Vehicle upholstery technology. Car upholstery

Perhaps, for every car owner, comfort in the cabin is very important. Increasingly, manufacturers offer a more attractive and comfortable interior, however, over time, the interior significantly loses its neat appearance. Drivers must strictly follow certain rules and recommendations so that the upholstery and other elements last as long as possible.
But it also happens that the material is old and worn out, and the interior can no longer be restored to its former appearance with the help of dry cleaning. In this case, you can do the hauling of the car interior with your own hands. There is nothing complicated here, the main thing is desire, time, patience and the ability to work with your hands.

Although such a process can be carried out not only because of the deteriorated condition of the cabin. Some car owners just want to make their interior more interesting and diverse. Yes, and interior tuning is quite popular among motorists. We recently wrote about car interior flocking and looked at the process in detail. Flocking is pretty in a simple way improve the interior of the car.

Important features of the upholstery

quality full plating by itself requires the dismantling of many interior elements. Most of the time will be spent on dismantling and subsequent assembly of the cabin. But first of all, you need to make a choice of the sheathing material itself, based both on personal preferences and on the ratio of price and quality.

You can first make small planned sketches for yourself, because a full-fledged sheathing includes not only the upholstery of the car seats, but also many other materials are replaced: on the gear knob, on the doors, on the dashboard cover and other plastic parts.

Beautifully new skin will look only if all materials are harmoniously combined with each other. Even if your plans include only the usual seat upholstery, then the material should also be selected wisely.

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Choosing the right material

Today, there are a huge number of materials for car interior upholstery on the market, so there should not be any particular difficulties with the choice. However, it is still worth considering some features, namely: ease of processing, price and quality.

List of tested and high-quality materials:

• artificial leather(a wide variety of colors, densities and textures - all this makes this material very attractive);
• genuine leather (upholstery of a car interior with leather will require not only high costs, but also high professionalism);
• alcantara (universal and durable artificial suede).

Of all the options alcantara is the most suitable fabric for upholstery vehicle interior. However, processing this material is not as easy as some amateurs believe. Before working with Alcantara, you should have an understanding of how it behaves on curved surfaces, as well as when to steam or reheat.

In addition to the low cost, Alcantara has other advantages:

• high wear resistance;
• strength;
• uniform stretching and optimal thickness;
• attractive appearance;
• ease of maintenance.

For the upholstery of individual exclusive elements, you can use more expensive materials: nubuck, leather, suede or denim. That is, everything that can realize your ideas.

Plastic interior products are recommended to be sheathed with durable and relatively convenient carbon, and experts use special materials Imeris. They are able to emit carbon, wood or metal and are suitable for any type of coating.

This video shows what Alcantara looks like:

Tools for self-upholstery of the car interior

In fact, more tools may be needed, depending on the features of the car. Most of them can be found in the garage of any driver. The following tools are required:

• standard tools for mounting and dismounting;
• scissors or a knife;
• special glue (you can use the one used for soundproofing);
• industrial dryer.

Elements that can be dragged in the car:

1. seats;
2. steering wheel and gear knob;
3. door envelopes;
4. armrests;
5. salon ceiling;
6. at will it is possible to process a torpedo.

It will be difficult to pick up new cases, so it will be easier to make a template from the old ones. It will also be more difficult to make a torpedo hauling, because installation and dismantling dashboard takes a lot of time and has its own characteristics.

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Action algorithm

Although the figure patterns can be very diverse, there is a general algorithm for performing high-quality hauling which will greatly transform the look of your salon. In the photo on the left good example upholstery of interior of the car brand BMW.

Before you get started make sure you have all the necessary accessories(linings, clips, plugs). To a greater extent, they are useful for doors. Step-by-step instruction:

1. First you need to dismantle the overtightened interior part.
2. Then clean the metal parts from all kinds of contaminants.
3. To glue the edge, it is necessary to make a small allowance (10 mm) during the manufacture of patterns.
4. The place of contact of the material must be thoroughly smeared with glue and then allowed to dry.
5. Metal and plastic coatings must be degreased.
6. It is best to make patterns from thick paper before making a pattern.
7. If wrinkles appear, then we take a hair dryer and steam them.

