upholstery material

Probably 12 to 16 yards, depending on fabric design, pleats, etc. That’s a minimum of 3 for each seat, 1 for each door, 2 for quarters and misc. Another 3 yards of headliner material, if your material is wide enough to reach side to side inside top. Without measuring the car or a similar one can’t get any closer, unless someone has upholstered same. I can tell you a lot closer on leather and top material for an open car, done a bunch of them! best- David Coco Winchester Va.

Hi- a touring car (seats, doors, quarters, kick panels) usually takes 6 to 7 good hides (50 square feet, minimal defects in leather). This can vary slightly, of course, for example, a lot of tourings have leather covering the back of the front seat, and that’s a large area. Jump seats would add square footage. Some carpet has leather binding, so there you’d need to get a piece of a hide skived and formed into single edge binding. Some defects in leather can be hidden in sewn seams, so style of interior matters too. From that you should be able to judge how much of a closed car you can do. You might get seats and doors done with 6 hides, but rear quarters and headliner would need to be other material. I’ve only done one car with a leather headliner, a Cunningham coupe, and that is no fun, headliner needs to be a light material. Best- dc

Agreed, extra is always better. And if hides have defects, it takes more of course. Was at Hershey buying hides for a friend’s car, at the Hirsch tent. Was inspecting each hide, looking for scratches and fly eggs and such (flys lay eggs in a living cow hide, eggs dry up when leather made, and you can stretch a piece of leather and all of a sudden POP up come the eggs and a big scar). Bill Hirsch walked over, what are you doing, he asked. Checking quality of leather I replied. No No, all my leather is perfect he says. Fun. You can usually figure that on a car job you’ll have 1/2 to a full hide of scraps, ends, bad leather etc. Best- David C.