larchiefeng Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 Finally, got the pleats and bolsters done for the seat. The first picture give you an idea of how the profile is with the plastic strip and foam before the leather gets glued down. Here is the layout of the four sections to make sure all the pleats line up. Just a little check on the size of the pleats Everything is done and just sitting on the seat prior to gluing it down. I did see that I'll have to put a backing under the bolsters to be able to glue them down. I'm also going to have to shim a little under lower seat panels before I wrap the leather around the lower front and seat side. The wrap will cover all that up and the piping trim will fill in any other areas. In the pictures, the lower bolsters are sticking out over the edge because the seats are just sitting on the seat and not tucked all the way down. All in all I'm happy with the way it looks so far. I'd like to be able to finish off the entire seat tomorrow so, we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpfiend Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The seat is looking really nice Wayne, well worth the extra effort to achieve this. Best Regards Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 Thanks Keith, it's not a complete scratch built seat like both Roy & Codger had encouraged me to build earlier on. It's something of a hybrid scratch built seat since, I cut out the molded in seat in the body and narrowed it some and made my own pattern of pleats based on a 1938 Merceds roadster. As I said a while back, I decided to keep this seat mainly because it fit into my plans for the lighting and wiring which, is also not part of this kit and has to be added and figured out. The seat will be a snug fit on a frame I'll build for the seat to mount to in order to be removable for the hidden battery box underneath it. I just hope that I can finish off the front, top and sides of the seat as cleanly as the pleats came out without cocking it up. I also have the chrome MMC seat side brackets that mount to the seat back and bottom as the recliner or pivot to dress it up a bit more. Once I finish the seat I'm going to start on the door trim panels starting with the leather wrap over the door top. I want to get that out of the way first because that makes me the most nervous. I find its best to get the hard stuff out of the way first and then the rest seems easier. I have been looking through other Mercedes builds and I saw a unique door trim panel treatment and it gave me a good idea on how to make a custom trim similar to his but more in keeping with my build and look. So, that will be a surprise when I have them ready, and for now I'll just keep that one under my hat until I'm ready to play show and tell. More tomorrow, things are starting to come together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roymattblack Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 This sounds fascinating. I'm locking it all away for when I eventually build my Merc boat tail. Awesome stuff here. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouln Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Now you made us curious about your next steps. Be watching for your updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 This is not as much of an update as I wanted to post today but, we're having a lot of rain and wind today with some power brown outs. This is supposed to last through tomorrow so, hopefully tomorrow won't be as hectic as today. Anyway, I did manage to get some plastic card panels glued to the back of the bolsters for a smoother gluing surface. I also got the pleat panels glued to the seat. After I got all that put together I had a lot of uneven surface area around the front and sides and across the top of the seat. As I was looking for some more plastic I picked up a piece of the self adhesive foam and it was exactly the thickness I needed and it covered all the uneven areas and is a perfect backing for the leather. So, here is the seat assembled with the foam on it and minus the finish leather for now. Backing panels of plastic card on the leather covered balsa wood. Mounted with the foam wrapped on the seat Just waiting for some leather to cover it and finish it off A couple of in the car shots Funny how the black foam kind of makes the seat disappear in the car 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Beautiful leather work Wayne. In the third and fourth snaps from the bottom; I'm not familiar enough with the 1:1 Benz seats to make this suggestion. But were it me, (and if it's not too late) I'd shim the pleat sections up to match the seating plane of the bolsters. That would require a small trimming on one of them (upper or lower) to fit within the bolsters. Clear as mud? Am I clueless or just a PIA?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 Funny that you should mention that, I was looking at it myself, and decided to cut out the plastic card underneath the upper bolsters to bring them back closer to the pleats. When I was looking at the pictures last night I thought that they somehow got too far out away from the pleats. I did cut away two pieces of card but, no pictures at the moment and I just made the adjustment without taking any. Today, I'm playing around with the door trim across the top outer edge trying to decide whether or not to roll the leather over and put a thin piece of solder as an under wire or just do a clean cut and glue the leather to the door and use piping to finish the edge. I'm afraid that the rolled edge will be too thick. I'm also running a bit low on leather so. I'm a little hesitant to waste any with another wrong move. I have more leather on the way but, I'm not sure it will be an exact match because the dye lots will be different even though it's the same color. I guess I need to parcel out the leather for the remaining pieces