| Author | Message | ||
     Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.92 |
The last set of carpets I brought wherefore a 1973 Midget in flame red. Dark blue black carpets. The car looked decrepit. New carpets from coverDale Ltd at £45 (1999) and the car looked so good that I sold it no trouble in 10 mins. No talking just looking. Wilton carpets are the best carpets. But maybe a car is not the best place for walnut burr exquisitly crafted to compliment the luxurious Wilton carpet piped in contrasting Connolly hide, with dainty little carpet skirts around the seat pillars. Fading is easy to dye using cold water dye such as Dylon which is used for tie dye t shirts. Adding table salt helps the dye to penetrate. Follow instructions which is bath water dye and maybe salt. The leather piping will not accept the dye.To touch up piping felt tip pens. WH Smith's. Making carpets is easy but like most trim skills hard to do well. If using man made fibre carpet a way to stop the edges ragging before piping is to melt the edges. Piping on RR carpets has concealed stitching which is done by stitching the top first and then turning the Piping over the edge with piping cord inside. This is fiddly difficult but doable. Midget carpets are piped in thin nasty quick wearing plastic piping that last 3 years. ( hey what did you expect for 45 sobs). It is sown with stitches showing. This is easier and if desired the stitches can be a contrasting colour to hide that you could do the concealed one. domestic sowing machine will with help on the wheel sow carpet. Use Millwards needles change first sign of bluntness. Tried sharpening and it didn't work because I think the needles are coated at the tip. The carpets than poppers to locate them. The old ones will be scrap. The floor bits sit on aluminum spacers so the thick underlay has room. The central screw will be scrap after finally getting the s##s out. Mark where the holes are with chalk because they are small holes and there may be other screw holes for other things. If buying ready made rather than roll your own most makers sell poppers and underlay and those little push button catches for the tear light access panel Mine fell off and I lost one. CoverDale carpets limited have original patterns for most RRs and the colours they are not cheap but quality is good. Also sell other trim stuff. My carpets are wedgewood blue piped in marine vinyl using simulated "Wilton" marine grade carpet. They looked right but don't feel like Wilton. The door carpet bits are hard to change if these are bad then I know no way of fixing with out taking the leather off the door card. However using a clean wire brush the carpet can be combed to get the pile up and then spray with an aerosol. To make the skirts around the seat pillars instead of cord in the Piping use thick wire so that the skirt can be bent round the pillar. The kick panels in the foot wells instead carpet remake in vinyl. This is never noticed and most will think they are meant to be like that. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 619 Registered: 1-2008 |
To my mind the original carpets are a triumph of form over function. Lamb's wool? Are you kidding? Especially in the driver's footwell these are more of a liability than an advantage. Every time you get in the car with wet shoes the water will soak straight through them into the underlay where it will be held against the floor for days or even weeks. Your only option is to have your chauffeur remove them every week in wet weather to air off in warm, well ventilated room. Don't have a chauffeur? Take the original carpets out to store them for when/if you decide to sell the car and replace them with a cheaper, synthetic carpet for your own use until then. | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.88 |
I think modern car maker think the same. And over the years have weaned the buyers off wood and Wilton. Leather fine. RR trim is very clever because it is lovely and when you take it apart so simply made. Which makes it diy friendly. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 623 Registered: 1-2008 |
This thread has reminded me of one of my dreams last night. Someone was showing me how to restitch leather seating with hidden stitching done from the 'wrong' side! The idea must have stayed in my ... mind ... looking for a solution to the damage to my leather 3-piece suite. Fortunately the Shadow doesn't have that problem. | ||
| Bob Reynolds Prolific User Username: bobreynolds Post Number: 144 Registered: 8-2012 |
There was a time when only Rolls-Royces had leather seats. Now every car seems to have them. I bought 2 Minis recently and both had leather seats, it was difficult to find a Mini without leather seats! Leather seats in a Mini (or any family car for that matter) would have been unheard of a decade or so ago. Has leather become cheap or something? | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 979 Registered: 6-2009 |
Bob R, I don't think leather has become cheap so much as has "become expected." I have to go back as far as my 1990 Chrysler Lebaron convertible to hit a car I've owned that didn't have either full leather or leather-faced seats. The '96 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon, a family car if ever there was one, has them as did my Chrysler Sebring convertible. The only cars I see these days that don't have leather as the most common interior material are the entry level models from the mass manufacturers. Even a number of those end up having leather ordered as an option by the dealers. I've had vinyl (black vinyl, on one) interiors and absolutely despised the stuff. I had many cars with cloth interiors, and actually liked some of those much better than leather (before the trend of "velour-ing" most car interior fabrics). Leather, like natural wood, is not an ideal material for what car interiors have to stand up to over the long term (for those of us who keep 'em over the long term). Brian | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.79 |
I have to have leather because I am a messy bugger. Plastic piping on carpets is better than leather. The rest is fine. As Jan said the underlay is bound to get damp. Unless the car is only used on nice days. The carpets could be taken out and keep indoors and then fitted when the car is needed I.suppose. Best solution is marine grade. My originals were smelly tatters with something living in it. (Message approved by david_gore) |
