Heat gun

[65Buick]

Fortunately it is summer time now, but working with vinyl I will probably need a heat gun soon.
The space heater just isn't cutting it.

Any favorites on brands, etc?

[MinUph]

I get ours at Harbor Freight. On sale their like 8 bucks. Mine is a few years old. Get one now it makes a world of difference even in Florida heat.

[kodydog]

I bought my Craftsman heat gun at an estate sale for $10. I looked it up online and it is $60 new. Paul's gun sounds like a good deal.

I mentioned this before, the first time I used it I got the vinyl a little too hot and it blistered. That was my mistake and taught me to be more careful.

[MinUph]

Trick...
Always keep a heat gun moving and feel the vinyl with your other hand carefully as the gun WILL burn you. You will get the feel of it. Vinyl can really take quite a bit of heat. But not too much :)

[sofadoc]

I got a cheapo from HF too.
I know there are some tools that you shouldn't skimp on. But hot air is hot air.

[65Buick]

Alright folks. I did get myself a heat gun today. It came with the attachments.
Below is a picture of the seat I've been working on. My question is, can I do better? It looks nice, fits nice. Only thing is when I sat on it just briefly, afterwards I could see a slight wrinkle on the bullnose at the front. It is pulled as tight as I could by hand, without heat.

http://gdurl.com/szAN

[MinUph]

65 notice the wrinkles in the boxing and the direction they are going in. The rear of the seat needs to be pulled back. The welt will probably help just in pulling it back further. One other trick I do in vinyl is to trim the excess welt vinyl about a 1/16" from the cord. This allows the bulk to lay flatter at the seam. Heat will help a little but not much in this case except making it easier to stretch. Just applying heat may help but the wrinkles will return later. It needs to be tighter.

[65Buick]

Ok Paul. I thought I had done a decent job but you're much more experienced than me. Tomorrow I will try your suggestions.

Also as far as cuts - the original had a cut made on the boxing side of the welt for the backrest frame. I started that on one side and it really wasn't working for me. I did the best I could to actually end the seam at that point but it wasn't close enough.
With fabric I make my V cut and that normally works well.

[MinUph]

I didn't mean to put your work down but you asked why it was wrinkling on the bull nose. The explanation I believe would help that also. And I think this type of seat was discussed before and made mention of running the welt straight back to the OB and then running the IB at the angle down to the seat bottom corner. This gives you more control over tension on the boxing and top cover.

[baileyuph]

65 Buick,
Great Work!
Looking at the photo, very impressed with the patterning and sewing.  The side of concern, how is this exposed when assembled into the frame? 

The material is vinyl, there fore when the patterning was done, can you give a vector diagram of how the pattern was cut with respect to the vinyl stretch?  What I mean
when the sides were cut which way did the vinyl stretch run and the same for the central
part (big seat part that loops over the front edge)?

Don't beat your self up, don't see any reason to.

By a vector diagram of the vinyl depicting how the main stretch direction ended up is
what I am after.  For example, the main seating area which direction did the vinyl stretch
run and the same for the boxing area?

Test your vinyl and I am assuming the stretch is different up the roll and across the roll.

This can be important to know when working with cloth also.

As a side comment, possibly related, I rebuilt a ski-doo seat (power water small vessel) just yesterday in the "All Sport" vinyl" (spelling?) and talk about stretch, but it came out great but I had to think a bit outside the box.  Can't always do just like "factory did" because us small shops aren't the factory and properties of after market material may not be exactly as what the factory used.

A customer asked me how long did it take to "learn the trade"?  I didn't have to think with the best response and said; I will let you know sir.  Of course, it meant that I am
still learning for reasons:  Technology changes and so do techniques.  My first auto work, for example didn't have to consider seat belts in seats, much less shoulder harness, nor air bags in the drivers backrest.  We have all this after time and it hasn't stopped, there
are a string of airbags along both sides of the headliner now, plus they are in more seats and all across both sides of the dash.  Some craftsmen won't touch them because of the liability issue.  They are smart if they have stopped learning.  If an airbag manufacturer
gets the finger pointed at them (in a law suit), the first thing they will inspect is has some
dummy upholster (trimmer in auto work) cause this law suit?  A trimmer better have his act together when he touches something like this with a lot of liability.

I will shut up,

Great work "65",

Doyle

[65Buick]

Paul I didn't mean to imply you were putting my work down. My bad.

I am indeed planning to run the IB boxing down. I should have explained that the legs and armrest attach separately from outside. Much of the boxing gets covered. The old seat cover boxing was stretched, tacked to seat frame and then cut, allowing for IB boxing to cover. Regarding the cut they made, that was how they stretched it around the back frame. I should be able to work it out.

Wrong device for now but I'll post a before photo when I can.

[65Buick]

It's this one. Apologize you can't see too much of the seat boxing, but you get the idea.

http://gdurl.com/0cvM

[SteveA]

Looks like water in the background - all you have to do is turn the chair around and get the fishing pole and a cold one - heck with work
SA

[65Buick]

Thanks SteveA. Appeciate that.

[65Buick]

Paul - I got the heat gun out and warmed it just a tad. I then pulled as hard as I could. It's tighter now and does not wrinkle when sat on.

http://gdurl.com/FbQZ