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Just did a set of these. They look glued down and molded, but they're not. Mine had a listing on them to pull them down tight across the pleats. Just a standard cover.
Kyle

What, Me Worry?

My wife is from Tampa and she said South Tampa is where the "Old Money" is. Her grandmother lived there and a very rich, ritzy area, but she also said it's an area (or was) an area that was full of people who didn't like to part with their money and when they did it was for the best only available, so if you cater to the upscale designers, this may be your spot. My wife is from the Carrolwood/Lutz area and looks to be weathier, but I suspect is more so of people with big credit rather than money. Last Christmas when we were there you could tell it was hit hard by the economy.
By the way Paul, we love the Tarpon Springs area. My wife has family there too and when there we always hit the sponge docks and head to Dimitri's. A great greek restaraunt.
Kyle

I've redone many of these before. the vinyl on them best rates as crap.  Everyone I've ever done only had 3 or 4 staples holding down the longest runs of hidem. I add many more on a finished piece, as for the snaps it was either a quick fix by someone sometime back or they tried to make the covers removable for disinfecting/cleaning.
Kyle

It's sliding up our way now and should arrive overnight sometime through tommorow. We have in the last few hours been placed under a blizzard warning, and I'm not talking about the type from Dairy Queen.
Kyle

Chris, I realize you're probably stitched up, but a few years ago after some oral surgury to remove a badly impacted wisdom tooth that required removing an upper molar in front of it too, I was feeling no pain either with the Lortabs I was on and went right out to work. Even though I wasn't overly active, the added blood pressure and movement popped out the blood clot and I had a dry socket to deal with for about two months. All I can say is "HORRIBLE PAIN" that the lortabs barely took the edge off of! Take it easy for awhile and heal up some.
Kyle

I'm afraid it's the new normal. I think about my parents who were married in 1964. My mom still has and uses a mixer and blender along with some other household items that she received as a wedding gift, while my wife and I who were married in 1997 have gone through a few of these already. Things are just engineered to fail now, those that do still under warranty are replaced with more cheap junk or I'd bet the companies actually bank on the fact many won't seek warranty repairs and just replace.
Kyle

  Everything is down here. Auto, Marine, Furniture and has been all year. I can't put my finger on one thing, but several things come to mind and most of it deals with the economy still stinks in this region.
I know within the last two months I've seen two others advertising upholstery in town. I don't know these people, their quality, or their volume of business, but I do know one took a semester or two at WyoTech a few years ago and the other is advertising they worked as an apprentice under an recently retired upholsterer in our area.

I've taken on a few more furniture pieces this year and have several shop owners in our downtown (historic area) who recommend me quite a bit. I don't do a lot of antiques though and after a lot of thought I believe the reason is our town is big on the historic district with many homes that open up for tours throug out the year just aren't lived in or only in a portion to keep the rest in museum shape. Not much of the items get used to wear out around here.

Another thing with furniture in this area is we have maybe 4 at the most places to purchase new furniture without driving an hour or more and the majority of that isn't high quality. We get those store's ads every week in the mail with deals like a couch and loveseat in the $400 -$600 range with recliners $299-$399. I've never seen one of these pieces wear the covering out unless it was destroyed by kids or animals because the frames break down long before the fabrics let go, so come the next tax return season everyone's replacing those with more junk or signing their life over to a RTO type store.

Kyle

I use to be very accomodating on giving estimates, until after one fall a few years ago when a major wind storm went through. Call's started coming in to look at boats for upholstery and canvas repair. When that week was up I actually figured my time up in the shop Vs. time traveling to write estimates, which was horrible. Then to make matters worse maybe only 10% of my estimates came to fruition. Now I just ask people to bring their projects by the shop, unless it's in town which is usually somewhere I can travel in 15 minutes or less. If someone insists on me coming to look I will schedule something at my convenience as I've spent too much time away from the actual productivity of the shop chasing a job that may or may not happen. I get a lot of calls wanting "ballpark" estimates too, I always let them know I'd prefer not to guess over the phone but if I do, I tell them it's a major league ball park instead of a T-ball park which is a lot smaller.

