New Custom Upholstery

Here's a shot of my new interior installed June, 2005. It was sewn by Jake of Original Falcon Interiors here in Seattle. I was lucky enough to be able to go down to his shop, which is just a few miles from my home, and pick out the fabric. It is new old stock from the early 60s and he had just enough to do my seats with a little left over for some matching pillows my wife will sew together soon. Since this is my daily driver, I plan on buying some slipcovers to protect the front seat. Something that can be easily removed for car shows or weekend cruising. I will also do some research to find a good product to protect the fabric from stains and UV deterioration and something to maintain the vinyl.

I did the installation myself and it wasn't too difficult. I had to replace three springs and I added three 1/8" diameter metal rods across the width of the seat to add strength. They are attached to underneath side of the springs that run front to back. I also replaced a couple of coil springs at the rear corners that were missing. I replaced the deteriorating burlap sitting on the springs with some moving blanket material I had laying around and added some new batting. Then it was just a matter of using hog rings to attach the upholstery to the frame. I used coat hanger wire to replace the old listing wire along several edges. It fit great and I'm very pleased with the results.

As you Elvis fans know, the logo on the back seat means "Takin' Care of Business...Lightning Fast!" A friend of mine works for a company that digitizes artwork for machine embroidery and they were kind enough to do this one of a kind, custom work of art based on jewlery that Elvis would hand out to close friends. The logo can also be seen on his karate uniforms and the tail of his jet, the Lisa Marie. You can also see the silver metallic threads that run through the fabric in this photo as well as the silver piping.

This is the seat that was in before my latest. It always felt low to me and I finally figured out it was from a later 60s convertible. Luckily Jake was able to trade this seat for one that was correct for my year.

Prior to that seat, I had buckets in for a couple of years. I recovered these seats with some vinyl covers from JC Whitney. I never really liked the buckets and had a strong desire to return to the original feel of a bench seat.

This is the seat that was in the car when I bought it. I'm not sure where it came from but it had a pair of GM seatbelts. The one feature I liked was the middle armrest that folded down in the middle. The back seat remained the same up until I installed my new custom upholstery.