printed upholstery?

[sweptline64]

ok i've heard of people using photocopied upholstery to upholster thier car seats. has any one here done this, or now how to do it, and know where to get the upholstery,or can it be printed at home? any help would be greatly appreciated as i'm wanting to put a mexican styled blanket on a rat rod project. thanks guys for any and all help.

Edited July 11, 2010 by sweptline64

[roadhawg]

Scale Motorsport makes upholstery pattern decals that can be applied over a base color. I used their horizontal checkerboard pattern on these '61 Starliner seats......

You cut them to fit, and they apply just like regular decals. I see that they DO offer a Mexican blanket pattern.

As far as printing them yourself....I suppose you could, you would need to find a pattern to print, and keep in mind that you can't print white.

Good luck!

[sjordan2]

Well, you can print white if you use white decal paper. You can also print on fabric material made for inkjet printers - can't remember if I got mine at Michael's or JoAnn's (in the t-shirt art section).

[roadhawg]

At 8 bucks a sheet, the Scale Motorsport decals are probably cheaper than buying materials to print your own. However, if all you want to do is a Mexican blanket, maybe THIS is what you need.......

[Dr. Cranky]

Garred, it's easy to do. You just print up your pattern which you can find off Google Image, then work with a word processor to get the pattern down to scale and repeated into a sheet, like this:

Then you can have fun bringing in some very cool upholstery patterns and graphics to your builds . . . using white glue. If you use a laser printer, make sure you coat the final graphics with dullcoat . . . or something similar . . .

On some of my wilder builds, I like to have fun with this stuff as you can see here:

[sweptline64]

Thank you Cranky thats what i was looking for. Now one more question do you print it on regular paper, or decal paper? I just started doing scratch building and i want to have fun with it as i'm tired of building straight from the box. thank you everybody for your help. Oh and cranky i love your builds you are amazing.

Edited July 13, 2010 by sweptline64

[Dr. Cranky]

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, I printed on paper and then make a couple of passes with dullcoat or a fixative of some sort. Regular printer paper will do. Let it dry.

I use tape to make the patterns against the seats and panels, and then use that to cut the paper. Use white glue and let everything dry overnight.

You'll like the results.

[sweptline64]

ok thank you cranky i will be finding some patterns tonight thank you.

[charlzrocks]

Cool idea Mr. C...but white glue will stick to the styrene? Also, what to do if the seats already have a texture molded into them, like say...tuck and roll? This process intrigues me as I find that the interior of a build can be the most overlooked area.

[sjordan2]

Here's an example of a pattern that I recreated on the computer, using Quark XPress, for the racing plaid on 300 SL Gullwing seats (1:1 version in first image – picture is washed out and doesn't show the richness of color). It prints out nicely on thin fabric made for inkjet printers, available at craft stores (fabric may not be appropriate for scales under 1:16). The brackets at top left of the pattern indicate the proper number of squares for the seat back inserts (just measure the kit seats and print out to fit the scale of the model in question).

I might add that this pattern prints out much lighter for me than it appears onscreen. Takes some experimenting to make sure it prints out the way you want.

Edited July 16, 2010 by sjordan2

[puddingwrestler]

Damnably cool! Thanks Sweptline for asking the question, and thanks to his cranky emminence for giving me a sweet new idea to play with.

If only this happened a few weeks ago, I've just bought some scale motorsport decals, and if I'd thought of this technique, I might not have bothered

[Dr. Cranky]

I primer my interiors and white glue will stick to primer paint real well. Also, the paper graphics will take on whatever form the seats have, even tuck and roll. Anthing. Paper is pretty thin and pliable, so it's only up to your imagination.

I think this fall I'd like to do an article on the subject.

Oh one more thing, thinking of paper materials.

I love using tissue paper on junkers and rats as torn and shredded headliners . . ..

[sweptline64]

I primer my interiors and white glue will stick to primer paint real well. Also, the paper graphics will take on whatever form the seats have, even tuck and roll. Anthing. Paper is pretty thin and pliable, so it's only up to your imagination.

I think this fall I'd like to do an article on the subject.

Oh one more thing, thinking of paper materials.

I love using tissue paper on junkers and rats as torn and shredded headliners . . ..

thank you cranky i for one would love a tutorial on how to do this and i also would be interested on the headliner bit too thank you.

[charlzrocks]

Thanks for the info big C!

[Dr. Cranky]

I just posted a small tip and tech in another thread. I hope you guys find it useful. Thanks. Best, Cranky.

[sweptline64]

Thank you cranky that was helpful. For any one else look in tips and tricks for crankys tissue paper headliner it's great info.

Edited July 19, 2010 by sweptline64

[MikeMc]

I primer my interiors and white glue will stick to primer paint real well. Also, the paper graphics will take on whatever form the seats have, even tuck and roll. Anthing. Paper is pretty thin and pliable, so it's only up to your imagination.

Virgil...do you need to wet the paper with white glue, so it will conform to tuck n roll for example??

[Dr. Cranky]

I've done it both ways, but it helps if the paper is thin and moist, sure. And keep some Q-tips to smooth out the edges . . .