So, on with the story of the seats ...

Since I'd run out of ideas/people/places in my attempts to source some original fabric, I decided to take a slightly different approach.

Several of the restored 904's that I'd checked out featured seats which had been re-upholstered in a blue fabric that looked as though it might be a little easier to track down, so I started searching again.

One of the excuses that the trimmer had given for adding the (unwanted) stitching was that the material had no 'give' - so the new fabric had to be able to 'stretch' a little.

Eventually I found some fabric which seemed to fit the bill so I sent off for some samples.

The material was sold specifically for upholstering hard-wearing areas (ideal) & was described as being 'water & stain repellant' - again, sounds good ...

... what I hadn't read in the small print was that it was targetted for the seating in residential care homes, etc where the occupants might suffer from incontinence !

Consequently, the fabric had an impervious (latex) backing to prevent moisture penetration.

However the (fabric) samples looked good & it turned out to be very easy to peel the backing off in one piece leaving a material which seemed to meet the requirements.

It wasn't available without the backing (& I couldn't find it anywhere else) so I ordered 3 metres.

The material arrived a few days later & I set about peeling off the latex backing - like with the sample, the backing came off in one sheet but .... left a white latex/glue residue over the entire surface.





I experimented with a small area & found that it could be scraped off (slowly) with my thumbnail without causing any damage, so I laid it out on the floor & set about removing the residue ...

- this was the result after about 4 hours (approx 1.5m x 1m):





The whole job took me ~12 hours !!!

I decided to give the trimmer another chance (he does some very impressive work on a whole range of classic sportscars, racers, custom 'rods' etc & has been in business in the same location for 30+ years) so took the seats & fabric to him.

This time he followed my instructions & the seats turned out 'OK' - I'm still not happy with the fabric & will still keep looking, but these won't look too out of place in the meantime :







Definitely an area to be revisited ...


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