Reupholstering Westy bench/bed - how to attach to the back?

[MikeyM73]

Hi all,

The wife unit and I are working on upholstering the Westy bed. So far the seat part has come out great but we can't figure out how to attach the upholstery to the rear of the back part of the seat and have it look nice and clean. We have the seat pad glued to the board but I can't recall if the cover was originally snapped on, etc. We're not looking to stay stock/OEM so we were thinking of just wrapping the upholtery around to the rear of the back board and neatly stapling it and then covering that staple line with some sort of nice boarder. OR.. stapling it to the side of the backboard and running some type of covering all the way around the outside perimeter of the board.

Does anyone have any pics, input, or suggestions on the way any of you have done this?

Thanks,
Mikey
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'73 Pop-top Westy, found sitting in a field for 10+ years, cleaned up, rebuilt furniture, reloved. Original 1.7 block/fully polished crank, 93mm 1.8L balanced AA pistons & cylinders, new 1.8L balanced rods, HAM 42/36 heads, Scat C25 cam & lubalobe lifters, Dual HPMX40s, R2C filters w/ Outerwears pre-filters, functioning thermostat & flaps, Pertronix Flamethrower III, 4-1 exhaust w/ Cherry Bomb 2" turbo muffler & OEM heater boxes, averages about 19-22ish on the highway.

[sebgi1]

Hi overlap on the back about 3/4inch on top and sides and maybe around 2 inches on the bottom.

Staples row is the way to go. Originally the staples were cover with a kind of clothe tape about an inch wide.

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SEB

Dogs are the most precious and valuable possession of mankind. VWs are second!

'73 Neptune blue safare camper
'71 Neptune blue tintop

[fes]

Hi,,
By your sig line you have a '73 westy, correct?
If so, this is the last year for the mustard yellow vinyl upholstery and the configuration of the camper layout...
If I'm reading you right here, you are asking about the seat back portion of the 'rock and roll" bed?
The vinyl covers the entire seat back, (unlike the lower bench with the plywood exposed)..with a kind of piping edge on the corners..
These arn't the best pics..but should help..
Samba gallery thanks to Tcash..you can just see the back of the bed next to the wardrobe cabinet

My seat from my gallery, forgive the out of focus as I was concentrating on the beat up "headbanger" with my camera..

Hope this helps
-Matt
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'68 Campmobile-Pedro
'15 Golf-Stella Blau
'56 Oval-The Turd (for now)

[Xevin]

Original on 73 was “Poppers” or “Snaps”. Later bays with plaid was staples and trim tape to cover staples. Not currently near the buses to send pics. If you using fabric and don’t care for original. Use many many staples and cover with some trim tape or some other creative trim.
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Keep on Busin'

[sebgi1]

Correct the blue plaid was out of a 74.
_________________
SEB

Dogs are the most precious and valuable possession of mankind. VWs are second!

'73 Neptune blue safare camper
'71 Neptune blue tintop

[Ryan P]

When I did mine I also cut new plywood for the back and seat. The seat I used 1" plywood and stapled from bottom. The back I used two pieces of 1/2" plywood. Raped fabric around first layer of plywood stapled to back. Thne used the second layer to cover the staples.

[MikeyM73]

Thanks everyone, good info and great ideas. Since we have the original seat back, but not bottom, I suppose that I could grab a spare 8th inch sheet of Baltic Birch and glue it to the back to hide the staples. Something like that.
_________________
'73 Pop-top Westy, found sitting in a field for 10+ years, cleaned up, rebuilt furniture, reloved. Original 1.7 block/fully polished crank, 93mm 1.8L balanced AA pistons & cylinders, new 1.8L balanced rods, HAM 42/36 heads, Scat C25 cam & lubalobe lifters, Dual HPMX40s, R2C filters w/ Outerwears pre-filters, functioning thermostat & flaps, Pertronix Flamethrower III, 4-1 exhaust w/ Cherry Bomb 2" turbo muffler & OEM heater boxes, averages about 19-22ish on the highway.

[Ryan P]