Creating custom seats for a classic Corvette

A veteran upholsterer creates custom seats for a classic Corvette

Upholstery Journal | February 2008

story and photos by Mike Johnson, Palo Alto Upholstery, Palo Alto, Calif.

What I like most about my job is getting a challenge that I can really sink my teeth into—and then, hopefully, be left alone so I can concentrate on it. Like this 1962 Corvette, for example. Well, it’s actually a ’62 Corvette body on a ’99 Corvette chassis. Built by Newman Corvettes, Paul Newman’s company.

The customer owns a number of classic automobiles, and is quite particular about the way his cars look and feel when he’s behind the wheel.

He didn’t like the way the seats in this Corvette felt, and he asked me to build new versions shaped like the seats in a Bentley he owns. The customer requested the Corvette seats be made in black leather with black suede inserts. He wanted French seams with white thread and one-inch pleats in the suede. I said, “No problem.”

I started by drawing the profile and shape of the original Corvette seats on some cardboard for a rough template. Then I stripped the old Corvette seats down to the frames and discarded all of the old material.

I began to sculpt the foam in the shape of the Bentley seats. My tools include a band saw and a Bosch hand-held foam saw. I used five—inch thick Q41 high—density foam from Bob’s foam factory.

After re—examining the Bentley seats, I fine—tuned the shape of the new seats by making a few more bevels here and there in the foam. To ensure that I had the correct shape, I took the sculpted seats to the customer and had him test them to make sure he was sitting pretty.

Confident that I had the correct shape to the foam, I started fabricating the upholstery. I chose some really clean and very supple Scottish hide from Garrett Leather. I began by making the pleats in the suede. I used clear plastic for the patterns.

And voila, four days later, I have the two cushions done...or so I thought.

The customer wasn’t quite happy because the seats didn’t have the same “feel” as his Bentley seats, and asked if I could make the center foam sections out of some softer foam and build the side bolsters up one inch higher. Since he wasn’t shy about paying for any changes, I swallowed my pride, ordered another half hide and spent roughly 10 hours making new side bolsters and replacing the center cushions with lower density foam.

The customer then had me do a few odds and ends, such as a new shift boot, door armrests, dash grab handle and some flaps on the top boot.

The following weekend, the customer called to report that the car had taken first place in the Corvette club’s “Corvette Spectacular” show in downtown Los Altos, in the Custom Class and the People’s Choice categories.

Comments

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• 

  GusL

  Nov 9, 2010
  5:47 pm CST

  Nice work, Mike! Those corvette guys should be all over you for this!

• 

  Dan Rogers

  Oct 6, 2011
  8:41 am CDT

  Good Job

  Hey Mike Good Job   Don't you hate to do things over again .maybe you should have bolted in his Bentley seats