I need to make and see if I can risk making an extra piece or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 Funny that you should mention that, I was looking at it myself, and decided to cut out the plastic card underneath the upper bolsters to bring them back closer to the pleats. When I was looking at the pictures last night I thought that they somehow got too far out away from the pleats. I did cut away two pieces of card but, no pictures at the moment and I just made the adjustment without taking any. Today, I'm playing around with the door trim across the top outer edge trying to decide whether or not to roll the leather over and put a thin piece of solder as an under wire or just do a clean cut and glue the leather to the door and use piping to finish the edge. I'm afraid that the rolled edge will be too thick. I'm also running a bit low on leather so. I'm a little hesitant to waste any with another wrong move. I have more leather on the way but, I'm not sure it will be an exact match because the dye lots will be different even though it's the same color. I guess I need to parcel out the leather for the remaining pieces I need to make and see if I can risk making an extra piece or two. Glad you saw it that way too. About the possible leather mis-match, I'd use one type on the doors, other seats. Least you're not piecing two together on the same area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 2, 2016 Author Share Posted February 2, 2016 Yea, well it wasn't supposed to be that pronounced, I was trying to keep them close to the same level and that's why I went with the thin foam padding. As I went along I kind of overlooked what I was doing by trying to get everything on the card and then adding more card to the back of the bolsters thing s just sort of built up. Then I looked and realized what had happened and I woke up this morning knowing that, that was the first thing I needed to correct. So, out came the razor saw and I removed two layers of plastic on the upper. I still haven't dealt with the bottom bolsters but, I will. I just got side tracked with the doors. Tomorrow, I'm going back to the seat and make the corrections and finish the leather on it before I get side tracked on the doors again. That, actually happened when I set the seat in the car and it was now slightly too wide and I had to make a correction there and the left door was not closing properly and I saw the problem after I put the car back in the jig. So, I pulled the door off and sanded down a spot that was interfering with the closing and then I went on to the trim and forgot about the seat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Here's a quick update. I went back to the seat and after fixing the upper bolsters I wound up having to cut the plastic underneath the the lower bolsters off as well. Once, I did that, then the there was a fit problem which, required them to be a bit narrower in depth. My first thought, was to cut back what I had and trim off some of the balsa wood underneath. That, was good in theory but, I cut too much off and it wasn't fitting well anyway so, I had to make two new ones and cover them in leather. That was the bad news but, on the up side I'm getting the hang of trimming the leather for corners. I peeled the foam off of everything around the edge of the seat except the upper seat back. The residual stickiness, of the adhesive, was perfect to stick the leather to so, another bad news good news thing. I know as it stands now, this seat is not perfect but, hopefully with the piping it will all come together and I can move on. This is my first time doing upholstery and it has taken me longer than others and again, it is not perfect but, it has definitely been a learning experience. Anyway, I decided to take a couple of pictures of the seat even though it's not finished. It still needs all the piping and some trim work here and there but, you'll get the idea here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouln Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Looks even better now that you thinned the bolster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 Thanks Poul, I'm continuing to tweak the seat. Tonight I ripped the leather off of the top of the seat because the bolsters were sticking up too high instead of butting up to the seat top. More leather gone and I can definitely say that there is not enough leather to do the doors. At this point, I'm just going to finish the seat and wait for my new leather to show up and hopefully it will be a close enough match that it won't be too noticeable of a difference. This self adhesive foam is great when when you put it on the first time and is easy to work with. However, if and when you have to pull it off to redo something it becomes a sticky dirty mess. The leather on the seat is dirty and kind of a mess; I'm going to have to get my car seat leather cleaner and clean the "upholstery" before I can finish the seat. I laid out the new upper piece but I was getting frustrated and I knew that if I didn't just stop I was going to wind up throwing it up against a wall. Better for me to just walk away and come back to it when I'm in a better frame of mind. It kind of makes me wish I was back on the paint again, at least there I knew what I was doing. I will eventually get this thing right even if I have to go through another complete hide of leather. I'm even thinking about making a pair of new seats just for the heck of it. As you guys can probably tell I'm not happy with the seat at this point. Well, as they say, tomorrow is another day and maybe after it gets cleaned and trimmed and the piping gets added it might look better. I hate upholstery!