In this video material, the process of reupholstering the interior is discussed in detail.

Upholstery of the car interior is a rather laborious process, but very useful and interesting. And most importantly, there is nothing complicated in the upholstery of the cabin, so absolutely anyone who knows how to work with his hands can handle it.
Most often, the hauling of the car interior is done for repairs. minor damage, but there are also cases when you just want to drag the interior of a car in order to refresh the car from the inside. Whatever the reason for the tightening, our tips will help you get the job done quickly and without errors.

Choosing the right material

Despite the fact that ordinary leather is used as a finishing material for a car interior, there are other types of materials that are ideal for upholstery. In most cases, they not only win in terms of price, but are also much better quality. Leather over time without proper care will begin to crack and fade in the sun, and the seats, covered in leather, will not be very comfortable in the hot months, so let's look at more practical and inexpensive materials.
First of all, we will talk about such material as Alcantara. Not only is it much cheaper than genuine leather, but it is also a complex composite material that is resistant to both wear and fading. Moreover, the choice of different colors of this material is very extensive, so you can choose exactly the shade that you need.


Of course, there are a number of other suitable fabrics and materials for interior upholstery, but if you are looking for a really inexpensive, but comfortable option, then the best option it would be impossible to find.

Tools

In order for the hauling of the car with your own hands to go as quickly as possible and at the same time with minimal effort, you also need to acquire useful tools:

• Screwdriver
• A set of appropriately sized wrenches
• Special glue
• Sharp scissors or knife
• Hair dryer (domestic or industrial)
• Sewing machine and threads of the desired color

We will dwell on the choice of glue in a little more detail. Ordinary glue for leather or other similar materials will not work, so you should get a special glue for the upholstery of the interior in advance. If for some reason you cannot find such an adhesive, you can easily replace it with an interior soundproofing agent. However, we advise you to first try how this or that glue or soundproofing agent will be combined on a small piece of the material you have chosen.

Let's move on to seating

Despite the fact that the interior upholstery technology can vary quite a lot depending on the car model, general principles are absolutely the same. And it’s better to start by making templates or patterns for those elements that you want to drag.


In the event that you want to reupholster the seats, then the easiest way is to cut the shape of the old covers. To do this, it is enough to remove the old covers and cut out exactly the same elements from the purchased material for constriction. In shape and size.


Next - these elements need to be sewn together using sewing machine. It will be easier if, during cutting or marking the material, you mark the parts for their subsequent assembly. In the event that you yourself do not want or cannot sew the parts, then according to the desired scheme, they can be easily sewn for you in any studio, and this service will not cost at all.


In fact, after that you will only need to put on new seat covers, and this will complete the reupholstering process.

Car dashboard trim

If seat upholstery is not enough for you to give your car exactly the look that you need, we advise you to first of all pay attention to the dashboard. The thing is. That it is always in front of your eyes and it is the hauling of this part of the car that will help you make the car more comfortable and beautiful.


You should also start first by disassembling the dashboard or by separating the elements that you would like to drag. At the same time, many designers advise combining different colors and shades of materials for covering in order to achieve interesting effects, but this is purely a matter of taste.

When the part is removed, it is necessary to remove the old close-fitting from it, if it was there, and carefully degrease the surface. After that, you should attach the cut blank for the part and make sure that it fits.
In the event that the workpiece is a little larger, do not worry, as you can cut off the excess. Heat the workpiece directly on the parts with a hair dryer and at the same time stretch the workpiece slightly so that it fits the car part more tightly.

When the Alcantara cools down, it will take the shape of the part. After that, it remains only to apply glue with a thin layer on the part and attach the workpiece on top and warm it up slightly so that it fits even tighter. After a few hours, the glue will dry completely and the workpiece can be cut, and updated part reinstall the car interior.

