Upholstery

[Knock-on]

Can't find much on the forum about finishing off the Upholstery. I'm thinking about making a Carbon Fibre piping by wrapping it around a wire. Does this need to be stitched to the carpet or can I fix it onto the car with adhesive first and then glue the carpet onto it afterwards. Has anyone done this?

 

The bit I'm trying to do is the top of the Tunnel and I don't fancy getting it as neat as I want by stitching.

[Guest Ian Maycock]

You can buy piping from the likes of Wollies. I got mine from there. They do many different colours. I have reupholstered mine and I stitched the piping to the carpet with my mothers sewing machine. It will be nice and neat. I used carpet adhesive, the spray type. The carpet I got from mega van mats. Good carpet and good value. The carpet is sold in widths that is enough to cover the rear bulkhead in one piece. HTH?

[Knock-on]

Ive done cars before and have a nice bundle of black hard wearing campervan carpet ready to go in so am happy with that.

 

However, Ive never used upholstery piping before. Wollies are lovely but they can do without my hard earned folding stuff Piping is easy as it's just a wire pr pipe at the end of the day wrapprd with a material. In this case, I'm thinking of using CF body wrap to make it.

 

The bit I'm trying to avoid is the stitching of the piping to the cloth bit as it's going around some tricky corners and trying to get it to match up on both sides of the Tunnel a bit tricky, especially when I will have to do the stitching by hand as I have no machine. That's why I'm wondering if you can just glue the piping to the tunnel and but the upholstery cloth up to it. Will it last like this does anyone think? Cant see any reason it shouldnt?

[agent_zed]

I think the only problem you might get is if your tunnel top edge is rounded, as the last bit won't have anything to glue to if you see what i mean so it may flap or pull away.

 

Tricky always used to cover the tunnel top panel in vinyl and sit that down over the edges of the carpet on the side of the tunnel. That holds everything in nicely then with no edges showing. You can then also pad the tunnel top with some foam/camping mat.

[nigelt]

Having bought my kit a long time ago, do GBS not supply the carpeting anymore with the kit? My carpet could be heated with an iron (the backing that is!) and then molded into shape. So it fits nicely over the rounded edges of the tunnel and stays that way.

[Knock-on]

Hi Nige

 

That's a good tip. I'm crap at upholstery so looking to for ideas. I normally go for quite a minimalist interior but want to get a nice bit of piping down the tunnel this time. I suppose if I get a real tight fit first, I could stitch it to the cloth but my idea sounds good and I wondered if anyone else had done it?

[fry61]

Glue ( bond ) tunnel side carpet in place with a little over the top onto the chassis tubes --- then make a top cover from ply/oil tempered hardboard with carpet glued (bonded ) to top & returned underneath -- fix top cover in place with Velcro ( self-adhesive backed)

 

No fixings or edges showing & no needle-work.

[Shaft]

A friends wife made my tunnel top piping for me.

Basically some orange leatherette (Carbon vinyl in your case) and wrapped that around the plastic rod leaving a good 2" of flat tail.

you can either stitch down the edge of the piping to fix it or glue the material to itself.

The large flat tails then give a large fixing area to eithe rglue to your tunnel tubes / tunnel sides or Carpet.

 

HTH,

 

Nick.

[Knock-on]

That's what I was thinking Nick. If you make the Tunnel and glue the piping in place, you can get it exactly where you want it right on the edge and it can never move. Then just butt the carpet up to the piping and glue.

 

I like simples

 

Next problem is filling holes in stainless sheet so there's no crease in the wrap. Go him

[fry61]

Avoid contact adhesive --- the sun will soften it & dirty marks will ouse out. It's the pain with Florin's soft bits.

[Knock-on]

I was going to use double sided Carpet tape. Nice and neat

 

Spray carpet adhesive around any intricate bits.