Once we had the paint on the doors and the body, it was time to get the upholstery installed.

No upholstery

I checked with my advisory counsel at the La Jolla Regional Group of the Horseless Carriage Club. The consensus was – “See if Ernie Romero is available. He’s very busy and usually fully booked for a year or more, but check anyway. He’s the best.” So I checked. And Ernie had a block of time coming up. But first he needed to see what the remaining upholstery and other bits looked like. So August 17th,  I took the remaining seat bottoms and thoroughly trashed seat backs, one door and the top bows (and remaining top fabric) down to Ernie’s place in El Cajon (about 45 miles away) so he would see what materials we had for patterns.

Old upholstery laid out with front seats & back seats in correct positions.

Top Bows extended

Back & sides of top

We talked a while and figured out a price for new upholstery using patterns that he would need to make from the old material.  We wanted to retain the original stitching style and use curled horse hair for the padding, not foam. We also spoke about what I’d need to do to obtain fabric for the top, which would be a separate project.  (I’ll go into more detail about the top in another posting.) While I waited for the slot to open in Ernie’s shop,  I’d needed to figure out how to get the body to him. He figured a slot would be available sometime around the end of September or early October 2020.