Some upholster practice

[T_Raven]

Well I guess this is a good place to post this.
I'm still in Iraq and can't work on my vehicles so I found me a little project. I pulled this awesome chair out of the dump


Here it is after a few hours or tearing it apart



It was pretty nasty, full of mouse poo and pee, but I think it'll be sweet when I'm done.



I'm going to put some wheels on it and use it for my office chair lol

[T_Raven]

I ordered some black vinyl and some red perforated vinyl for the center's of the cushions. I think I'll try to add a little of the red to the arm rests or sides somewhere too. This is some pretty nice stuff and it was only like $6 a yard. I got it from www.perfectfit.com I don't think I bought enough black so I might use some aluminum on the front or the sides.



I searched ebay for a good deal on a used sewing machine but found this cheap little thing and thought I'd give it a try lol


It really isn't too bad for a tiny, cheap sewing machine but the dang bobbin holder won't stay put so it's not working very well. Plus there's not much tension on the thread when it does run a good stitch so I've been stitching up the cover for the bottom cushion by hand.

[T_Raven]

Well it took me a few hours to do it by hand but I finished the front part of the bottom cover


You can see there that the red is perforated. I was able to make nice tight stitches but it sure is hard to make a straight line by hand lol. It looks pretty cool so far though

[Memphis]

That is pretty cool, do you have pics of what the inside of it looks like?

[T_Raven]

uhh....inside where? lol, I've still got everything I took off, I'll take some pics of all the nastyness and what little progress I've made. Stitching by hand is slooooow

[Ash]

That's a pretty neat project you have there. Everyone will be fighting for it when your not in the office.

I love this site.....from Sema car builds to salvaging a chair found in the dump.

[Memphis]

Inside the bottom cover lol.

[2ndgenhunter]

Wanna do my seats when ya get home? Lol

[T_Raven]

I just might lol. I like to do it all and hope to one day run a little shop doing all kinds of custom work so that's one of the reasons I do stuff like this chair for practice.

Here's the back of the frame. I wish I had a tig and some mandrel bent exhaust peices, I'd do away with the wood and make a tube "chassis" for it haha. We've only got a stick welder, but I could gas weld it with our torch and make it look pretty cool. I'll have to go see what I can find that would look good.


Here's the rest of what I took off. I was originally going to unstitch it and use it as a pattern but I think I'll change the design a bit and just measure and fit some stuff and see what happens


On the back of this arm cushion you can see where the mice were in it. I should've taken more while I was disassembling it to show all the poo and whatnot in it lol. I'm surprised there wasn't a mouse


Here is my bottom cushion cover just about done. I didn't order any badding so I bought new pillows and I'll use the stuff out of my old ones to go between the cover and the original foam to round it all out a bit


I'm gonna look for some colored pencils and see if I can make up a rendering. Heck if I can find a lawn mower engine and a few other things I'll have to move this to the project updates section and have me a fully streetable office chair.

There is a shot up Suburban in the dump with an 8.1L in it.......

[T_Raven]

Well I finished the bottom cushion and test fit it, and started with the cover for the back cushion


His my 6'1" arse checking the comfort level, gives you an idea how big the chair is

[T_Raven]

I've been a little disappointed in how it's turning out. It's not quite how I pictured it. Maybe I should've gone with black perforated where I put the red. I guess if I don't like it when I'm done I'll spray it all with some black vinyl die.

I stapled the left over red to the sides. The front, arm rests and around the back will be black. I think I'll put some black rubber around the bottom 5 or 6 inches also

[TPI Monte SS]

Pretty cool man, it's a great way to keep your skills up!!

[T_Raven]

Thanks man, I'm headed home on leave in a few days so I'm getting impatient and just stapling stuff on lol. It still looks alright though. I think I'll put it in my room rather than my office. Give me a nice comfy place to chill for the very short time I'm actually in my room (we work 84 hrs/wk)