In fact, these skills are enough to reupholster absolutely any part of a car interior, so you can already start reupholstery of the simplest elements.
Some interesting tricks can be seen here:

In the same case, if you are not sure that you can handle it, start with straight and even parts. In the case of curved or round elements, you can use blanks from several parts, but you should either iron the seams or hide them where they will not be visible. Remember that the glue dries completely within a few hours, but until then the location of the workpiece can be either moved intentionally to trim it, or accidentally, which should not be allowed.

Over time, the upholstery of any car loses its attractiveness: scuffs, stains appear, its color fades. Decide this problem there is only one way -. You can do the latter in special car studio, but it is much cheaper and more interesting to carry out the upholstery of the car interior with your own hands. How? This article will tell.

Instructions for hauling the car interior with your own hands.

1. We choose the material for the waist.

The first thing a beginner who decides to overhaul the interior of his “iron friend” will have to face is the choice of material, because the market today offers them. huge assortment. However, it is not enough to focus on your preferences, it is also important to take into account the complexity of processing a particular fabric. So, for example, everyone's favorite skin is not best material for do-it-yourself upholstery of the car interior. And the point here is not even its cost, but the fact that it is quite difficult for a non-professional to carefully fit curly and angular surfaces with leather.

What then to choose?

I would advise you Alcantara - a fabric that looks like suede. First, it is strong and highly wear-resistant. Secondly, Alcantara tends to stretch evenly in all directions. Thirdly, with excellent appearance this material is very easy to maintain. Well, and, of course, we can not say about the rich colors of Alcantara.

2. We prepare the tools.

• A screwdriver and a set of keys - will be needed to dismantle the existing casing.
• Tailoring scissors - with their help we will cut the desired contour in the material.
• Hairdryer - will help remove wrinkles on the material.
• Glue, preferably one that is designed for soundproofing the cabin.

3. We directly carry out the upholstery of the car interior with our own hands.

In order to carry out the upholstery of the car interior with the highest quality and beauty, it is necessary to carry it out according to conditional “zones”: chairs, dashboard, doors, armrest, ceiling.

Do-it-yourself upholstery of car seats.

Armchairs are perhaps the lightest elements in the hauling. You can update them in two ways: the first is to simply purchase covers that match the fabric, texture and color, and the second is to completely re-tighten the seats, that is, having dismantled the old trim, replace it with a new one.

The first option does not need comments - even a schoolboy can handle it, but let's talk about the second in a little more detail.

So, in order to change the upholstery on the chairs, they should first be removed from the passenger compartment. Then we proceed as follows.

• We take one of the chairs and sign with a marker each part of its cover indicating the planned color.
• Having pressed the metal clips on the back of the seat, we remove this marked regular cover from the chair.
• We steam it into constituent elements, which we lay on the wrong side of the new material, press it with weights and draw around the contour with a gel pen.

By the way, if for new finish Alcantara will still be used, do not forget to follow the direction of the pile for each piece, otherwise you will get a mismatch in shades.

• We cut out our blanks with scissors and reinforce them with 5 mm foam rubber. To do this, we apply special glue in a spray can (not with a brush, otherwise the foam rubber will shrink when glued and will not return to its original position!) On the foam rubber and apply, slightly pressing, each of the elements to it.
• We sew all the elements with a sewing machine, carefully combining their edges. One cover is ready. We turn it on front side, straighten and put on the chair, starting from the back. Now we repeat all the above steps until we get a complete set.

Tip: the two front seats in the car are the same, so using the patterns of one of them, you can sew 2 new covers at once.

DIY car seat upholstery video

Do-it-yourself car dashboard hauling.

The torpedo is the most difficult element in the cabin, not only in terms of its design, but also in terms of fastening, therefore, without having the appropriate experience (so as not to damage the fasteners and electronics wires), you should not remove it yourself. For this task, it is better to turn to professionals.

When the dashboard is dismantled and removed from the passenger compartment, we proceed directly to the hauling.

