It turned out that the old leather upholstery backs I planned to use in my '14 would not fit. It is a shame as they would have looked great.

Plan #2 is to do it in vinyl and distress it to look as "Used" as the rest of the car. I dug around and found I have enough vinyl and buttons to do one more car. I laid out the corner using canvas and foam. That is the tricky part.





The buttons I have are nickel plated so I scuff them and dip them in black enamel. In the 80's when I was upholstering my Yellowstone Bus I had trouble finding any of these pronged buttons. None of the upholsterers could find them. One old fellow was looking for the pieces for me to make the covered ones you tie with string and stumbled over a box with 5 Gross of them. I didn't need the whole box but he said "take it." so I did. By 2013 I had used 700 of them on projects and worried about running out. I managed to buy the last box a Salt Lake distributor had. Still nickel plated. The folks that make kits find them somewhere but I don't see them on the internet. I'm glad I have some left.



I'm not an upholsterer. Just a car guy getting by but I go through a lot of stuff. Another upholsterer chuckled at me when I tried to buy a "whole" spool of black thread. The picture above shows I am on my second one of those.

I have found that buying vinyl by the roll or steel by the 20' length or screws by the box of 100 allows me to have stuff on hand when I need it,

I will use horse hair for the padding in this project. Two boxes found their way into my shop some years ago. Then the new upholstery shop across the fence saved me some. They have been some great friends after a couple T rides. I will use a respirator and rubber gloves has I have allergies when it comes to horses and several other animals. I'll report on the progress if I survive.

Rich

Richard you might want to look at some of the stuff these guy's have
www.diyupholsterysupply.com/

Thanks G. R. I hope they are still around when I need more.
Rich

I found the buttons with the metal tabs on eBay. They were a dollar each, so I used the old ones from the 09, just paint black, as Richard did.....

Acco fasteners has buttons with tabs up to 4" long. I couldn't see what the head diameter for the ACC was. Do you think they would do the job ?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00276209O/ref=asc_df_B001UHU66U5163517/?tag=hyprod-20 &creative=394997&creativeASIN=B001UHU66U&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167141251907&hvpos= 1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3645754264047285418&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl= &hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031726&hvtargid=pla-275354309504&th=1

Dick, I think those are what we used in grade school to fasten papers together. The DIY Co. ones are 9/16". My 1/2" Handy Co. ones measure .585" and the originals from my mystery seat measure .570". 2 1/2" long Handy and 1" long original. The ones I have seen in T upholstery are like the old ones here.
Someone will surely ask "Why don't you make some Rich?" I did by wrapping sheet metal prongs around a wire pin and forming the head with bondo. It worked great for a mock-up. They don't see a lot of stress.

Keith Townsend, I know you did some of this work. fascinating stuff trying to make it like it was.

Rich, if you need more horse hair, let me know. ; )
"Curled hair" should be processed enough that it shouldn't raise your allergy - I HOPE !!!

You might be amused to learn that the ponies have allergies too. Used a synthetic material cinch one time, caused my paint horse to break out in welts called a "cinch edema". Mohair is best !

Rich, I fear ponies might be allergic to me. I have a horse hair shop brush that gives me some itching if I brush saw dust from my arm. I'm just being prepared. I have some Benadryl and my Epipen handy.

I don't feel so bad now... i didn't know they would be so hard to get a hold of. I went into JoAnn's (sp??) Looking for them along with naugahyde... no buttons and came out with vinyl. I ended up using the origin so buttons (well...nnoriginal to the LAST re-work, anyway... probably in the 50's. The buttons were red. I used fingernail polish. Shoulda dipped 'em.

Whatever hair you get, make sure it is sterilized. I know of an outfit that sent a piece of furniture out for some conservation work. A few weeks after it returned and was placed on display, some of the staff noticed it was lumpy. They found some sort of larvae had hatched underneath the fabric. I think they determined the upholsterer had used locally sourced hair. Created a big problem. Now nothing comes into the place without first going through a freeze cycle.

I have heard of things living in the horse hair. It is a concern but nothing has showed up yet.

Things can, in fact, live in horse hair. A friend of mind had some horse hair that turned out to have a horse living in it.

My horse hair has a 32 year old horse living in it! If yuou need more Richard let me know. He cant live past 40 or 45. I will be stocked up on hair and glue then.

I checked my supply of horse hair and found no horses amongst it. I have fought the project with no allergic problems for 2 days now. Like many tasks I wonder what I have got myself into. I have a lot of respect for those who can upholster. With a lot more practice I could become mediocre.
Rich

Rich, you have done beautiful work in the past, this will turn out the equal of any you've done before, and likely even better. I usually feel like I've got the hang of a seldom used process about the time I've finished. That just proves I should start at the end rather than the beginning ! ; )

Perseverance should bring improvement. I'm glad the final result needs to look used as the lumps are not coming out. There is lots of pulling and stretching. It is a good workout.
New techniques are fun to try but I'm glad I didn't try this on some of the better cars.

I ended up getting my 5 gross of prong buttons from C & C Metal Products. They are in New Jersey.

I painted mine just like Richard did.



https://www.ccmetal.com/products/upholstery-buttons-supplies/

Don't worry about getting 5 gross of them. It is enough for about three touring cars. People will come out of the woodwork when they find out you have them. I had no problems selling my extras.



: ^ )

Keith

Mike Francis gets them from C&C metal products too, and I believe he gets them in black. Keith is correct, you have to buy 5 gross, and that doesn't include the washers! I used to buy these at a local upholstery supply, and they did come with the washers then, and the buttons were brass plated, and I had to paint them black as above.

Installing buttons today. I chose canvas backing. That is what my non-Ford sample had. I've used Burlap too and like it.





The joke is on me. Now I see I have installed one button under the vinyl.