Expanding to auto upholstery

[florida girl]

I've been doing marine and furniture upholstery, custom sewing, alterations, I worked for a bridal shop and a taylor, new garments, drapes and so forth and am considering adding auto upholstery. I'm in a small town and don't know anyone who is doing this here. Several have inquired about it and I'm not sure. Someone told me yesterday they had gotten it done s few years ago and the person had finished it in 3 or 4 hours. They'd also used memory foam and had done some softening to the leather as well as patching the foam. Having it done in that amount of time would require having all materials at hand which I don't have. Any ideas or suggestions?

[Mojo]

I am going to pass on answering this as I have never done auto work. It simply is not in our wheelhouse. Rick and Doyle are two members here that come to mind who serve this part of our industry. Both have decades of experience and are awesome stitchers.

Also I might suggest that if your going to get into auto work sign up as a member at Hog Ring. It is a forum dedicated to auto upholsterers.

Chris

[florida girl]

Thanks

[RiCat]

Hello Florida Girl. I am also in Florida - West Coast - Spring Hill. Most of my auto experience was obtained after many years in Tampa. To be truthful, auto upholstery can be a bear to get a grip on. My main experiences come from old school auto upholstery. Quite frankly, I am begging off on doing late model autos. The mechanical side of things - to get to even be able to do the upholstery - is why I am not promoting that aspect of upholstery any more. Also, as have been discussed in earlier threads, one now has to deal with air bag technology in modern cars. In your area, if you see a market with older autos, you might do ok (classics, street rods, ect). That being said, you might get jobs to build sewn headliners (floating headliners on bows), door panels (fabrication and covering), custom fit cut and sew carpeting and then of course the seats. I have a lot of photos on my website on many different aspects of auto upholstery. My mind goes in a thousand different directions on this subject knowing all the different things one has to deal with on doing interiors. Man, I could write a book. What I can offer you, if you have any questions dealing with auto upholstery, you will also find my phone number on the contact page of the web site, so feel free to give a call and I can try to help. It would be better for me to react with questions on concepts and particulars.

Regards
Rick