When the old material on seat cushions starts to break up, as it did on this one from the 308, the only solution is to replace it. Today's helpful hint: Black duct tape will not work! This artificial leather type of material went by several trade names, such as Fabrikoid or Pantasote.
It's held to the seat frame with hundreds of small carpet tacks, each of which has to be removed. I'm not sure whether the frames date back to the car's construction. This frame had been on its second covering, and I installed the third. That may be approaching the limit to how many different sets of tacks you can drive into the wood. The modern material is less prone to ripping, though, so I can space the tacks somewhat farther apart. 
I suppose one could instead use a power stapler, but I prefer to stay with the original system, however time-consuming.When done, it looks like this. For our level of service, this should last indefinitely.
4 comments:
How does the modern material compare in construction and quality with the original?
The new material looks the same, but is much stronger. The old pantasote tends to get brittle with age, and can easily be ripped by hand. I could never rip the new stuff. I don't remember off-hand exactly what it's called. Dick Lukin knows just what to get and where to get it in the city, so I've let him buy it for me. I recovered all of the seats in the main compartment of the 309 round about 1985, and they're still as good as new.
Most of the modern material we use is vinyl based and is bonded to a cloth backer, resulting in a single durable material. Vinyl is prone to becoming brittle upon prolonged exposure to UV light but that will not be much of an issue in our cars, in my lifetime. With some searching, the material is available in a wide range of colors and embossed patterns so we have been pretty successful in maintaining the original appearance of the upholstery.
Bob Kutella
Bob and Randy,
Thanks. I've noticed the re-covered seats in the 308 and 309 do look fairly original, material wise. I've also seen some other museums use less than authentic looking material that comes across as too shiny and plastic looking.
I've noticed on the CA&E cars there appears to be two upholstry patterns on the seat backs. One style looks as if the seat has just been covered, whil the other is swen to make the seat back have "bumps." What is the explaination for this?
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