The Upholstery Forum

The man I did the 33 coupe bench seat for made all his own panels. He made the curved turret panel using panel board, 1/4" closed foam and leather. Overall I think the measurement was 72"x14", with a small cutout for the back window. He covered it flat and when installed and fitted into the curved area it is all scrunched and creased in the curve.
Having used a 7'piece of leather, he thinks maybe I should have a shot at it! What would be the best way to handle that build? No foam? Using a jig? Cut 45s in the foam at the corners? I don't currently have photos but could have him send me a few.

Yeah It would help a lot if you could post photos.
Curved panels can be tricky. There is a lot of ways to tackle situations like these. You can make your panels with fiber glass, Bend abs sheets, bend wood sheets , aluminum.... There isn't really a right way. Just what ever will produce a good result with the resources you have.

here is the photos. @John

Is this another case of don't glue the leather to the foam?

so the problem is that when you wrap that piece with closed cell and then leather outside of the car its not in the correct shape. What it would do is remove the leather and foam and redo the panel while is installed in the car youll have to take it out to finish up the back side but the face will be in the position when you install the foam and fabric. Also if you get some wrinkles in the closed cell you should be able to sand them out.

Yes, this is a very good example of why, if we cover something that has a curve, as John indicates, it's better to adhere the leather once the base has the correct shape. Been there, did that and had to redo it

I made mine out of 1/8" ABS, 1/4" closed cell, and leather. I just heated the ABS with a heat gun and made the bend. Wasn't too extreme, so the covering went very smoothly... on the second panel. The first panel in this picture shows what happens when you aren't very careful about rolling the leather on. Lots of wrinkles.

Ouch! I hate it when that happens.

That leather's panel is a little wrinkled but overall it looks great!! The stitching, color combination, general shaping, etc is superb!!

It looks amazing but really does not entice me to want to use real leather for quite a while!

@bryanmartin It looks great, just like @LeatherJohnny said. I wish my customer had made the panel in ABS but he is insistent on cardboard panels.
@Bondo497 A just got a next to new Jiffy Steamer J-4000 for $125 via facebook marketplace. Even with yesterday's early morning 5 hour drive and tolls still less than 1/2 price. I used it on the the panel and pulled some wrinkles out but being a bit of a safety nut I ordered a pair of Daymark Steam Resistant Gloves from Grainger. Pick them up tomorrow. I'll update on the panel and review the gloves at a later date!
@BigRig Where's your sense of adventure? There's nothing like the fear of losing money to make you adrenaline race!

@bryanmartin Checking out the construction closer, is the diamond insert sewn on 1/4" or 1/8" foam glued on 1/4" ABS? It is a really nice fit! Your cutout easement cuts and glue down are really clean! Hope mine come out that nice.

kl4bidn wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:16 pm @bryanmartin Checking out the construction closer, is the diamond insert sewn on 1/4" or 1/8" foam glued on 1/4" ABS? It is a really nice fit! Your cutout easement cuts and glue down are really clean! Hope mine come out that nice.

Thanks. The diamonds are sewn on 1/4" scrim and glued to 1/8" ABS. The main panel is 1/8" ABS, and 1/4" closed-cell. With the diamonds sewn in, it compresses the scrim foam enough that it's sits flush.

Ok so I'm dense I reckon, I've read all the problems with the wrinkles on curves and read the replies but I still don't get what is going on. What causes the wrinkles and how do you keep it from happening in the first place?! Is it the foam, is it the leather, is it the curve, is it glueing something that shouldn't be glued?

Nevermind I just went back and read and re-read everything again and I think I get the jist of it now. I wrote this slow so others like me might understand it as well.

Haha no worries @Bondo497
On @kl4bidn panel. The problem was that the panel got wrapped when it was out side the car and slightly flexed open. When its installed in the car it flexes in a little and makes those wrinkles.

On @bryanmartin panel he just made a mistake when wrapping it. He probably started on the right side and he got the the left side there was bubble of material and no where for all of it to go and it created all those wrinkles. Ive had this happen many times

So where should he have started? The middle to the outsides? @John

I would have started on the right side as well. The problem is to have to plan ahead and make sure that your keeping the fabric taunt while your going over the big holes in the panel. To me it looks like around that opening for the diamond insert the fabric got layed down at an inward angle and when he arrived at the end it created a bubble of extra fabric with no where to stretch it out to. Wrapping panels looks simple and it can be but you really have to think ahead and have a plan and try to understand what problems your going to run in to.

Sorry @bryanmartin were not bashing you work. It looks great! Just using it to help everyone learn. Thanks for sharing this.

@John Thanks John. That helps explain a lot.

@bryanmartin The second one always goes better. Thank you for sharing your work.

Thank you very much, @John , and @bryanmartin for the very precise information and for showing us the panel, and I'm sure that we will remember this post when we have to cover a panel. This forum is great!

John wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 7:11 pm@bryanmartin were not bashing you work. It looks great! Just using it to help everyone learn. Thanks for sharing this.

No worries, that's why we're all here!