PNWTim
02-07-2026, 01:53 PM
I was surprised at the amount of interest this subject generated so I thought I would go ahead and start a thread and share the what, how and why of my ideas and progress. I will probably leave this as a standalone thread and report progress and details here instead of in my primary build thread.
For some background, I decided long ago the interior was going to be where I could express some individuality and creativity. Although so far above and out of my wheelhouse, I used the Singer Porsche interiors as a lot of my inspiration along with classic British interiors, specifically series 1 XKEs.
The Interior
My exterior is going to be some shade of light blue (TBD) with meatballs, white stripes, white pipes and racing decals. With that in mind, I wanted the interior to reflect the exterior. After ordering many, many samples, reviewing with my wife and kicking it around for several months we have decided on this textile palette:
225302
The seats are going to be a combination of a plaid center section, with the blue and white serving the bolster areas - probably more blue than white but I'm still working through this. Still deciding on GT40 grommets as well. The black is the shade of the dash which is getting covered in Alcantara and will be the only item in the car to be black. Door cards will be a combination of plaid and leather. Here is a typical Singer interior which I am using as some guidance:
225303
The carpet is a German square weave which I will bind the edges with either a darker grey or navy blue edge binding. I am also going to sew a heel pad into the main carpet and floor mats.
For those interested, all of these materials as well as the Serafil thread is being sourced from Relicate.
The Equipment
Once I decided to embark on a DIY upholstery journey I knew I needed a machine. I joined a couple of forums, watched many, many auto upholstery videos and slowly gathered the basics of what is required to do this kind of work. I narrowed down my used machine search to the Juki 1541, Pfaff 1545 and one of two Consews, the 206r or 226r. All of these are triple feed, reversible machines capable of sewing multiple layers of leather without missing a beat. They can be found on FB marketplace for around a $1000 depending on condition, etc. I ended up getting mine for $650 but knew I was going to upgrade the clutch motor to a servo motor and do a couple of other little things. The bobbin winder and light were in good shape so I just cleaned them up. Here are a couple of pictures:
225305225306
For those areas where glue is needed, such as the dash, door cards, and areas of carpet, I am using a spray gun and Weldwood Landau Top and Trim glue for all of my upholstery glue needs.
225309225310
The Plan (so far)
I won't really cover the dash as that's pretty straight forward. The Alcantara I purchased is backed by 1mm foam which makes it nice to cover with as I won't have to glue foam, then fabric but can do it all in one step.
The seats are going to be deconstructed so I can use the original covers as patterns. I am going to change up the design of the insert portion a bit but nothing too drastic. There are actually quite a few pieces to the seats so if anything is going to challenge my abilities, it will be this. The nice thing about racing seats, the covers are meant to come off with the use of zippers and the cutting of a few hog rings. A couple of shots of my seat:
225311225312
I am going to forego any embroidery on the final product but I think you can tell from these two pictures how many individual pieces comprise the cover. That's probably enough for now, more to come over the next several weeks.
For some background, I decided long ago the interior was going to be where I could express some individuality and creativity. Although so far above and out of my wheelhouse, I used the Singer Porsche interiors as a lot of my inspiration along with classic British interiors, specifically series 1 XKEs.
The Interior
My exterior is going to be some shade of light blue (TBD) with meatballs, white stripes, white pipes and racing decals. With that in mind, I wanted the interior to reflect the exterior. After ordering many, many samples, reviewing with my wife and kicking it around for several months we have decided on this textile palette:
225302
The seats are going to be a combination of a plaid center section, with the blue and white serving the bolster areas - probably more blue than white but I'm still working through this. Still deciding on GT40 grommets as well. The black is the shade of the dash which is getting covered in Alcantara and will be the only item in the car to be black. Door cards will be a combination of plaid and leather. Here is a typical Singer interior which I am using as some guidance:
225303
The carpet is a German square weave which I will bind the edges with either a darker grey or navy blue edge binding. I am also going to sew a heel pad into the main carpet and floor mats.
For those interested, all of these materials as well as the Serafil thread is being sourced from Relicate.
The Equipment
Once I decided to embark on a DIY upholstery journey I knew I needed a machine. I joined a couple of forums, watched many, many auto upholstery videos and slowly gathered the basics of what is required to do this kind of work. I narrowed down my used machine search to the Juki 1541, Pfaff 1545 and one of two Consews, the 206r or 226r. All of these are triple feed, reversible machines capable of sewing multiple layers of leather without missing a beat. They can be found on FB marketplace for around a $1000 depending on condition, etc. I ended up getting mine for $650 but knew I was going to upgrade the clutch motor to a servo motor and do a couple of other little things. The bobbin winder and light were in good shape so I just cleaned them up. Here are a couple of pictures:
225305225306
For those areas where glue is needed, such as the dash, door cards, and areas of carpet, I am using a spray gun and Weldwood Landau Top and Trim glue for all of my upholstery glue needs.
225309225310
The Plan (so far)
I won't really cover the dash as that's pretty straight forward. The Alcantara I purchased is backed by 1mm foam which makes it nice to cover with as I won't have to glue foam, then fabric but can do it all in one step.
The seats are going to be deconstructed so I can use the original covers as patterns. I am going to change up the design of the insert portion a bit but nothing too drastic. There are actually quite a few pieces to the seats so if anything is going to challenge my abilities, it will be this. The nice thing about racing seats, the covers are meant to come off with the use of zippers and the cutting of a few hog rings. A couple of shots of my seat:
225311225312
I am going to forego any embroidery on the final product but I think you can tell from these two pictures how many individual pieces comprise the cover. That's probably enough for now, more to come over the next several weeks.