Westfalia Plaid Material

[beetlepete]

I am getting ready to recover my westy bed and back cushion. The fabric although good is faded and as long as I am refinishing the cabinets I would like to get new fabric.
I was wondering if any one has purchased fabric and what their opinions of the quality, look, feel, and close-ness to the OG westy fabric is like.

A look around and it seems that Wolfsburg, Bus Depot, NLA Parts still sell the fabric by the yard. Although it appears that Bus Depot has stopped selling the ready made seat covers. Too bad as they were quite good.

As always thank you in advance for all your help.
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Beetlepete
79 Westfalia Deluxe, Mexico Beige

[beetlepete]

Yes Go Westy does sell some but I have the Brown plaid
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Beetlepete
79 Westfalia Deluxe, Mexico Beige

[Randy in Maine]

http://www.busdepot.com/fabric4

Take your cushions to a local upholstry person and ask them how many yards you need to buy for them to do the work.

[beetlepete]

So then you like the quality.
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Beetlepete
79 Westfalia Deluxe, Mexico Beige

[Randy in Maine]

I cannot tell it from the factory brown camping cloth.

[beetlepete]

Thank you for the info. I am finding that all these suppliers get a lot of parts from the same company(s). Then sell them as there own.

Best
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Beetlepete
79 Westfalia Deluxe, Mexico Beige

[Thrasher22]

The green plaid westy fabric I got from bus depot looks identical, and appears to be very high quality. Has a better backing than the stock fabric as well. I haven't used it yet though.
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1975 Westfalia - http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=516701

[FNGRUVN]

I just had Sewfine make me up two front seat bottoms from the plaid material that I bought from BD. They turned out great.
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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

[LouFilia]

I just got my green Westy plaid from Wolfsburg west, and it looks great. BD told me they'd have it next week. The fabric matches perfectly. Like someone said, the backing is actually slightly nicer than stock.

Slightly on a tangent. If a person is doing the front seats, the seat covers from BD aren't made from this material and the green vinyl is off in my opinion. I think you'd be happier making them or having them made using this material and a green vinyl (or Ultaleather) that you could use for door panels so it all matches.
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'78 Westy (P22), 2.0FI (GE), 4speed (CP), thought I was buying a VW, ended up with a Bentley.

[Sprink1es]

I bought some seat fabric from BusDepot.com and it was very nice. Thick and durable fabric, and the backing was like a silicone.

Online the fabric looked identical but I got my bus with grey upholstery so I couldn't compare very well lol

[VWsArent4Hippies]

Wolfsburg West told me they get their plaid from the same European supplier as Bus Depot and then each company puts their own backing on it.

I bought the plaid and had Sewfine make seat covers with it.

[Busdepot]

We do still sell the complete seat upholstery sets, ready-to-install, as well as the fabric by the yard. Here's the link to the seat covers...

http://www.busdepot.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pl...sort_order

Here's what it looks like in green plaid (but we sell yellow, orange, and brown versions as well)...

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- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot
www.busdepot.com

[beetlepete]

[VWsArent4Hippies]

[beetlepete]

That seems reasonable. Were you happy with the fit and finish. Did the vinyl match the original? Mine will be for a 79 westfalia, so late bay, would that still be considered custom?

Sorry for the questions, but would like this to last another 37 years.
best
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Beetlepete
79 Westfalia Deluxe, Mexico Beige

[VWsArent4Hippies]

[vwwestyman]

[strfish7]

[Busdepot]

Sorry, try it now...
http://www.busdepot.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pl...sort_order
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- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot
www.busdepot.com

[LouFilia]

Colors not as bright

Patterns slightly off

Thought I'd throw in some pics. Top pic-seats- The pattern and coloring on the BD seats (esp the vinyl) are off, but they look great. As you can see, the patterns are aligned (top cushion to bottom cushion) and the look is better than factory, great sewing on crummy Fabric. The seat covers are backed with light foam. The plaid material on the BDC covers is slightly lighter and less saturated them the material from my top matress covers.

The next two pics are the WW fabric on top and my factory mattress covers on the bottom in both pictures. As you can see the patterns don't match, and the color on the Wolfsburg West (WW) is also less saturated, but now is slightly darker. The WW fabric is backed much like the factory product but with darker rubberized goo on the back.

What surprised me is that none of the patterns or colors matched. So if i want it all to match i will have to order all my fabric from one place and all my vinyl from one place and have it custom stitched (and make door panels).


One thing I want to be clear on is that even though the BD covers don't match (and the vinyl is more of what my amateur eye sees as furniture grade, not automotive grade), I would certainly recommend them to buy. They really made the front of my bus look much better. Unfortunately, they are only going to be a temporary solution until I redo the rest of the interior and get back to the seat covers, since they don't match anything else (I did find a exact match to the vinyl at my local fabric store, from England, pricey almost like utraleather and not the quality of ultraleather).

My current solution is that I'm picking up upper mattress covers whenever I see them and I will use those to make my seats, front buckets and rear seats, once I get them all gathered and use theWW fabric for some little sides like bonus seat pads, my fabricated stool, covering my upper bunk shelf, etc.
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'78 Westy (P22), 2.0FI (GE), 4speed (CP), thought I was buying a VW, ended up with a Bentley.