Austin seven special Fabric body

[daglocks]

Hello friends
I dont post much on here, I mainly use TwitFace, but need a little knowledge please.
I have got a sample of Egyptian cotton for my fabric body, but it seems a little thin. How many threads per inch, or Grams/m2  is correct for a fabric body?

Is pre-dyed cloth a good idea? i want the final colour to be black.

I have been reading about irish linen used on early aircraft. This was shrunk with size, boiled flour and water. Has anyone tried this?

As weight isn't such a big issue, can cotton be shrunk with water, then painted with synthetic paints?.....I am a little worried about dope being flammable.

Cheers for any replies
Andrew



P.S. here is the progress so far:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/22719913@N04/E6e611

[GK5268]

Nice project!

The coating on the Hindenburg was found to be highly flammable, and depending on the type of chemical you apply if you go the doping route, nitrocellulose for example, would also be highly flammable. 

it is still used for aircrafts, so would be entirely suitable for your car and I gather problems of flammability only arise from improper use.

There is stuff on Youtube showing what people do.

Bear in mind that for all modern safety standards and improvements in technology, modern cars still catch fire, the Vauxhall heaters being a widespread problem. Compare a fire in a modern car where all the very nasty noxious fumes from all the plastics, the very act of desperately trying to unbuckle seat belts, trying opening doors that have self-locked put into context with a fire risk from a thin layer of fabric on your special.

Reading and following manufacturer's instructions should make the application as safe as possible.

Interested to see how your project progresses, good luck!

[Mark Atkinson]

Hello Andrew,
                   Irish Linen is the best traditional material and it works best with Nitrate Dope, which is flammable. Butyrate Dope a cellulose based product is a 'less' flammable and an effective alternative.
Both will shrink the fabric, but you need to be mindful that as the plasticisers in them bleed off over the years they will continue to shrink! Butyrate is better with this as you can refresh it as it ages.

Irish Linen of the correct standard is manufactured to BS 9F 1 - 1992, which is for aircraft, it is a very strong material and available from a company in Belgium at about £20 per meter. Contact is Christine Debaes on +32 51 262870.

Regards,
            Mark.

[daglocks]

Thanks Mark
do you know the threads per inch, or the weight in g/m2 or Oz / sqyd ?


Hello Andrew,
                   Irish Linen is the best traditional material and it works best with Nitrate Dope, which is flammable. Butyrate Dope a cellulose based product is a 'less' flammable and an effective alternative.
Both will shrink the fabric, but you need to be mindful that as the plasticisers in them bleed off over the years they will continue to shrink! Butyrate is better with this as you can refresh it as it ages.

Irish Linen of the correct standard is manufactured to BS 9F 1 - 1992, which is for aircraft, it is a very strong material and available from a company in Belgium at about £20 per meter. Contact is Christine Debaes on +32 51 262870.

Regards,
            Mark.

[Mark Atkinson]

Thanks Mark
do you know the threads per inch, or the weight in g/m2 or Oz / sqyd ?


Hello Andrew,
                   Irish Linen is the best traditional material and it works best with Nitrate Dope, which is flammable. Butyrate Dope a cellulose based product is a 'less' flammable and an effective alternative.
Both will shrink the fabric, but you need to be mindful that as the plasticisers in them bleed off over the years they will continue to shrink! Butyrate is better with this as you can refresh it as it ages.

Irish Linen of the correct standard is manufactured to BS 9F 1 - 1992, which is for aircraft, it is a very strong material and available from a company in Belgium at about £20 per meter. Contact is Christine Debaes on +32 51 262870.

Regards,
            Mark.

Hello Andrew,

Please excuse my tardy response. The original DTD spec back in the 1920s was:

"Fine long, flax fibre, dew or water retted (to destroy cohesion among the fibres of flax by rotting!). Plain woven,  the threads having 16-18 twists per inch on the warp and 17-18 on the weft. The number of threads per inch is 80 and 90 respectively, and the strength per inch run is 90lbs. In either direction."

The material supplied by the nice lady in Belgium is as close as you can get to that.

Regards, Mark