Interior

[notenoughtime]

Has anyone retrimmed there own seats with Aldridge’s covers?

To be honest not my thing? Some of you may say I do lots of stuff but not done this 

[DT36]

24 minutes ago, notenoughtime said:

Has anyone retrimmed there own seats with Aldridge’s covers?

To be honest not my thing? Some of you may say I do lots of stuff but not done this 

Not used their seat covers, but if you're thinking of doing the Scheels in your Mex, see what condition the side bolsters are in too. 

I bought some bolsters and headrests from them and they were were very good quality with good customer service. 

[notenoughtime]

Foam etc is good webbing has sagged tbh and only couple of tears in the fabric that’s the only reason for the change 

[YellowTaxi]

I have done both Sheele's and RS Recaro's

Aldridge covers fit very well indeed.

I have changed foam too, also from aldridge. Its really not hard at all.

Webbing can be bought from ebay by the metre and is easy to change. You will be amazed how different a bit of new webbing makes.

You will need the following:

Contact adhesive.

Hog rings and pliers.

Double sided carpet tape.

Good stapple gun.

Im not that good at most things so if I can do it anybody can.

Its really not that hard and best done in pairs, strip one first and use the other for reference if you get stuck.

Once you have done one its easy from then-on.

The end result is well worth the effort and as re-covered seats go for crazy money its well worth doing.

 

[Ray]

Carey, doing what you do for a living, this will be easy, ive just done one front seat and a rear base, with the rest still to finish (ive not got enough time ) with aldridge covers, the cover quality is good, but have to be honest and say not anywhere near as good as a trimmer will make, but Aldridge no longer sell the cloth off the roll, the piping on the set im doing, dosnt line up between top and bottoms, and the vinyls are clearly very modern, so if your looking for an original look in that, its not there

[notenoughtime]

Thanks guys I’ll strip the seats and see how I get on one at a  time 

i do however have some spare seats (obviously) that are ok that need tlc with webbing so may just make a good pair and recover the worse two 

[Ray]

this is before, its a reclining mk2 seat

this is after, now a reclining mk1 seat

[notenoughtime]

I’ll drop mine off to you Monday Ray? 

[Rally Pack 2000]

3 hours ago, Ray said:

Carey, doing what you do for a living, this will be easy, ive just done one front seat and a rear base, with the rest still to finish (ive not got enough time ) with aldridge covers, the cover quality is good, but have to be honest and say not anywhere near as good as a trimmer will make, but Aldridge no longer sell the cloth off the roll, the piping on the set im doing, dosnt line up between top and bottoms, and the vinyls are clearly very modern, so if your looking for an original look in that, its not there

If they dont sell the material off the roll what do you guys do for the rear seats so that they match?

[Ray]

3 hours ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

If they dont sell the material off the roll what do you guys do for the rear seats so that they match?

you have to buy their rear covers RP

[notenoughtime]

I’m going to order rear covers, door cards and rear shelf in the new year 

[Rally Pack 2000]

6 hours ago, Ray said:

you have to buy their rear covers RP

Oh I didnt realise they did rear covers as well now. I only knew they did fronts. But that raises a problem for those with 4 doors as the seat base is rounder on a 4 door to make it easier to be seated via the rear doors.

[notenoughtime]

Maybe worth an email to see if they can do 4 door versions, always worth asking 

[notenoughtime]

They do sell 4 door seat covers but doesn’t state beta cloth 

[Rally Pack 2000]

14 minutes ago, notenoughtime said:

They do sell 4 door seat covers but doesn’t state beta cloth 

Oh well if they do rears for 4 doors im sure the could do a set in beta cloth if required just probably will have to wait a bit longer. Its does however encourage me to look at some alternative fabrics, something a bit harder wearing as Im not set in stone on beta cloth.

[Ray]

2 hours ago, Rally Pack 2000 said:

Oh well if they do rears for 4 doors im sure the could do a set in beta cloth if required just probably will have to wait a bit longer. Its does however encourage me to look at some alternative fabrics, something a bit harder wearing as Im not set in stone on beta cloth.

firstly RP, Aldridge are trimmers, and yes they will cover anything you want in their facility, you must have seen them on wheeler dealers and car sos, but secondly their Beta is very hard wearing, and if you are like nick who uses his car, their beta is the way to go, just ask Nick Heer, whereas my trailer queens have original ford, if used like nick does it would be threadbare, as at near 50 years old its getting very fragile

all you have to bear in mind is, its close to the original beta, but not anywhere near exact

[Rally Pack 2000]

17 minutes ago, Ray said:

firstly RP, Aldridge are trimmers, and yes they will cover anything you want in their facility, you must have seen them on wheeler dealers and car sos, but secondly their Beta is very hard wearing, and if you are like nick who uses his car, their beta is the way to go, just ask Nick Heer, whereas my trailer queens have original ford, if used like nick does it would be threadbare, as at near 50 years old its getting very fragile

all you have to bear in mind is, its close to the original beta, but not anywhere near exact

Yes I have seen them on those very shows.