• Degrease the surface of each element with refined gasoline. Let the first one dry a bit.
• We sand the places where the material will lie down with coarse sandpaper. The resulting dust is subsequently swept away with a brush.
• We mark on the dashboard the places where the seams will be located - their number depends on the shape of the dashboard, the number of bumps and bends on it.
• With the help of rubber glue, interlining is glued to the marked element.
• We put the finished non-woven pattern on the material and cut it with an allowance of 10 mm (for seams), pressing it with an iron and weights with high viscosity.
• We lay the cut out pieces on the panel, check the conformity of shapes and sizes, and sew them together.
• On the wrong side of the sewn cover, we cut off all the tucked-up material so as not to touch the threads, coat it with glue, wait for it to dry a little, and pull the cover onto the torpedo.
• At the final stage, we roll a roller over the entire surface of the glued torpedo and leave this part for a day to completely set the surfaces.

Do-it-yourself video on hauling a car dashboard

Do-it-yourself car door upholstery.

The process of reupholstering doors is much simpler than reupholstering a dashboard, so it won’t take you much time.

• We remove the trim from the doors and clean them of dirt and debris.
• Applying material for new skin to the door and trace along it (its wrong side) its contour with a gel pen.
• We cut it out, leaving allowances and not forgetting to make cutouts for the door handle and the power window button (handle).
• We coat the edges of the finished pattern with glue and glue the element to the door.

Video on hauling car doors with your own hands (Part 1)

Do-it-yourself car armrest upholstery.

Hauling the armrest of the car with your own hands is carried out as follows:

• we dismantle the interior element;
• we make a pattern on paper;
• we apply this pattern to the fabric and cut it out, not forgetting to leave allowances for bends;
• having fixed one edge, we tightly stretch the material and glue it around the perimeter.

Do-it-yourself video on hauling a car armrest

Do-it-yourself car ceiling lining.

The last step in the do-it-yourself upholstery of the car interior is the renewal of the ceiling lining.

• We dismantle all elements of the ceiling: backlights, handles, racks, etc.
• We remove the old skin, and if there are adhesive residues on the ceiling, we remove it with a conventional solvent.
• We sand the surface of the ceiling with fine-grained sandpaper.
• We cut out the material of the desired shape, attaching the old skin to it, and then glue it to the ceiling with glue, starting from the center and moving to the sides in increments of no more than 12 cm. Do not forget to pay special attention to the sun visors.
• We make installation removed items in reverse order.

Do-it-yourself video on the hauling of the ceiling of the car

Upholstery of a car interior with leather is a rather complicated, but doable task. To give interior design presentable appearance with your own hands, accuracy, attentiveness and patience will be required.

Materials for the upholstery of the car interior

One of the following materials can be selected for leather upholstery:

• leatherette (artificial leather);
• Genuine Leather.

These materials differ not only in cost, but also in their mechanical properties. Leatherette, being more rigid, does not stretch as much as genuine leather. Working with the latter when constricting is much more difficult.

Patterns made of genuine leather must be thinned at the edges, otherwise the seams will turn out to be large and will stand out strongly on the surface leather interior. Leatherette can be sewn without pre-treatment around the perimeter. The resulting seam will be quite compact. Genuine leather wears less, is more resistant to mechanical damage and aesthetically pleasing to the touch.

Fundamentals of leather upholstery technology

The quality of the hauling primarily depends on the professionalism of the performers. This primarily refers to the skill level of the cutter and leather tailor. The first determines how accurately the patterns will be made, and the second determines the quality of stitching from the details of the hauling kit prepared by the cutter, that is, the final result.

In the case of doing these works with your own hands, you will need to acquire the necessary skills in the process of making and sewing leather patterns. It is possible that this will be achieved by trial and error.

When constricting with skin, it is necessary to take into account where and how it can be stretched, how it will lie on each specific surface. You also need to understand how this material is properly stitched and glued.

