blame HC for every set back he encounters, and there will be plenty of set backs. If you do it yourself (and you can) then time is not an issue. I did my 32 Coupe a year ago and, as a driver car, I very happy with the job I did.

HC instructions are OK as far as the panels, but the seat instructions are "generic" for all seats. The trick is to use as much padding as you and your helper can handle, then stuff in a little more! My only set back with the seat was at the final tacking on the top of the seat back. It's a little tricky figuring out just how the material fits so you have a clean and professional look. I found out after looking over my original seat back that the tacks were used almost a quater inch apart, or less, to get a good fit. Buy a couple of boxes of longer tacks, because you will be using almost the same tack hole locations.

Now on the panels, HC cuts the fabric and foam padding the same length. I trimmed the padding away from the edge so that the fabric can be folded behind the cardboard panel. I, and others here, have found out that the padding should also be trimmed so that the garnish mouldings, crank and door handles will fit much easier.

On my car, some of the material was still in place. I took lots of pictures and notes before removing it. I also marked the wood with white chalk were the material edges end. Were the old material was missing I looked closely for the existing tacks or tack holes as a guide. You should remove all the old tacks as you go along. Many of the existing small nails also had the heads rusted off, look closely for them.

I did it myself, but if you have a friend you should have no problem. One thing I should have done before installing my head lining was to use the upper most panels as a guide to mark the wood where the headlining must extend to. I must have spent days on guessing were the head lining gets tacked at it's bottom.

You mentioned that you did the wood yourself. HC panels are cut exactly (or very close) to the originals. Keep that in mind when trying to fit the HC panels as your wood may be slightly differant.

If you need help ask questions here! Plenty of us have used the HC kits.

Good luck! You'll be proud of the job you did when it's finished.

I should have said, "We assembled the wood ourselves" which I got from Jim Rodman. That was to let you know we do have the patience and time.

Some folks have been noting in this topic that taking lots of pictures, etc., is almost a necessity when replacing upholstery and as I said in my original posting, I did that as well as taking copious notes. I was not bad mouthing Hampton Coach re their kits. They are quality kits using as close to original material and colors as I presume one can get. My complaint with HC was their lack of clear and concise instructions and particularly, the lack of any instructions what-so-ever for the bucket seats even though that is the kit I ordered. Also, their replacement burlap was 10" narrower than the original burlap which would not allow for a complete wrapping of the seat springs as the originals were wrapped. Further, their kit contained instructions for replacing buttons for the rear of the back seat along with enough buttons to put there. Fortunately, I had the original upholstery still in my car and the rear of the back seat did not originally have buttons. I researched that question some time back in this Forum thinking my car had missed getting it's buttons at the factory and it is a fact that the original seat back on the 2dr sedan was buttonless! Had I not had the original upholstery, I probably would have put buttons in the rear of the back seat and that would have been the wrong thing to do. Although I am not very far along with replacing my upholstery, these anomalies I have found so far will make me very alert as I complete the job. Nevertheless, I feel I will be able to complete the job and, with the help of a friend on the headliner, will have a nice looking interior. I intend to continue taking many, many pictures and lots of notes as I work laboriously through each piece, removing the original and installing the new one piece at a time. This will take me a while but the alternative of paying someone else to do it is not an option. Besides, once I get my car on the road and people ask me who did your upholstering, painting, etc., I can say I did it myself and that, IMHO, is what I feel this hobby is all about. Beamer

That is the good thing about being retired and doing your own work, if you have a nice place to work you can take as long as you like and quit whereever and whenever you choose. I still get comments when the Boss checks on me, about needing to re-arrange my shop and cleaning up this or that mess. If I have a chore that takes more than two hands, I clean or re-arrange a little bit before I call her. I don't want her falling over something, again.

Beamer,
Your very lucky you had something to take pictures of. I have nothing to go on except a set of original seats I bought a few months back. I'm hoping I can find a '31 coupe within a 100 or so miles from me so I can take some more pictures. I took a lot at Grand Junction and another coupe I saw but there is always something missing. Like the rotted wood which was still 60% there, this upholstery job would be much easier if I could have taken it apart and then assembled the new material.

jerrygolf,

I sort of know what's going thru you're head. I felt very apprehensive about doing the job myself. I knew nothing about sewing, handling materials, or "blind nailing". I also heard all the stories about HC's instructions.

Unlike you, I felt that I didn't have an option. I decided to go for it. I set the kit on the side for about two to three months asking myself, what have I gotten myself into? I remember looking over the pieces and reading the instructions about five times. I said to myself, I better figure this out because my wife is going to kill me for spending what I spent to have somebody else figure it out.

If you take your time, like mentioned above, you will be very proud of your accomplishment. When I got frustrated, I would go get a cool one and quit for the night. I'm still working so most of the time I spent was on weekends. I used the weekday evenings to re-read the instructions or check here for advice. It took me about four weekends to do my Sport Coupe. (I still have to do the rumble seat)

Yes, the instuctions are not the best, but I found the process easy to follow once you get used to them. The seat instructions are terrible! It took me days to figure out they were talking about the front seat of a four door car!

But hey...you have all of us here that have been thru it. Ask all the questions you want. Pictures help and I've got a few showing the 31 that I can send to you.

...oh, and you have a helper. Man, I wish I had someone that could have held that seat material in place while I tacked it down! I think I must have tacked the upper corners of the seat four times before I got it looking good. I think I should still use a little more padding and a little more gentle pulling.

Hey Jerry, For my 31 coupe I bought the material from HC not the kit and had a local guy do the work for me. The upholsterer came by and told me how much material to order. It was way less that buying the kit. I had pictures of the pattern that I wanted and he made the front seat and the rumble seat cushions for me. I can send a PM with some pictures if you want. Good luck either way.

Thursday or Friday I plan to take my seats over to an upholster to get an estimate. He is Amish and heard a lot of good things about him. A guy who had his done there is taking me there and says he has a lot of samples to pick from.

RGwiz & 1931SaL,

You both mentioned you had some pictures you could send, I could use any pictures of the inside that has upholstering or any unupholstered panels so I could get a general idea what they look like. Thanks. I should have it on the road this spring, not complete but almost.

hampton coach has a very nice product.they do all the hard word, the easy part is installing the interior.