Interior Intentions

Jan. 1, 2020
Once you have vacuumed up the glass, a simple trick will tell if you have successfully removed all of it. Take a piece of tissue, and lightly pull it across the area where the glass was. If there are any small shards still imbedded in the upholstery,

What can you do to repair damaged interiors? A lot more than you may realize.

It seems that whenever I begin to reminisce about one of my first automotive experiences, I give away my age. This instance is no different. Remember the movie American Graffiti? I do, fondly. Part of the reason is the really cool cars that were featured in it and the memory I have of a major event in my young life. I was driving home after seeing that movie at a drive in, and I passed an unbelievable site. Out of the corner of my eye, glistening under the night sky and the nearby streetlight sat a white, fender-less 1933 Plymouth 5 window coupe. I slammed on my brakes and stared at it. What a beautiful sight it was. After having just seen a similar vehicle tear up the road in the film, I said to myself as I wiped the drool from my chin, "I'm going to own that car."

Through a set of unbelievable circumstances, a couple months later, I did just that. I immediately set out to restore it hot rod style. The project took two years, but it came out beautiful. One of the most challenging parts of the restoration/transformation was the interior and upholstery work. I knew basic body work, but didn't know much about upholstery. I set out to read as much as I could about it, and I learned quite a bit. Since then, I have always tried to maintain a solid level of knowledge regarding this art.

When most of us look at a vehicle, we admire its clean lines, smooth bodywork and glistening paint but fail to appreciate the importance of the interior. The interior is where you spend all of your time while driving. A beautifully maintained and appointed interior is paramount to the overall look and feel of a vehicle. Unfortunately, when an interior is damaged, there are very few shops with the knowledge or experience to restore that damage to "like new" condition. Repairing upholstery is not just sewing in a patch on a torn leather or cloth seat. It also means removing food and bloodstains along with removing smoke damage and grease from the fabrics and leather. It can also mean re-gluing a sagging headliner or re-attaching a loose interior trim panel.

During the course of a normal collision repair, it is highly likely that your shop will encounter a vehicle that has some type of interior or upholstery damage that will have to be addressed during the repair. Many shops see this but are unsure how to handle even the most basic of repairs and rely on a sublet vendor to handle them. I am going to go over several examples of very simple trim repairs that you can do in-house that will speed the repair process for your customers and maybe help you keep a little more profit where it belongs — in your pockets.

Information basics

As I mentioned, under normal circumstances, you will not encounter major interior or upholstery damage during the course of normal collision repair. Major repair requires special sewing machines and equipment and years of specialized training. You will, however, experience damage caused by air bag deployment, which in the case of seat bolster air bags will necessitate seat cover replacement. This is one of the larger tasks in a collision shop, regarding upholstery repairs that you will experience. However, it's fairly easy to do and requires only a few special tools, a little patience and some guidance.

I'm a firm believer in researching a process, before I attempt to perform it. Always read the directions. It will save countless problems later. When attempting to replace a seat covering after an air bag deployment, the first place I go to for reference is the vehicle manufacturer repair manuals or a mechanical repair reference manual/program, like ALLDATA.

If you don't have these reference materials, contact your local dealer, or mechanical shop. If you deal with them for sublet work or parts purchases, they will almost always let you use or give you access to their material. If not, go to your library or the Internet. Many libraries have a very extensive repair reference library, and you can find information on just about anything on the Internet.

These manuals will describe the process to replace the damaged component in detail following all the manufacturers recommended procedures. Usually all you need is a set of hog ring pliers, sockets and some muscle. These manuals will also help you locate the proper trim codes to help in ordering the correct material needed in the repair.

Typically, the damaged seat would first be removed form the vehicle. Again, the specific process for the vehicle you are working on would need to be studied. Once removed, set the seat assembly on your workbench. Activate the seat recliner mechanism and fold the seat back forward. Look at the lower portion of the seat back by the hinged area for the attachment points. Some seats have a zipper built in to help gain access. If yours does, unzip the zipper, and lift a corner of the fabric to look for the hog rings or the hooks that attach the fabric to the seat frame.