The hauling of certain parts, interior surfaces can differ significantly in. For example, the upholstery of car doors, its various panels (including the front - the so-called torpedo), the ceiling requires compliance with one technology, and when reupholstering seats, a completely different one is used. But at the same time, methods for making patterns and stitching them into fragments, details leather cover approximately the same.

In order to cover any plastic element with leather with your own hands, you must first dismantle it or this panel. In the process of removing the panel from it, all parts without exception are removed from it. As a result, only a bare base should remain, according to which patterns for this element will be made.

To haul the seats, they are dismantled. At the same time, all fastening, adjusting and decorative elements, fixed over the factory covers, which are then pulled off the seat frame and carefully torn at the seams into separate fragments. According to these clippings, leather patterns are subsequently made.

Preparing a leather interior upholstery kit

Patterns are made according to the bases of panels and fragments of seat covers ( individual parts future coating), which repeat all the bends, the contours of the fitted elements. Patterns for seats are made directly from leather according to the cutouts of factory covers, which are applied to the material for constriction and outlined along the contour with a gel pen. After that, the outlined fragment is cut out with scissors, the place of the future seam is marked on it.

Patterns for various panels are first made from fleece or a special film that can stretch. The polymer is glued to plastic element. In this case, the film must be carefully stretched and smoothed over the surface of the panel. Then on the flaseline mark the places where it is necessary to have seams in the leather covering. It depends on the number of irregularities and bends in the panel. After that, the film is removed and cut according to the marking of future seams. The resulting patterns from flaselin are applied to the skin and the seam is marked along their contour, and with an allowance of 10 mm for bending during stitching, the place of cutting the material is marked. Mark with a gel pen. Then cut out patterns from the skin.

Before stitching the patterns into a single leather case with your own hands, their edges should be approximately half thinned (cut off the layers of leather). This procedure will allow you to get less voluminous seams when stitching. If you thin the skin by half, then you will get seams with a thickness equal to (or slightly more than) the thickness of the cover pattern.

Sew patterns on special equipment. Plain sewing machine won't fit. After stitching from the wrong side of the made cover, the excess protrusions of the skin tucked at the seam are cut off, leaving minimal allowances that ensure integrity and strength.

Do-it-yourself car interior upholstery

Along with the production leather cases are preparing plastic surfaces interior elements. They are cleaned with sandpaper (preferably coarse-grained) in places where the leather coating will have to lie. The rougher the panel, the better. The surface is then cleaned and degreased.

Almost every car owner in the process of operating his car sooner or later faces the need for partial or complete replacement her salon coverage. There can be many reasons for this - starting from the usual wear of the material and ending with a simple desire to change the interior of the vehicle.

However, given the high cost of such pleasure, motorists are increasingly thinking about self-constriction salon. And not in vain.

Hand-made car decoration allows you to significantly save on work and also opens up unlimited space for self-expression with color and texture. But before enthusiastically proceeding directly to the waist, it is necessary to carry out preliminary preparatory measures, approaching the issue with maximum responsibility.

The whole finishing process inner space the car is very painstaking and requires certain skills from the master, as well as a considerable amount of time.

Therefore, it is worth evaluating your real capabilities in advance, creating a clear action plan and preparing the necessary material base.

Interior tuning equipment

It is worth recalling that special upholstery is used for car interiors, which, according to their technical specifications fundamentally different from any other, for example, furniture. Therefore, you need to buy material for the interior of a car only in specialized car dealerships in accordance with its main criteria - aesthetics, convenience, practicality and functionality.

The modern car market offers a huge range colors and types of finishing materials. This greatly expands the interior capabilities of the car, giving way to variability. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to tune the interior in a single color. On the contrary, different combinations of textures and shades will look more interesting and stylish.

The main thing is that all materials harmoniously combine and complement each other. A short video on how to make a car hauling with Alcantara, with your own hands.

