Branching Out

[jojo]

Hi guys,
I do mostly marine (upholstery and canvas), but yesterday I repaired cigarette damage on the rear seat of a 2007 Camry. It was quick, easy and lucrative, which got me thinking, why not market this type of work?
But the rear seat was easy to pop out and I didn't have to worry about what scares me most about auto upholstery: airbags.
How can I learn about the location of airbags in various models? I know that late model cars have very sophisticated systems, and I fear my lack of knowledge. Is there a course I can take for this?

[baileyuph]

Course specific to dealing with airbags?  I can't direct to one.  There are or is auto training but not in the type you are seeking, IMHO.  The one I am thinking about runs for months and is more expensive than college. 

During the interim, maybe you could have he customer bring the seat already out of the vehicle, this would keep your liability very low.  There isn't enough money in a seat to afford a screw up.

Let the customer find a mechanic to take it out and put it back.  They can bring it to you.

One thought..........

Doyle

[SHHR]

Airbags can be scary and have blown when working on them. With so much new technology in the last 8-10 years (these are now the cars that may require upholstery work) such as side seat bags, side curtains, even sensors in the seats to detect passengers that will arm the entire system or just portions of it.
   
An example I can give would be: a state police friend of mine said they use to offer a lock out service on your car, but no longer due to counts of a police officer trying to use a "slim jim" on a lockout and blew the bag by accident which in turn caused the lock rod in the door to impale him through the chin. I don't know if that's a substantiated claim or not, but can see their concern.

  Airbag locations are usually well marked on vehicles with small SRS/airbag tags; dashes, headliners, door, door panels, seat bolsters, etc. The actual airbag locations are the easy part, it's the wiring harnesses and sensors that are the tricky part. those are usually marked so with the sensors being a bright yellow and the connection locations at the wires are usually yellow and have a safety clip to hold them together

I would suggest two routes when learning and serviceing airbags; 1. go to alldatadiy.com. You'll have to buy a subscription to the particular car you're working on or a full subscription to everything which is pricey, but you'll have access to factory service manuals that will tell you safely how to service/disconnect airbag systems. 2. subcontract out this work through a local service shop who's qualified to do this work.

  Obviously both have downfalls like the time involved, special scanning equipment you'll have to have which is a huge expense. Then theres the liability of it too. The topic has come up on here in the past about repairing upholstery around an airbag location. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I know of no place to get a factory tech manual describing steps to re-covering or stitching an area that covers an airbag location. These bags are set off by powerful directed charges, but would our stiching, materials, glues hamper the deployment of a bag when needed? Most newer vehicles that I see now have "blow out" panels that appear to be a contained box inserted in the area of the car, but there are those out there that have the bags placed behind the upholstery.

Kyle

[jojo]

Thanks guys. I will probably take Doyle's advice and tell folks that it's their responsibility to get the seats out.

[crosjn]

I'm not sure what you doing to repair the upholstery that would cause you to worry about air-bag deployment.  But this information is taken from a first-responders (fire/police) guide to airbags found here:

http://www.police.qld.gov.au/rti/published/policies/traffic-manual/05/app_05_02.htm

How to de-active an airbag SRS
Different types and models of airbag SRS have different methods of de-activation. For electrically activated systems which have a back-up power supply, disconnecting the car battery (in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions) will begin the de-activation period for the back-up power supply. De-activation time for the back-up power supply may take a period of time ranging from seconds to minutes, depending on the system.

Simply turning the ignition switch to 'OFF' may not de-activate the airbag SRS. The airbag SRS deployment mechanism may operate independently of the ignition switch. However, most systems will have a 'safing' sensor which offers additional security against inadvertent deployment of the airbag.

Mechanically activated systems can sometimes be de-activated in the field.

Hopefully the link works so you can see everything about airbags.

But I'm really curious what type of material was the burn in and how did you repair?!?

Thanks and good luck!
Jeff