What have you been up to today

[Ian Williams]

I decided to resurrect a thread from the old forum which was often interesting, it is a great place to post information about the small jobs, runs, etc that you have been up to.

To kick off I have been giving my Nippy a bit of a birthday, the old seats were in a terrible state so once I had repaired the metal frames, my brother in law Kirk who is an upholsterer offered to help me recover them. We have tried to where possible use authentic materials and construction, the following pictures show some of the sequence we have been going through.

   
   
   
   
   

[Tony Press]

I decided to resurrect a thread from the old forum which was often interesting, it is a great place to post information about the small jobs, runs, etc that you have been up to.

To kick off I have been giving my Nippy a bit of a birthday, the old seats were in a terrible state so once I had repaired the metal frames, my brother in law Kirk who is an upholsterer offered to help me recover them. We have tried to where possible use authentic materials and construction, the following pictures show some of the sequence we have been going through.

Lovely to see horsehair and wadding instead of the dreaded plastic foam.

Cheers, Tony.

[Erich]

I decided to resurrect a thread from the old forum which was often interesting, it is a great place to post information about the small jobs, runs, etc that you have been up to.

To kick off I have been giving my Nippy a bit of a birthday, the old seats were in a terrible state so once I had repaired the metal frames, my brother in law Kirk who is an upholsterer offered to help me recover them. We have tried to where possible use authentic materials and construction, the following pictures show some of the sequence we have been going through.

Lovely to see horsehair and wadding instead of the dreaded plastic foam.

Cheers, Tony.

I completely agree, Tony. In this day of being green, and being able to easily recycle materials, I maintain(with tongue in cheek somewhat)that the Austin Seven is a very green car. Especially since many of the cars are approaching 100 years old.

[Douglas Alderson]

Hi Ian do you have a photo of how the edge was finished, where the front and back meet?

[Ian Williams]

Hi Douglas, I don't immediately to hand but will get some for you, the sequence is as follows: Outer rear of the seat frame first has a felt lining, then the back cover is attached, there is s wicker piping stitched along the bottom edge of the back cover and secured to the frame with Bifurcated rivets, (in some cases I have seen Austin used Brass brake rivets here), the cover is stretched over then tacked to the ash inside the seat frame. Another wicker piping is tacked around the edge of the seat back over the top of the rear cover. After the padding is fitted the front cover is tacked on then trimmed back just inside the piped edge, finally a D shaped moulding is attached up against the piped edge to hide the tack's securing the front cover. I have not found a way of making a suitable alternative to the D moulding so have used Hidem banding instead, I do know there is a solid D shaped pin moulding available in the UK, it is different to the way Austin made theirs but would probably be a good substitute. The Back of the frame and Pipings are covered in Rexine, the front cover is leather stitched into flutes with a calico backing, the flutes are stuffed with felt wadding, horse hair forms the inside stuffing. Hope that all makes some sense!

   
This is an original seat showing the piping that runs around the seat back, I will post more pictures of this detail when we cover the second seat later this week.

[Douglas Alderson]

Hi Ian thanks for the quick response do you need the piping and the D shape Hidem interested to see how that looks. Thanks for the tip tee the felt I had wondered how the back was covered. Douglas

[Derek Sheldon]

    IWhen I bought the AD tourer last year, it came with a reproduction set of widescreen irons.! I have spent the last few weeks making the material parts of them. Not happy with the top windscreen hinge today's job was to make a better pair. Also completed today by Chris was a replacement front crank lip for stock. I also washed the crankcase down in preparation for the subsequent rebuild. A good day at the office.

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[Ian Williams]

   

Picked this up from Western Radiators, new core fitted at a very reasonable cost 

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Ian,

With reference to the fabric covered pin beading around the edge of the seats originally, I used this as trim on my Twelve but wonder if it could be covered to provide something similar?

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1484-pin-beading.aspx

[Pearls not a Singer]

I've just renewed the fuel filler pipe hose on my Ruby

**** of a job ! 4 hours and there's only 2 hose clips to undo. Worse thing of all, is I could'nt get a grommet for where it goes through the body so it may have to come  off again

Never mind a drive at the W/E should restore my smile