For almost 20 yrs., I've been having my upholstery work done by the same shop near me, an old school father and son operation. The dad passed away a couple years ago and his son has been soldiering on by himself, getting it done but the strain has been obvious. I saw him a month or so ago and he looked really rough and beat down, never seen him so low.... Stopped in on Monday to finalize plans for the Packard and the shop was closed, note on the door put me onto his brother and found out the bad news... he goes for surgery tomorrow for a brain tumor. Heartbreaking news of a friend, he's well known and liked in the community so it's a real blow. Hoping he'll pull through, they have the best neurosurgeon on the job, he's a big strong guy so everyone is hopeful for a positive outcome....
So in light of this, I'm sure not going to be selfish and put my needs above his health, time to go Plan B and find another shop to do the job. Well, rude awakening time, anyone who is good has a long waiting list and prices are DOUBLE what I had been paying! You don't know how good you've got it until the rug gets pulled out from under you.
OK, maybe Plan C .... After seeing how Dozer did his own seats on his Fast Four build, I got to thinking and scouting around for a sewing machine. Picked this one up today for 500 from a Craigslist ad, just a 1/2 hr drive away from me. I already have all the material and carpet, going for a very stock look to the interior, all wool materials from England. All the flat panels are pretty simple but I may have to farm out the seats and headliner, just not so confident that I can pull those things off. Lots of stuff to do before diving into it, so I'll try to brain up on sewing and upholstery tech and practice on some scrap material. 'Course, I'll need other things like air stapler/tacker and other upholstery related tools........
This is a stock door panel, I'm going to copy it pretty much, and the colors are almost the same. Looks simple enough, right?? What could possibly go wrong?
