A place for auto upholstery professionals to read news, connect and talk shop

Joe, welcome. I too am self taught. My family did a lot of hand tooled leather work when I was young. I was around upholstery, but too young to learn a lot.

I'd love to see some under construction shots with any narrative you're willing to include. Your work is outstanding!

+1 for what working class just stated!

and look, 5 years ago you didn't think you were going to even make it in this industry! (that how im feeling right now with only 3 yrs of business under my belt)
Thats quite a jump from almost quitting straight to SEMA!! Love the work, keep it up and feel free to post most pictures as to they are all inspirational!

I would share info and help out anyone that wasn't a complete a-hole in the industry. Even if they were across the street.

Thank you all for the welcome.

Nadeem, in todays times, my location is irrelevant. I probably have had more customers from Pennsylvania than I have had from Georgia. In fact, I can count on one hand how many local cars I've had in my shop since I started. The internet has allowed me to break traditional boundaries and garner customers from all over the world. The Diablo came from Indiana, the Veloster was from California. I have a customer driving down from Canada in about a month. It's all about how you align your business model.

Now, I have to say that my overall business is very different from most here. I only do about four or five full interiors a year where the car is in front of me. The bulk of my business is from interior accessories that I sell to specific car communities. Shift boots, brake boots, elbow pads, steering wheels, etc. It's the small items that keep me going and allow me to have customers from all over.

The larger dividing line between us would probably be the cars we work on versus the distance. I don't work on older cars. Hot rods, street rods, vintage muscle, and classics are not my specialty. I don't do repairs, headliners, boats, or work with vinyl. There are so many talented artists and craftsman that cover those fields that it's so hard to break into the business going after the same customers. The key for my success was to find a niche that had not been explored or, not thoroughly anyway.

I stick with new cars. Owners that have just purchased their vehicles and just want to accessorize them so they don't blend into the crowd. The guy that just wants a small touch here or there so his car is unique. I tend to snag a larger project here and there through those customers. I also specialize in Alcantara which is what draws some of the high end cars my way. Focusing my skills in this niche has allowed me to progress faster than someone that might be learning everything from tuck and roll to modern day styles.

Working-class, I'd love to show some progress shots but most things are packed up and shipped out before I even have a chance to realize it has left. I'll definitely post up some progress shots on the next full interior build we do.

Quote from Adam on July 16, 2012, 12:35
How long does it takefor you to do an estimateon some of these cars? Do you charge for estimates? Sometimes i feel myself waisting close to 2days one 1 and the customer freaks when i tell him a price

Usually a few hours to crank one out. It depends on how much needs to get done. Some items always take about the same amount of time no matter what car they're in. For instance, the seats in a Hyundai are probably not that different than the seats in a new Subaru and so on. I just take a base price and add on what I think it would take for me to do any custom adjustments if needed. Also, if any materials change, it's easy to figure a change for that.

I don't charge for estimates as most customers typically just want a ballpark figure. That's enough for them to decide whether or not they can afford to do what they're after. If they keep talking, we go down to particulars and I don't mind taking extra time as I've probably earned the job by that point.

I do charge for scheduling in a project though. Since I run a fairly small business, if someone cancelled a larger project on me, it would just throw a wrench in the works. If a customer wants to bring a car in, I charge him a fee for the time slot. The fee gets put towards the final job price once the work is done. If he backs out though, he loses the money. I started doing that after a supposedly reputable customer promised me a rather large job causing me to clear out my schedule. In the end, he was just a big talker and I ended up with dead time that I needed to fill quickly.

Quote from Steve@EdgeAutomotive on July 16, 2012, 20:17
Hi Joe, welcome to the forum! I'm like you and don't really work on the older cars. I'm based in the UK and work on the newer cars. Although we don't get many hotrods here in the uk!

In the following picture, that doesn't happen to be an A pillar gauge pod for a supra does it? I've got one in at the minute and its very similar!

Also, when it comes to your Alcantara wheels, do you back the Alcantara with anything?

Thanks Steve. That is a pillar pod for a Nissan 240SX I believe. They all pretty much look the same though.

As for the wheels, there is a backing to them but I cannot share what it is. The Pannel Alcantara by itself is too thin and would simply rip apart when stitching it together and cause a lot of wrinkles in the process. I guess you could say part of the secret to a wrinkle free Alcantara wheel is the backing. It took me a long time to find out what works best and it is one of the few things I'm reluctant to share so please pardon the lack of details.

I will say this though, if someone asks for a thickened wheel, I use actual suede as a base layer on the wheel. It's easy to glue on the rubber core and I can feather it down around the spokes very easily with either a razor or die grinder. Plus, because it stretches so much, I don't have any wrinkling issues as long as I pull it on the perimeter tightly.

Quote from Adam on July 17, 2012, 00:29
Whats a price tag on steering wheels if you dont mind me asking. Also where do you get your alcantara from?

I charge a base price of $395 for wheels I already have a pattern for and that are three spoke. The price goes up for German cars as they finish their wheels differently and have padding built in sometimes. I add small fees for thickening the wheel, adding a center stripe, or if I need to make the pattern.

Gulf Fabrics is the only authorized importer of Alcantara to the United States. I have an account set up through them but am also a reseller myself. Most of the regular products I sell through my website are Alcantara so I end up moving a lot of it to customers who have DIY projects and even other shops. If you ever need any, you can purchase it directly off my site: http://www.jpmcoachworks.com/jpm/shop-materials/genuine-alcantara.html

How does the Alacantra hold up to sun fading? There are a lot of suedes that easily fade in sunlight.

Very nice Steve. The bottom spoke on the Clio looks like it might have been a paint to get right.

amazing work

Quote from aunc on July 19, 2012, 19:22
Very nice work! I was wondering what kind of time you had involved in the first wheel that you wrapped. Were they all chargeable hours? Or did you chalk some of the time up to education? How much time have you shaved off since that first one?

I wish I was able to charge for my first wheel. That was all experimentation. Of course, if I did charge for it, the buyer would probably not have been happy Can't remember how long it took me, probably half a day worth of fiddling around.

Right now, they take about four hours or so I guess if I have to make a new pattern for one. I can do one in less than an hour if I have the pattern digitized and use a cnc cutter to crank out the panels. I've probably made close to 60-70 by now I would imagine and there's still more to learn. I need more practice on German wheels. Those are the most difficult.