The most famous and sought-after machine skins among automakers today are:

• Alcantara or faux suede. Composite material. Properties - softness, comfort, wear resistance, reliability, resistance to external influences, ergonomics. Combination - artificial leather, vinyl, eco-leather. Application - seat center, ceiling, pillar, rear shelves.
• Almara or faux alcantara. Qualities - softness, velvety. Combination - eco-leather, vinyl, genuine leather. Usage - racks, door cards, ceiling.
• Genuine Leather. Eternal classic! Properties - strength, durability, aesthetics, resistance to mechanical stress and temperature extremes. It is compatible with all types of coatings and can be applied to all elements of the car showroom.
• automotive leather. Combination - perforated leather, alcantara, leatherette. Usage - torpedoes, handles, steering wheel, gearbox, hand brake, door cards, headrests, armrests, seats.
• Leatherette or vinyl. Properties - budget cost, strength, waterproofness, wear resistance. Combination - alcantara, genuine leather, auto fabrics. Application - side surfaces seats, armrests, doors, torpedoes, car covers.
• eco-leather. New generation material. Properties - resistance to bending, various loads and temperatures, hypoallergenicity, airtightness, wear resistance. Absolute combination with all types of coatings.
• automotive fabric. Properties - functionality, wear resistance, fire resistance, ease of processing complex reliefs. Types - retro fabrics, tapestries, pile, jacquard, ceiling fabrics, etc. Application - ceiling, seats, doors, racks, trunk, shelves.

However, with self-finishing, it is best to use Alcantara as a convenient and inexpensive material.

In addition to the upholstery for the upholstery of the interior, you will definitely need:

• keys;
• screwdriver;
• glue;
• knife or scissors for linoleum;
• special elastic threads;
• sewing machine - industrial or conventional;
• construction dryer.

Now that the entire tool base has been assembled, you can safely proceed to tuning the car dealership.

Tightening technology

From this video, you will learn how to make a do-it-yourself leather upholstery of a car interior. Enjoy watching!

Whatever the interior trim, full or partial, it is simply impossible to do without dismantling the required elements. In addition, the amount of work will depend entirely on the financial capabilities of the car owner, the degree of need for tuning and the expected results.

The most common segments for upholstery are seats, door envelopes (cards), door inserts, ceiling, steering wheel, gear knob. Despite the difference in the dimensions of the parts and their functional purpose, the tightening technique is the same for all automotive elements and consists of a certain system of actions.

1. Dismantling the part that needs to be tightened.
2. Cleaning the element from the old skin and the dirt, dust, rust on it.
3. Creating a segment pattern in strict accordance with its contour, while maintaining a 10-centimeter margin of edges for their further gluing.
4. Sanding the surface of the part with its subsequent degreasing special tool, gasoline or petrol mixture.
5. Lubrication on the element with glue of the place of its contact with the finishing material.
6. Accurate bonding of the material to the surface of the automotive segment using a hair dryer. Wherein Special attention given to the curves of the part.
7. Fixing the edges, tight pulling and gluing around the perimeter of the element.

For greater effect, the joints of materials or the edges of the upholstery can be trimmed with hand stitching using the “Cross” or “Pigtail” seam.

• When using a contrast stitch, it is necessary to carefully monitor its evenness. Since the floating seam or any other flaws will be very noticeable. Not being able to lay a straight line, it is better to abandon this idea altogether.
• It is preferable to use nylon and synthetic threads already on glued (static) seams, since in this case the stretching of the material is minimal.
• If it is difficult to glue the surface, the plane must be treated with a thin layer of automotive putty, polyester resin, or a combination of them, sanded and try to glue the segments again.
• To create a smooth, constricted surface with a non-protruding seam, before stitching, the material can be glued from the sides and gently beat off through the plank. Then lay a line on it.
• If the material used is thin and there is a risk of the adhesive seeping through the fabric, 1-2 coats of spray adhesive should be applied to the fabric. The film formed during drying will protect the skin from impregnation.
• If wrinkles or bubbles form, they must be carefully cut and butt-glued.

Thus, adhering to the rules and advice of hauling specialists car showroom, the result is guaranteed to justify all hopes for its enchanting transformation.