MTFCA Forum

What do I do with all the extra material in the corners? It’s like its two panels too many.

It has been a long time since I did a 23 seat. If I remember, those corners are a head scratcher. I may have done mine 3 times to get it right before I drove in all the tacks. Hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like you tucked the upholstery into the side of the seat back springs. There needs to be more cotton and whatever is being used as an alternative to horse hair to transition from seat spring to side wall. You should not be able to tell where the springs end. You may need to pull the tacks out of the side / arm rest and pull the arm rest upholstery more toward the door to take out that big pocket between the springs and sides.

I have the last button at the door opening now. It seems to be at least two pleats too long.

Don,

I feel your pain. I just finished my '23 touring. Spent the winter trying to get it right. I have done the upholstery on a '28 Tudor, '22 Center door and this Touring car was by far the hardest. I thought it would be easier when it was warmer. But I don't know if that would have helped or not. Kept my shop at 65 degrees,
Anyway, see picture and where the last button by the door ended up. Also, after you get that done, look at how we ended the material at the door. We looked at every picture we could and came up with the pleats like shown. Everyone seemed to do it different.





Good luck!

In the corners, dont follow the sewed pleats. Where they come together, the back seat section has extra material that gets folded under. Do some try fits. A bit of extra padding gets stuffed in to fill the corner material for better appearance. You do work from the door edges towards the centered back section & adjust where they meet. All this should have been pointed out in the instructions.
These kits are like a fits all format. A real upholstery guy would make the pleating translon neatly in his custom fit cover. These kit jobs dont look like an upholstered couch you are used to seeing
My first was a Carter cut & cover. Known for the worst instruction sheets.

Riches job looks better than typical. Very nice job.

I am attempting ro send a picture of my upholstery.
This is my first attempt at sending one on this site

Art Mirtes

My attemy didn't work. Will try again later. My rear seat backrest is original to the car. A 1923 touring.

Art Mirtes

Speedytinc, so do I fold it under in the corners? I’ve done several before, 17 touring, 27 touring and a few 20’s roadsters. I have never had this much excess material.

On mine it was needed. The folded edge was bare material. When folded it looked like a matching pleat.
Try different amounts of folded/tucked under material . Hold in place for the best idea of the final appearance.
Stuff extra material as needed to get a puffer fill. All before tacking down.

Hi Don,
You should have stretched the cover out to the sides to pull out the fullness and wrinkles. In the corners, you pull out a button or 2 and then lay the cover into the corner and stretch to the top. You can tuck any fullness into the pleats, and then when it's laying nicely, you reinstall the button or 2 to hold the cover in that position. When going around the sides of the backrest, stretch it out as you go and then when you tack your end caps trim off the extra material. The extra material on the backrest is there so people can make their backrests as full as they want and also so you have something to hold on to when you're installing the cover.

Mike Francis
Classtique Upholstery

Thanks Mike, I’ll give it a try

If anyone has pictures it would be a big help, thanks