Before attempting to remove or unfasten the clips, remove the headrest and the headrest trim plates. Be aware that the fabric is stretched tight and will be under pressure. You will have to pull down fairly hard in order to release the pressure enough to remove the attachments.

Once the attachment rings are loose, you should be able to slip the fabric up off of the seat back. Once the fabric is removed, examine the seat foam or batting for damage. Installation of the new fabric is performed in the reverse of this process.

Familiar scenarios, ready solutions

Again, in an average collision shop, smaller repairs will be the norm. Here's an example. Does this sound familiar? You walk out to your back lot to look at the car that was towed in earlier in the day clipboard in hand prepared to begin writing an estimate on the damage. As you approach, through the raindrops, (it's been raining all day) you notice the door glass is broken out due to the impact the vehicle sustained to the door.

Naturally, there has been no attempt made to cover the open window. As you get closer, you see the glass all over the driver's leather seat, intermixed with lots of water and a little bit of blood. The tow truck driver put a piece of cardboard on the seat when he moved the car onto and off of his truck so he wouldn't sit directly on the broken glass. The cardboard is still there with bits of glass stuck in it and in the leather seats. The carpet is soaked, and the interior smells. You open the door, and notice, in addition to the problems you've already seen, coffee splashed all over the dash and the carpets. The driver must have had a cup of coffee in a cup holder or in his or her hand when the accident occurred. Without even addressing the sheet metal damage, you have a real mess on your hands.

All of us have experienced this scenario, more often than we would like to admit. Let's look at each scenario, and address it with some possible solutions.

Picking up the pieces

Simple cleaning might fix some of these issues but certainly not all of them. First, look at the broken glass. When cleaning up broken glass, be very cautious not to rub or swipe at the glass shards. Not only will this cause a cut in your hands, it will further damage the material or the leather in the vehicle. Pick up all loose glass with a powerful shop vacuum. Take your time, and move slowly, letting the vacuum do the work.

Once you have vacuumed up the glass, a simple trick will tell if you have successfully removed all of it. Take a piece of tissue, and lightly pull it across the area where the glass was. If there are any small shards still imbedded in the upholstery, the tissue will "grab" them as it passes over the spot. Re-vacuum those areas until the tissue can be moved easily over the area without catching anything. Once you finish vacuuming, take a piece of duct tape, and with the sticky side down, pat it on the area. This should help lift out any remaining glass shards.

Spot removal

If the material is stained, there are products that work very well to remove organic stains like those from blood or food. These products are available at almost all retail stores. When cleaning cloth of any kind with a product like this, always test the fabric on an inconspicuous spot to make sure it does not stain it worse, or remove the color from the fabric. Once you are satisfied it won't damage the panel, spray some directly on the spot and let it sit for about 20 seconds. Using a soft cloth, apply pressure to the stained area, and dab up the stain. Do not rub the stained area with pressure.

Rubbing the area will cause the material to fuzz up and make the spot obvious after it has dried. Let the product do the work. If two applications are necessary, go ahead and do a second one. Remember to dab up the stain, do not rub.

If the material is stained with grease or tar, aerosol brake cleaner works very well to remove these types of damage. Use the same approach as you would with the aerosol cleaner. After you have removed the stain with the brake cleaner, dab the repair area with a wet rag and some clean water to remove the chemical residue.

Once the stains are out, examine the panel for damage caused by the broken glass. On cloth seats, this may be difficult to see, however on leather or vinyl, you will be able to see small perforations or scratches fairly easily.

If the fabric has sustained damage in the form of small holes, these can be easily repaired by gluing small bits of "fuzz" created by lightly scraping the surface of the material with a razor blade. Do this in an inconspicuous area, such as the underside of the seat.

Place a very small drop of adhesive in the void caused by the glass, and while the glue is still wet, drop some of the "fuzz" into the glue. When dried, it is an inconspicuous repair, because it's essentially made from the same fabric as the seat itself.