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouln Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 I can imagine though that it is frustrating to put so much time and material in the seats and then still not being happy with the results. Get a good rest and I'm pretty sure that you will get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpfiend Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Really nice work on the seat upholstery Wayne, I am definitely taking notes here, this will be a steep learning curve for me and is looming fast on my build. Keep up the good work. Regards Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Hope you found enough re-charge in your batteries to jump back here again. The boys are hanging on your every word / picture. Plus I'm suffering withdrawal from no RR work and now this Roadster. And no more talk about throwing things at walls!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 7, 2016 Author Share Posted February 7, 2016 OK, I'm on the home stretch with this seat. The piping is not perfect but, it does cover a number of problem areas which, I guess is what it's for. The other area I was having a problem with from a visual standpoint was the lower part of the seat being all leather. I felt that it needed a border of carpet to shorten it some. I know that I still have some spots on the leather that didn't come out with the cleaner. As a matter of fact when I applied the leather cleaner on the upper right bolster it turned so dark that I didn't I was ever going to get it light colored again. It was really weird because that was the only piece that it happened. I think I have some other leather cleaner that I will try and spot clean the spots with and failing that, I'll just have to live with it and call it weathered. I still need to add the piping under the upper bolsters and one or two other short pieces. I've decided that I'm going to add a piece of chrome strip as a divider around the seat bottom between the carpet and leather to dress it up a bit. I also have the chrome seat brackets to add on each side of seat bottom and back. I managed to survive the seat now, on to the next section as soon as the new leather gets here. I want to wait on doing the dash until I make sure the doors will match the dash because they will actually join up at the top of the doors and upper dash so, they have to match. So, even though it's not complete it's almost there as the pictures show. And, I'm really happy with the match of the leather, piping and carpet which, all came from different vendors; I got lucky with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpfiend Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Very nice Wayne, it all work very well together. Best Regards Keith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouln Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Looking good, Wayne. Good that you didn't smash it against the wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Spectacular save Wayne. Possible help; to lighten the dark area stained by cleaner, gently buff with 4-0 steel wool or worn gray scuff pad. Of course TEST on a scrap by cleaning first to see if it darkens, then try this method. You can get luster back with clear boot polish. TEST is the operative word! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roymattblack Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Love those seats!!! Fingers crossed with the leather colour match for the other bits but I have no doubt you'll work wonders anyway. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 Thanks for your kind comments guys. Our poor cat passed away on Sunday so, it's been a little sad around here since. I haven't done much over the last couple of days other than to finish the piping, I think. I still haven't cleaned the leather yet but, I don't anticipate it will be too difficult. I took a piece of 3/32" brass and bent it around the base of the seat between the carpet and leather and it is exactly the look I want. I will need to make it silver though; I kind of like the brass and if I don't use the seat brackets which at this point I think are wrong for this seat, I might polish it up and leave it brass. Problem is everything else is chrome. Decisions, decisions. Bracket doesn't look right. If I had split the seat into back and bottom then it would be appropriate but, not in this case. The brass piece is just sitting on there for a mock up, it's not attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 Not much to report today, I was busy with other things but, I did manage to get the steering wheel painted. I still haven't cleaned the seat leather yet but, hopefully tomorrow things will calm down and I can get more done. This is the MMC steering wheel for the Mercedes with the various pieces here on the dirty seat. I think I'm going to pull off the piping across the seat top and run a single piece and get rid of the gap in the center. Nothing is perfect and especially when photographed up close; you really see the warts. There are some things that you can get away with depending on where they are in the car but, this isn't one of them. A couple of pictures in the car. I was lucky to find the perfect cream to match the interior for the steering wheel color. Most all the wheels are black or white but, hey this is a custom coach built car! If I stick to long range shots I look like a genius otherwise, I'm just as human as the rest. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouln Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 I love what you show us. The cream wheel is very fitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjfk2002 Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 Wow! I know it was a long slog for you with those seats but man do they look good. The cream leather and black body combo is striking. The brass band is a nice touch too. Hopefully if you choose a chrome band instead it is easier to don't then the leather/piping/paint ordeal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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