Leather Capping: How-To ?

[Moseso]

Has anyone here recovered the dash, door & dog-leg caps in a TR2/3 with leather? I am preparing to do this and beginning to see the difficulties in stretching the material to fit as nicely and wrinkle-free as the old English guys got it to do.

Can anyone give pointers, or direct me to some website that has them?

Also: The steel door and dog-leg caps appear to never have been painted before covering. (A fine, even rust everywhere, and no traces of paint.) I figure, some kind of coating would be a good idea, but not sure what to use that won't be dissolved by contact cement and will adhere at least as well as the cement. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[martx-5]

My dash had primer on it when I removed the old covering. I redid all my cappings in leather including the dash. That was done in leather also. Patience is the key here. I suggest that you work on the aluminium and door cappings first, as they are pretty straight forward. The dog leg cappings are much more of a problem, as getting them wrinkle free is some work. If you click on this earlier thread of mine, I briefly explain how I did it, but there is a link in that thread by Geo Hahn that shows and explains more in detail on how to do it. He also shows a form made from a piece of 3/4" wood that holds the dog leg while stretching. It is imperative that you use this. It is the key to really stretching out the leather.

Once you've accomplished all of that, you can focus on the dash. The key here is to take you time and do one section at a time. I'll dig out the link to that, as it has some pointers in it.

Edit: My original dash post didn't explain very much, so I'll try to go over some of the basics.

What I did first was to spary some contact adhesive on the front surface of the dash, and carefully applied the leather, smoothing things out. Then it's just a matter of cutting out where the holes, etc are and around the edge. Leave yourself lots to play with. You can cut closer when you have things strected around the sides and through the holes. Work slowly, one section at a time. When you have a section the looks good, fold it back and apply the contact cement on the dash and the leather. I used Weldwood's contact cement in the jar that has the brush in it. If you kinda cut the drying time down a bit, it will give you some time to work the leather into position. It won't be a do or die proposition. Think before you make any drastic cuts and you should be OK.

The area around the steering column is very tricky, as there is very little material to work with. Cut slowly and carefully and you will see how things fall into position. I made a slit in the middle about half way up, and then started folding the leather into position. You will have to coax things a bit, and possible slit a little more, but it can be done. I remember using a socket that just fit into the cavity and massaging it into position. I even used a small clamp to hold it there for awhile as the glue dried.

BTW, the only time I soaked the leather, was for the dog leg cappings. I also used some heat from a hair drier. I think I may have also used the hair dryer on some of the dash sections, but I don't remember.

 

[Moseso]

Thank you, martx-5. I'm not too worried about the dash. I'm tossing around the notion of making a wood one (my trade) or recovering the metal one in stock vinyl. It's flat enough that I think my previous (limited) experience covering wood things will get me through that.

The dog-leg piece and the door cappings look seriously tougher! I looked at the picture of your red dog leg cap -- beautiful!

Could you give as much detail about that process as you did about the dash? I'm having some difficulty wrapping my head around the combination of contact adhesive, water and heat. You can't use them all at once. Do you form the leather and then stick it later, when dry?

 

[tr6_easyrider]

martx-5 WOW!!! Nice job....
Joe

 

[DougF]

I did mine the easy way. Larry Learn. Larry has probably done more side curtain Triumph interiors than anybody. His work is beautiful.
I won't profess in knowing how to do the job, but steam is necessary to get the leather to stretch the way it needs to in order to get a wrinkle free final product.

 

[martx-5]

... I'm having some difficulty wrapping my head around the combination of contact adhesive, water and heat. You can't use them all at once. Do you form the leather and then stick it later, when dry?

I'm trying to remember exactly how I did the dog leg cappings, so bear with me. If you go back to the Thread that I linked to, and look at Geo Hahn's dogleg3 picture, you will see how the leather is stretched over the dogleg. I soaked the leather for about fifteen minutes, and then let the excess moisture drip off. I remember drying the upper, straighter section with paper towels, and spaying some contact glue on that section. That was enough to hold the leather in place until I streched the leather as shown in Geo's picture. I did need a little heat, but it wasnt's much. Once everything was pretty much in position, I pulled back the leather on the sides enough to brush some contact cement on the sides of the steel dogleg piece and the leather itself. Then I streched it back down. Once things were pretty much set, I trimmed the leather around the sides, leaving about 3/4"-1" and glued it around the back of the dogleg, slitting and mitering it where neccessary. I found that you can cheat a little with the Weldwood contact cement by not letting it fully cure as they say on the bottle. It does let you slide things around a bit before it dries completely.