"Easy does it" is the rule here. A big glob of glue is going to look just as unsightly as the hole, so go slowly, and sparingly. Don't attempt to fix multiple holes in one area with this method; it will work for a few small imperfections here and there. Even when professionals perform this type of repair on multiple holes, there is a really good chance the repairs will wear differently that the seat material, and become obvious after time. If you have lots of holes in a fabric seat, the best repair is to replace the panel.

Leather rehab

Leather actually is easier to repair than cloth. The first step here is to determine whether the surface is leather or vinyl. Some of today's high-grade vinyls are very good representations of leather, and its difficult to tell their composition by looking at them. However, you can easily determine this by looking under the seat at the backing of the material. Typically, vinyl will have a white cloth backing adhered to it, and leather will not. If the material is leather, and the holes or scuffs in it are very tiny, sometimes the application of heat will remove the damage. A heat gun or a hair dryer will work here.

Move the tool in a circular motion around the damaged area, while massaging the leather at the same time, and you will be able to remove most light damage easily. Once the damage is removed, treat the leather with a good quality leather treatment. For larger holes in leather, you can use leather repair filler and a graining tool to facilitate a repair.

There are some very high-quality leather repair kits available on the market today that include the repair material, graining tools and detailed instructions on how to use the product. Many are available in a multitude of colors for a really good match. I suggest using a material as close to the seat or panel color as possible, and when the repairs are completed, dying the entire repair panel to get uniform color. Your paint jobber can supply the leather dye and the repair material.

Repairing a vinyl product is virtually the same process, except that after the repair is performed, the vinyl wouldn't be dyed, it would actually be painted with vinyl paint. Once again, this product would be available from your jobber.

Carpet questions

Next, let's look at the carpeting. Underneath the carpet itself, in most vehicles, is a layer of jute, or foam padding. When water seeps through the carpeting, and into or under the padding, it can develop into many problems. Mold can develop, and even become a health issue. I recommend the carpet be completely removed, again referring to your ALLDATA guide for process reference.

After the carpet is taken out, remove and discard any wet padding that was under the carpet.

Thoroughly wash the carpet itself, and let it dry completely. (I have on occasion put carpets in my spray booth while it is on the bake cycle.) Once the padding is removed, dry off the floor panel itself. Look for any electrical connections, and blow them out to remove any excess moisture. After blowing them out, spray them with WD40, to lubricate them, and displace any excess moisture.

Determine the type of padding that was underneath the carpet, and through your jobber, order a roll of replacement material.

Measure and cut from the roll, the sections of padding needed to replace the damaged pad. Once completed, re-install the carpet, again following the manufacturers guidelines.

Smoke signals

Minor smoke damage can be addressed by using an over-the-counter odor eliminator or for larger jobs by renting a deionizer from your local tool rental shop. A de-ionizer works with electricity to eliminate the odor, and leave the interior material smelling fresh and new. This works well but typically only on minor smoke damage. In the event of major damage, the interior would need to be completely replaced.

You can do it

Minor upholstery repairs can easily be undertaken by anyone with a little skill and patience, who is willing to follow the recommended process. After you begin to master these techniques, you will also be able to gauge the amount of time, and material it will take to do a minor repair, and you will be able to accurately estimate these costs so you can include them in your repair blueprint before starting the job. Outlining expectations and costs up front helps everyone in the repair process and ultimately gets the customer back on the road sooner, and in the most cost-effective way.

About the Author

Kevin Mehok

Kevin M Mehok is the CEO of Crashcosts.com and a current board member for several other companies. In his nearly 30 years of experience in the collision industry, he was Operations Director for CARCARE Collision Centers, and Collision Centers of America. He also served as Regional VP for Collision Team of America, and has worked in similar roles with several other Chicago area consolidators, Gerber, (Boyd) and Cars. He can be reached through e mail at: [email protected].

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