IML: Leather seats in your Imperial

["Kate Triplett" <ad_ablurr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<SNIP>From: "Chad & Teresa Smith"
Subject: IML: Question about Leather interiors
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 11:46:15 -0700
Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok:

All of you out there who have put a leather interior, preferably in a 1955,
can you please tell me how many hides to do the entire interior, including
the door panels, and possibly the headliner (I have seen a couple customs
with leather headliner, but don't know the pros and cons of this either)?  I
need to know how many hides that I need here.

Thanks in advance....

Teresa Smith <SNIP>

Teresa, there may be 40 square feet in a whole hide for upholstery, but after trimming and waste you will be lucky to get out 30 per hide, and if there are shadings across or a runoff in weight, perhaps less than this much.  The neck and flank areas are often wrinkled and more stretchy, and the centers (backs, in the leather trade) are much heavier and less stretchy than the sides and bellies - even in good quality leathers that are split down to even weight (thickness). Matching hides is an art in itself! It's good practice to allow a third to half again above what your actual yardage is, especially if you are using a grained leather, which will have a direction just as napped fabrics do.

I'd be a little leery of leather in a headliner - it's heavy, and if it shrinks after you stretch it on smooth, it could pull apart your entire overhead! JMHO, you understand.

Best of luck in your project, I'd love to see it!
Kate

Kate Justet Triplett
Kate's Custom Gunleather
Monroe, Washington
Proud mother of a soldier
and owner of  "Lucille" 1968 Crown 


-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm