Sewing leather

I think you stumped us there .. but I will say your in the UK and some of the finest interiors I have ever seen come out of the UK .. I own a MKIV Autocraft Cobra and the interior is gorgeous.

I have been thinking of doing the same thing redoing the inteior in black leather ..so I would love to see pics of your progress ??
ROn

Johnny Woods did his own interior in leather, 1st time! It is gorgeous. He is one of your neighbors in the UK at least from my perspective here in California.
He posts here often, PM him, I sure he would have lots of advice for you.
Jim Cain
#5774

Phil,

Call me on 0781 718 7333. I have experience in trimming and would be happy to advise. Here's one of the Sparco seats I did for my friends GT5.

Johnny

That is just unbelievable professional work, Johnny!

Michael

Wow nice job Johnny ... and tips you can give us ..what are you using for a sewing machine ??

Ron

Thanks Michael & Ron,

This is my second attempt at trimming. I did this interior for my friends red GT5. I bought an old German industrial "walking foot" sewing machine made by Phaff. I spent some time modifying the machine before I was happy with it. This involved making some unique stitching feet and gearing the machine down to a snails pace.

The walking foot is the most important thing to look for. Without this it's much harder. I paid £500 ($1000) for the machine. When I did my car I had a good quality old domestic machine. After modifying it I did achieve some nice results, but struggled the whole way through it. Trimming a car is hard enough without having to fight with the machine.

Teaching yourself how to sew requires determination and you have to be prepared to work all day on something and then throw it away and start again if it doesn't work out. When I did the interior on my car, I wanted to go from having never sewn anything in my life to professional results. To achieve this I practised in vinyl over and over and over until I was happy with it. I then used Connolly leather. Sadly, Connoly went out of business in 2002, so I now use Porsche leather. Porsche have there own tannery and it's nearly as good a Connolly. The red and black interior in these pictures is all Porsche leather. I am very pleased with the way it turned out..


Johnny

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Your work is absolutly beautiful. From the quality of work on everything on your car, you have proved to master everything you touch. I am mucho impressed.

WOW ... would you like to do a BLACK AND ORANGE color interior ??

Ron

Johnny,

Are you a real person, or are you a machine? Maybe an alien? How does one go from having never sewn, to flawless results like that? Everything you do turns out masterful! You truly are a blessed, and very skilled being.

Michael

FANTASTIC!

Johnny,Your work is awe inspiring. Thanks for taking the time to share with us mere mortals and pedestrian craftsman. Jim Coyne

I have known or met several people in my life who just have a gift, they are good with their hands. They are born with this talent, its nothing you can learn.

I have told Johnny this privately, (Johnny I hope it doesn't embarrass you for me to write it publicly) he is as good with his hands as anyone I know, second to none. All of his work is over the top, drop dead gorgeous.

thanks Johnny for sharing with us

Incredible, Flawless, Awesome, Bitchen (sorry George it fit so well!) Beautiful.....Great Work!!!!!
Jeff

Whoaaa Johnny! You the Man!

Wow, what an overwhelming response! Thank you all for all the kind words, it does motivate me.
Here are 2 final pics for Mark of the finished interior. I feel the seats are slightly too big for the Pantera, they are quite tall and the ears stick out a bit, but then they are supposed to be racing seats. I installed harness style inertia seat belts that make it easy to move around.

This weekend a friend is bringing his Lotus Elise down to my workshop for me to try one of the seats in my Pantera. I have an idea about trimming them in a Pantera style. Elise seats are tiny though, so may not look right. The reason I am attracted to them is the weight. My original De tomaso seats with the adjustable backs weigh 30lbs each. Elise seats will be less than half that.

Cheers, Johnny

Last pic

Johnny,
One of the companys I own here is a Custom Upholstery company & I've got to tell you that your work is magnificent. I have three what I consider "Master" upholsterers working for me that among them have 75 years of experience & I had them take a look at your posted pixs. They all tell me that normally it takes 5+ years of constant training for a person who has never done upholstering to attain the high level of work that would match what you're doing now. Needless to say, they were all impressed & asked when I was going to hire you! When I told them where you are, they were all diappointed but said to tell you that you always had a job waiting for you if you ever relocate to the US. I agree with all the above posts that you are a gifted individual & all I can say is "Keep Up The Good Work"!

Bob

Incredible work Johnny! Maybe I can do something like that when I grow up....

Now theres a business trip for you George !!! to the UK for research for the next magazine ... Cali to Heathrow ... wow that would be some trip ..

Ron

As amazing as his leather work is, his metal and paint work is astounding. Hey Johnny, ever think of taking up brain surgery?

quote:

Originally posted by deeb:
As amazing as his leather work is, his metal and paint work is astounding. Hey Johnny, ever think of taking up brain surgery?

He can work on mine first, needs fixin'

I have a question Johnny. Did you sew each side of the double stitch separately or does your machine have two needles?
I saw a program on TV where they went into the Ferrari trim shop and they have a machine with two needles that sews on both sides of the center stitch simultaneously. I was just wondering if your machine was like that.
Thanks

Hi Brooke,

My machine only has one needle, so I do each side of the French seam separately. I have never tried a double needle machine, but I dont like the idea, there would be twice as much to go wrong.

Johnny

WOW! Both sides individually, even more impressive. I have a Pfaff 468 that I have been practicing on but I chickened out and bought all vinyl to try my first set of covers.
Your work is awesome!

Wow! Wow! Wow! and did I include WOW! Unbelievable! Great job Johnny!

Thank you!

quote:

This weekend a friend is bringing his Lotus Elise down to my workshop for me to try one of the seats in my Pantera. I have an idea about trimming them in a Pantera style. Elise seats are tiny though, so may not look right. The reason I am attracted to them is the weight. My original De tomaso seats with the adjustable backs weigh 30lbs each. Elise seats will be less than half that.

Johnny, I'll add to that praise, your work whether it be sewing, metalcraft or engineered parts is flawless.

I think you are going to like the Elise seats for your objectives of weight savings plus looks, although they are a bit tall for a Pantera in my view with the slim headrest. But if you are going to make new covers you could potentially cut that part of the seat head rest down a bit. I actually prefer the Exige Probax seats, but at $1200 a pop, couldn't warrant them and at that price there are likely some equally good alternatives.

What is the weight of your Pantera now?

Julian,

I did try an Elise seat in my Pantera and liked it. I was concerned it would look a bit narrow, but it looked fine.
I know what you mean about it looking too tall, I could live with it though, or cut it down and install the original Pantera head rest. The Elese seat with its adjustable steel runners weighed 17.5lbs, so it's nearly half the weight of the original seat and would be without the runners. I dont need it to be adjustable.
I didn't get to take any pictures of it in the car.

I haven't worked on the car for a while, so no new weight savings at the moment. Last time I had it on the bridge it was 2860lbs with iron heads. I can't afford to build my aluminium DART motor yet. All good things come to those that wait..

Johnny

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Found my used ( 3000 miles on them ) on the Lotus boards. Think I paid like 700.00 for both, they fit in the Pantera very well

They look great, I want some now. I like the simplicity of them and find them in keeping with a narrow bodied Pantera. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Johnny

Hi Johnny,

sure is beautiful work. I'm looking at the seat positions and the firewall in your pics.

I have just brought a 74 Pantera #6368 from the states to Aus, and have the RHD exercise to go through. Its not compulsory any more but I have some serious front end bodywork to do anyway. With the RHD factory cars, did they have the firewall mod and the relocated alternator to allow the drivers seat to go right back? I'm 6'1" and can't sit in the RH side even before relocating pedals!

any advice or tips on the process appreciated.

Peter