Hey guys, has anyone here had custom seat covers made in the past few years? I need a ballpark estimate of what doing two fiberglass Speedster seats should cost—labor only.
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Not cheap I had an estimate of $250 plus materials by the time you pasy that you can order them complete . I use these on sale at CIP! $190 each with free shipping .......... I just ordered a set for Project #47
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...ductCode=C13-62-2880
C13-62-2880 - EMPI - LOW BACK ROADSTER STYLE SEAT - SOLID BLACK VINYL - UNIVERSAL FIT - BRACKET NOT INCLUDED - SOLD EACH - (A30)
I don't know if it's a fair price because I haven't shopped around and it was with materials but a local upholsterer wanted $2,000 to do my seats in marine quality vinyl. I bought a dye kit for $100 and just refinished them myself.
Terry Nuckels posted:I don't know if it's a fair price because I haven't shopped around and it was with materials but a local upholsterer wanted $2,000 to do my seats in marine quality vinyl. I bought a dye kit for $100 and just refinished them myself.
$2000? He must have thought you were driving a real 356
Geez! I'd want two large.....heck , make it three large too. Of course that's ridiculous, but I'd want it.
WNGD posted:Terry Nuckels posted:I don't know if it's a fair price because I haven't shopped around and it was with materials but a local upholsterer wanted $2,000 to do my seats in marine quality vinyl. I bought a dye kit for $100 and just refinished them myself.
$2000? He must have thought you were driving a real 356
I don't know, Kevin Hines recently posted 2 seats for sale for $2k. Granted, that included the shells as well but he was looking to unload them because of a customer change. Man, I wish I knew how to do upholstery.
Somehow that just seems outlandish to me, but oh well!
Like any supplier to the hobbiest, they see you coming.
You can get a couch reupholstered for less .... but I had a motorcycle seat re-foamed and covered in two toned pleather for a couple hundred bucks. Go to a marine upholsterer in the off-season, they are a lot more reasonable and have tons of samples and do quality work.
For comparison. Here is a quote for new front seats and redoing the the rears.
Attachments
That's it! I'm going to upholsterer's school.
"Panhandle Bob's Auto Upholstery, Realty and Pizza Shop"
Yes, I think that would be a very cool Artisan trade to be in. Bob, I need your new phone number. Send me a PM please.
Never had an upholstered pizza before...
Thanks guys. To be clear, I have the seats, which are already upholstered and perfectly serviceable—but not 550-like enough for this particular build. And I have the material to correct this; I just want the labor. Figuring it's about 10-12 hours labor to do them both I budgeted $250 a seat. I brought them to the dude who did Bridget's door cards a few years back and his estimate was $1400, making me believe he is not my friend/doesn't want the job. But I don't know what I don't know. All I know is my wife's sewing machine will not work marine or automotive vinyl, and that's, as they say, final.
I'll bid the job out to a few other shops and report back.
I used Ed Secrest's upholstery in Chambersburg PA $76 per hour.
I'll look them up. Thanks.
It'd take 2 days to do 2 custom seats. That's 16 hrs. Shop rates are almost always $100/hr. That's $1600 in labor.
I'm telling you, what Vintage Speedsters did all those years was nothing short of a miracle.
For reference, 10 years ago (or so), I bought two Fibersteel seats for my car, fully upholstered in leather with square-weave backs. I had to give a bit more than Carey was asking for his seats, then pay for shipping. There's nothing cheap about custom work.
Old Playboy cartoon from the '60's:
Picture shows 3 guys, 2 of whom had been in a fight, with one standing, one knocked out on the ground. The third guy says to the winner of the fight:
"Hey, kid, you got great hands, and you're light on your feet. How'd you like to be an upholsterer?"
I had 2 seats done over completely right from the fiberglass shells by people at the airport in Hyannis. They do custom interiors for the private planes there and do very nice work. I had them put extra foam in the lumbar and leg bolsters in a tan vinyl . They came out very nice and quite comfortable. I paid $750.00 and at the time I thought it was a little steep. Maybe not so bad after all.
Shu's wife is talented with a sewing maching but apparently to sew heavy vinyl and leather you need an industrial 'walking foot" sewing maching - about a $1k investment. I would have thought $4-500 but I'm stuck in the 70's.
Thanks, all. Looks like another fine job by Eddie The Underestimator. I'll see what the other shops think of the job and go from there.
I'm currently in the same boat with regards to a top. I'm having difficulty finding someone who even wants to do the work.
I've decided to design my own special Spyder top. It will be very compact to store, but give us decent weather and engine sound protection. At this point, I'll have to make my own patterns for an upholsterer to sew. Stay tuned...........
And Ed, good luck!
That'll give you the chance to design something that works with the headrest faring in place, Danny.
Glad I bought a pair of Beck leather seats for $200.00 and they where in perfect condition...
There's a member here that has an upholstery business and does a lot of custom hot rods. Anyone know who I referring to?
WOLFGANG posted:Shu's wife is talented with a sewing maching but apparently to sew heavy vinyl and leather you need an industrial 'walking foot" sewing maching - about a $1k investment. I would have thought $4-500 but I'm stuck in the 70's.
Is this something you could pick up on Craigs List?
Bill Prout posted:Glad I bought a pair of Beck leather seats for $200.00 and they where in perfect condition...
There's a member here that has an upholstery business and does a lot of custom hot rods. Anyone know who I referring to?
I think it is @hotrodstitcher . He was on the site the other day but he hasn't posted much recently. If I remember correctly he was working on a CMC.
I just received these black seats from CIP1 $190 each with free shipping .