I'll be sewing all holiday weekend. I had it all planned to take a few days off, but my nieces car broke down and shes been borrowing my truck since Friday while her car is torn apart in my shop waiting on parts to come in. I finished her up tonight and hopefully get my truck back as soon as she's off work. Now I have to play catch up on the paying jobs.
Kyle

Thanks for the advice Sofa. I ended up using a combo of hot glue and some very small brad tacks I had that didn't leave a visible hole in the fabric. My biggest fear now is the material is just too thin and will wear quickly. It's a screen printed fabric from JoAnns that the customer special ordered. I expressed my concerns, but she seemed to be ok with it all.
Time will tell.
Kyle

First off, I'm not a furniture guy, but did take on some wingback chairs to recover. One is a newer rocker style and the other much older (probably 1950s). Even though they're not identical and both in ecxellent shape structurally and in the covers, I recovered them in the customer's provided material. First off I believe it too thin of a material for seating purposes and I expressed my concern to which she's ok with, but my question is this since I've never done it before; on the end caps of the arms, they're on one a thin plywood cap covered in the material, and the other is a thick cardboard likewise covered in the material. What is the best way for me to re-fasten them after I recover them? I see how they were done originally with finish nails driven through the board before they were wrapped. The old fabric was very tough and dense and the new is so thin I keep having the nails back out and through the material while I'm driving them in. I'm using a block of hardwood to hammer against trying to drive the nails in easy all at once but still get one or two that will push out while hammering and poked through the fabric. I did then use a small nail set to drive the heads down leaving a small hole showing through. It doesn't look terrible, but does show on the finished part. Is there another way that I'm missing or is it just trial and error untill it comes out correct?
Kyle

When I was in maintenance at a local state hospital we had a geriatric unit that had "gerichairs" for the residents. They were just an institutional recliner with wheels on them for nursing to roll patients around and place them in the day room or other areas. I frequently repaired these where the reclining mech. wouldnt stay closed. After observation the problem was two fold, 1. Patients in a mental hospital often kicked and rocked uncontrollably putting stress on the chairs. 2. Nursing staff wouldn't attempt to close chairs properly, but rather placing their foot on the foot rest and kicking down hard to set the chair upright with a patient in it. I ordered several new mechanisms and kept in my shop to replace as needed, but we came across afew times where the state froze our budgets to make the government look good fiscally. Then I would repair the old mechanisms. most of the joint where the mechs folded are riveted together and have a nylon bushing in the joints thatr would wear out causing too much play in the joints not allowing the mechanisms to fold up over center and lock. Since we had more time than a budget I machined new bushings on a lathe with some bronze I had laying around then would put new rivets in the mechs and they all worked perfect. On mechs that didn't have too much wear I would lay them out on an anvil and give each rivet head a few smacks with a hammer to tighten them up, which worked also.

I know this is extreme and no one would pay for your time to do this and most wouldn't even have the machine equipment to make new parts, but the idea of hammering out the rivets a bit on an anvil is something anyone could do and would save for having new mecs shipped in even if they're avaliable.
Kyle

I'd put about three hours on it. It looks simple enough, but suprises and challenges do arise. If you come in under,and most likely will, pass that on to your customer and they'll be thrilled with the savings.
Kyle

I did a similar repair on a Pontiac Grand Am dash where the vinyl peeled away from it around the windshield. This was a 10 minute repair while the lady waited and I made no gaurantees that it would work.

First I heated the vinyl with a heat gun so I could fold it back easily to access the back side, Then I shot a liberal amount of weldwood onto both surfaces and let it tack up only a couple of minutes. I quickly heated the outside of the vinyl again to make it very pliable and stuck it down. She had some large hard back books in the backseat so I took a couple and wedged between the windshield and dash to let the glue set good and told her to remove them the next day. So far it has worked.
Your pic looks like the bottom of the dash so I would first heat it and peel it back slightly farther than it is. If the vinylw is pliable simply spray some contact glue on both surfaces, let it tack up a few minutes, then stretch the vinyl down tight while using your other hand to work it in place. Whatever is hanging over, either wrap it under and glue it or trim it off with a razor blade. If its the stiff foam padded backed vinyl that was vacuumed form, I'd use plenty of heat to softem it up first then after gluing and sticking back down use some Gorilla tape to temporarily hold it to let the glue set good.
Kyle