World Upholstery Pictures

[spidernut]

I finished changing my interior over from red to tan today. I purchased the upholstery kit from World Upholstery. I received the order in about a week, but they sent the wrong kit (for the older style seats). I noticed that the colors were also mismatched. They sent some SEM vinyl paint that didn't match the upholstery.

They quickly (and with an apology) sent a replacement set for the proper year and sent the correct SEM vinyl paint. The color difference was due to a change in vinyl colors they had recently made. Upon receiving the kit, I found one headrest didn't fit right and one seat bottom was not even close to sewn correctly. I contacted them and they apologized and immediately sent the replacement parts.

The kit looks decent. It is nothing like what you'd expect from an upholstery shop and installer though. Part of the problem is that the kit is NOT apparently sewn from the factory patterns. The anchor points are significantly different and require more modification that I expected to get them to fit. I still have to make different anchors for the seat backs that won't anchor down due to flimsy plastic run along the bottom edge - again, nothing like the factory upholstery.

Other than having to modify all the anchor points, the kit was fairly easy to install. They provided the hog-ring pliers and hog-rings. The instructions provided were generic and relatively useless.

My door panels and arm rests in the pictures are from a parts car. I had removed the upholstery from the panels, made new hardboard backing panels, re-assembled them, added new piping around the edges and installed them. I also sprayed the center and upper consoles with vinyl paint and installed a new stereo. I also made a new carpet set from carpeting I got from Home Depot. I used the factory rubber floor mats to keep the stock look.







http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/spidernut/P2080065.jpg

It looks better than my old interior...here it is for comparison. The picture was taken before the vinyl completely dried out and started to crack and split at the seams.

[ventura ace]

You did a great job! It's good that both you and World Upholstery had patience to work through the problems. Kudos to you both.

Alvon

[sptcoupe]

Looks really super! I always get a kick when I see oine of the group take their car(s) to the next level!

[So Cal Mark]

after reading your text I was expecting a disaster, but it does look great. You did a nice job and I applaud you for working through some vendor issues. It's good to hear they dealt with issues promptly.

[htchevyii]

Looks Great!

[launieg]

I really like it! If I could achieve results that good, I would be really happy. Well done.

[Fiat88]

Looks great! I was thinking about painting my auto shift beige also, like you did. Will probably do that when I order a new beige dash to match.

[katsi]

Really cool . Great work . Can you elaborate on the carpet . I assume you just used your old carpet peices for a template but it looks as if you rounded the edges on the floor mats or put some sort of edging on them. How did you do this? Or am I seeing things?

[kmac33]

Great job on the interior. I am surprised with the issue you had with World Upholstery. The upholstery kit I ordered from them fit perfectly. Glad to hear they were responsive to fixing your issues.

[spidernut]

Regarding the carpet: when my interior was red, I had a carpet store bound the edges of the carpet. It was under $1 per linear foot to have it done. Made for a great result.

My tan interior carpet set was made from Shaw Luminary indoor outdoor carpet from Home Depot. It looks like a cornrow carpet with the ribs slightly farther apart. I used my original carpeting to make the red set and the current tan set. The tan set hasn't had the edges bound yet, but will in the near future. I kept the original rubber floor mats from my car (only 39,000 original miles and no wear on them) and will stitch them to the carpeting just as the originals were.

There were two types of edge binding that the carpet store would do. One is a fabric strip that is wrapped around the edge of the carpet and stitched on. It was exactly like the original carpet that came with my Spider. That's what I had done.

The second type is like what you'd see on an area rug in a home...they couldn't do that on the Spider carpets due to the tight curves. It wouldn't fit in the machine properly.

Regarding the fit, I looked at your pix and you have the 78 and older style seats. I loved the way the upholstery kit they sent me looked with the piping along the seams. Unfortunately, I have a 79. It's odd that they had such poor quality plastic sewn into the rim of the seats where it anchors down. The originals had a J channel that just slipped on. The World Upholstery set had a flimsy, 1/2 inch piece of milk-carton-like plastic along the bottom edge. I had to roll the fabric under three times just to take up the excessive amount of fabric along the edges. I, then, had to cut the plastic in two places since it wasn't sewn at the right angle from the front of the seat to the back edge of the seat. If I installed it as they sent it, it would simply slide right off every time I'd sit on it. The sides were at least 3 inches too long.

[surfingfreeman]

hey what's that strange looking "T-shaped" thingie where the stick shift usually goes?

[spidernut]

Dog-o-matic.