MTFCA Forum

I am going to start work on the seats for my speedster. I want to use a period style synthetic leather, but I am not sure what would be the best choice for durability and authenticity. What have people used?

For durability I would use leather. I did upholstery on collector cars for 30 years, or so. Vinyl looks good when new but does not hold up as well as leather does, and does not feel as good on hot or cold days. The extra cost should be quite small but the quality difference will be large.

Leather is the way to go, but, in an open speedster sublject to the vagaries of weather, vinyl may be more practical. You cam wipe it down to dry it, whereas leather will absorb water and take more time to dry out.

Allan from down under.

If you are looking to use a vinyl, I would recommend the Model T Grain Black Leatherette/Vinyl. We sell it at Classtique Upholstery. You can see it at https://www.classtiqueupholstery.com/in ... yard-goods

Mike Francis
Classtique Upholstery

When I built my Racer 30 + years ago, my upholster imported RED Scottish aircraft leather that I had picked out - the Racer has no doors so one needs to jump in on the seat - still looks new !

Leather would be nice, but, the T was an economy car, so the fake leather is more appropriate.

Early T's had real leather upholstery Morgan - an era appearing speedster most likely would have been at the least leather seats.

I have a "leather looking" vinyl material on my speedster seats. I have never regretted it. Seems every time I take it out for a tour, there is at least one day of torrential rain. The seats still look like new after 20 years or more. My approach was to ask the advice of the guy who did my upholstery. He had samples to look through and excellent advice. You already have, above, the advice of a known, excellent upholsterer.

The seats are entirely custom and I will be doing the upholstery myself using traditional methods. In part this is because I live in Alaska so finding someone to do it would be tough. But, the other part is because I want to do it myself (as I have done with the rest of the car). I think there would be less risk/cost in doing it in a faux leather. As I mentioned, there is historic precedent as faux leathers were widely used in cars in the US and Europe during the 1920s. In any case, the question is what is a good, modernly available material.

Black colonial grain cloth backed vinyl would be appropriate for your project. You can buy the material by the yard from Clastique. They aso have a nice selection of trim, snaps, and fasteners.

Suede or vinyl, marine vinyl being a good outdoor choice, from a fabrics store would be a win especially if you are going to do it yourself. I have brought materials from our local Joanns Fabrics here, and with a screenshot of their coupon, got up to 50% off many times.
If you need foam cushioning, I have made cushions from foam couch bottoms found on the side of the road. Use an expanding zipknife to cut it and form it, and Home Depot contact adhesive spray to join the pieces. It holds up in hot weather, the expensive 3M stuff gave out in no time.