Beta Seat Upholstrey Kit ????

[Jim Fierst]

Where there ever any Beta upholstrey kits for the seats only?? Any difference between the 79 and earlier? Any other seats a good fit ? Mine have started to part at the seams .

[Jim Keller]

Just have them sewn! I take out my seats, seperate them from the frames and tracks so it is just the cushion and take them to an uhposltery shop where they sew them up and re-do the hog rings, it cost about $120 a seat here, more if you make the place tak the seats apart.
Then if the leather is a tad stiff, I soak it in mink oil, (an old motorcycle boot softening/water proofing trick I learned from a WW2 vet years ago), once they are soft and the oil is soaked in good, I wipe/wash off the excess using dish soap and coat them in Kiwi brand "Liquid" "Self shine" black shoe polish, once that dries to a briliant shine, I use a cotton baby diaper to buff them to get the shine down to look more natural and more satin than shinny and re-install them, they will look brand new if you do this. You can do the mink oil and polish with the seat in the car, you don't have to take them out for that part. I also do the leather inserts in the door with the polish
I would only have seats sewn if the leather wasn't shrunken up.

[davidb]

Connely's Hide Food is good IF the leather is
"reviveable". Availible @ Jag/Rolls/Bentley
dealers. My upolstery place charged me
$65 a seam for my LBZ. My Scorp. is gonna
need a re-leather. He offers good/better/
best grades of leather. Quite a price spread
from grade-to-grade.

[FinnJohn]

Where there ever any Beta upholstrey kits for the seats only?? Any difference between the 79 and earlier? Any other seats a good fit ? Mine have started to part at the seams .

All I can say from experience (earlier today as a matterfact!) is that '81 Beta Coupe back seat backs do NOT interchange with '81 Zagatos! The squabs do, though.

[davidb]

Found that out did 'ya? There's more odd coupe vs.
Zagato parts quirks you'll encounter down the road.
Could'nt resist the pun.

[Will]

Squab? WTF is a squab, the headrest? Squab ain't in my lexicon, Google says it's a pigeon. For my edification, could you please let me know if squab refers to headrest, backrest, seat cushion, etc? Bonnet and boot, I get. Wing, ditto, but squab??

[davidb]

Maybe the rear seat cushion? Say anybody know the color the
leather was in '76 US Scorps that had red paint? Mine has
like biscuit/beige naugahyde the PO said was correct. If
I go for a leather re-do [$$$$] I'd like it right.

[HFStuart]

The squab is the seat cushion. No idea why it's called that in the UK but it is.

Stuart

[FinnJohn]

Sorry, I didn't realize this was a Britspeak word, I thought it was the general term for the bottom part of the seat. I first learned it while discussing Jaguar upholstery, though, so I should have known ...


The squab is the seat cushion. No idea why it's called that in the UK but it is.

Stuart

[HFStuart]

'Britspeak'

Or English as we like to call it.... ;-)

[FinnJohn]

'Britspeak'

Or English as we like to call it.... ;-)

Ooh, that did sound kind of obnoxious, didn't it? I didn't mean it that way. Sorry about that.

In defense of "Britspeak," though, I will say that I like "bonnet" and "wings" a helluva lot more than "hood" and "fenders." I guess there's a reason the "original recipe" is usually tastier than the "new extra crispy" one, if you know what I mean ...

Cheers!

--Finn

[HFStuart]

Actually I think the way American English and English English are diverging is fascinating. Especially as very often what the English regard as Americanisms turn out to be the original forms and uses.

Bill Bryson's 'Mother tongue' is a great introduction if anyone's interested.

Stuart

[davidb]

Ever heard of "thoroughly clean w/parrafin" ? In
the U.S.A. parrifin is a plumbers candle. Britspeak
is kerosine . So I melt the candle & clean the given
part with wax? Oh well . . .

[FinnJohn]

Ever heard of "thoroughly clean w/parrafin" ? In
the U.S.A. parrifin is a plumbers candle. Britspeak
is kerosine . So I melt the candle & clean the given
part with wax? Oh well . . .

My favorite of these sorts of transatlantic language confusions was recounted on Car Talk a couple years ago -- it didn't have to do with U.K. vs. U.S. English but it wouldn't have happened to a British tourist who called motor fuel "petrol" rather than "gasoline." Seems these American retirees were prowling around Italy and when they stopped to tank up their rental car, they naturally pulled up to the pump that said "Gasolio." I mean, that was obviously "Gasoline" in Italian, right ...?

Apparently this was before unleaded fuel became common and the nozzles for diesel pumps still fit the gas tank fillers of gasoline-powered cars ... I bet that mess was hard to clean up.

[Will]

They mean liquid paraffin, which goes by many names but the stuff I use is marketed as lamp oil , it is a very high grade of pure paraffin, sheds water and is one of the most effective natural solvents for grease and grime that you will ever have the pleasure of using. It also has the additional benefits of low viscosity and solids settle out of it quickly. Clean with paraffin and spray with Boeshield T-9 or wrap in Cortec and your parts will stay nice for a long time. Back in the good old days you would have had to clean them with kerosene and then smear gunky cosmolene all over them, would have made a mess and your garage would smell like the inside of a Zippo for weeks.

[davidb]

Hey, what about a "spanner" as opposed to a "box-end-wrench"?
Worthless post but I couldn't resist .