The Upholstery Forum

Here are a few pics of some upper door panels i did for a 73 Camaro. Customer wanted custom orange stitching. Normally i don't do too much stitch work on door panels like that, so it made an interesting challenge. I always try to learn new techniques so i can apply them to many projects down the road.

This time i used 1/8" closed cell with a typar type backing material and stitched the pattern to the material. I did this because the machine wouldn't go through the material plus 1/8" ABS. I then glued the stitched material to the board and added a few staples on the inside.

Came out nice i think. I have tried stitching door panels a couple different ways but i think this way proved effective so i may keep it in my bag of tricks.

If you have other suggestions or ideas on how to accomplish this look please let me know. Thanks!

@Matt Hamblin That looks awesome! Beautiful lines.

Those look awesome!! That had to have been extremely tedious to get all the stitching to line up in the recessed design area on the door panel.

Yes it was. A lot of hand tying thread lol

Wow . . . very nice.

Is there a trick to get the top stitch to intersect cleanly where the vertical and horizontal stitching meets?

Basically i stitch the outer section then measure my pleated section to the size i want. Then just make sure that the stitches will intersect with a needle punched hole. I did have to move my pleats a little here and there just due to variances in the stitch length or the way the foam reacted. You just have to make sure you drop the needle in the existing holes and not in the top stitch. A little tricky and time consuming but makes for a nice look.

That came out beautiful! Very nice work!

Thanks @John
It took a while but customer liked it, and that's what matters most.

Nice job !!! I always like to back the closed cell tends to make the top rise a small amount and stitches wont put thru foam.