There was something about the Beta cloth used on Australian Scheel Seats that was so flimsy that RS2000 seats barely got out of warranty before it wore through. I remember back in the day looking at 5 to 10 yo RS2000s and the seats were in terrible condition. While many think all our Scheels seats were covered with Beta Cloth there are examples that indicate Ford Australia got sick of the beta cloth and dabbled with other better wearing materials. A recent thread by Yellow Tax shows one of those examples which are still on the side bolsters of mine as well. I have never done a side by side comparison with the Beta Cloth on a European RS2000 and an Australian one but it has been said that the European versions are made of better materials. But it never made sense why you would produced a run of inferior cloth just for Australia. I have a theory that original beta cloth is actually very heat and UV sensitive and the sponge lining breaks down incredibly easily under these conditions giving the impression that wear is good in UK cars but seem to have an inferior version on Australia cars. Its quite possible this new Aldridge stuff doesn't suffer like the original stuff did which is good.

So Im not sure which way to go at the moment, weather to try replicate the unique material that is still on my side bolsters and cover the whole of the centres to have a set that looks like Yellow Taxis or switch to the traditional beta cloth look.

[katana]

If Ford Australia was sourcing steel for panels locally, i'd imagine they would do similar for their plastics, electrics and interiors also ? So its a possibility the cloth / seat foam was not to same spec hence the poor performance bearing in mind the climatic conditions your cars are subject to - ours just get wet not baked or subject to the extreme UV like yours. Unless anyone has actually tried the Aldridge cloth in Aus - it may actually degrade just the same?

The original Beta cloth rear seats that came with my car were in poor shape, rips, tears and badly faded to a shade of dark grey, so I happened on a set of recovered seats and although good enough for my needs, they are a very dark blue / black compared to the '78 originals which were a definite black back in '82 when I had my first car. Pattern and weave style i'd say was pretty good but for a concourse car I think you'd get marked down!

The car came with rally bucket seats in the front but these are not great in a road car so I sourced some grey clothed 'Recaro's' with net headrests, although not marked so I think from either an RS1600i or late model Cortina? These I was going to retrim with Aldridge covers which would match the rears but I baulked at the cost of the covers + a trimmers labour, so i'm holding off on that presently - got far more important things to do first like functional electrics and running engine! But never say never!

[Ray]

yes the original ford beta is very UV sensitive, and a generally very weak material, my purple car had only done 6289 miles from new when I bought it in Jan 2014, but it had sat outside in northern Ireland for best part of 12 years, the beta cloth had been slaughtered by the sun and as you touched it your fingers fell through the cloth, prior to that the car had been garaged and then in a barn covered up, so it was that last part.  With then vicious sun you have out there, then std beta wouldn't have stood a chance, so I don't think its that there was an inferior beta for the Australian market, just your weather conditions with that material tbh

the Aldridge beta is all round far more hard wearing, but we also need to bear in mind that most of us looking at genuine beta today are looking at 50 year old cloth, so its probably also unfair to make that comparison now

dont forget the Beta on a mk2 escort was different, and it was called beta plus, I have a NOS piece of that, that I bought in error, and that looks like its probably a tad more hard wearing

[notenoughtime]

I’ve ordered hog ring plier kit so will strip the seats today, and take pics! I’ll post up later how I get on! 

[notenoughtime]

The car also needs a parcel shelf. Anyone bought fibreglass or any other aftermarket one? 

[YellowTaxi]

Just take your time and you will be fine.

Not fitted a repro rear shelf but I have seen them in place and they ook very good.

 

[Rally Pack 2000]

On 30/12/2019 at 04:16, katana said:

If Ford Australia was sourcing steel for panels locally, i'd imagine they would do similar for their plastics, electrics and interiors also ? So its a possibility the cloth / seat foam was not to same spec hence the poor performance bearing in mind the climatic conditions your cars are subject to - ours just get wet not baked or subject to the extreme UV like yours. Unless anyone has actually tried the Aldridge cloth in Aus - it may actually degrade just the same?

The original Beta cloth rear seats that came with my car were in poor shape, rips, tears and badly faded to a shade of dark grey, so I happened on a set of recovered seats and although good enough for my needs, they are a very dark blue / black compared to the '78 originals which were a definite black back in '82 when I had my first car. Pattern and weave style i'd say was pretty good but for a concourse car I think you'd get marked down!

The car came with rally bucket seats in the front but these are not great in a road car so I sourced some grey clothed 'Recaro's' with net headrests, although not marked so I think from either an RS1600i or late model Cortina? These I was going to retrim with Aldridge covers which would match the rears but I baulked at the cost of the covers + a trimmers labour, so i'm holding off on that presently - got far more important things to do first like functional electrics and running engine! But never say never!

By and large most panels (with a couple of exceptions) and all the interior stuff came fully imported on all other models likes Ghias and GL's etc but they certainly dabbled in different fabrics that arose from the break down of the beta cloth seats that they only used in RS2000s in 1979 and 1980. I think the Beta cloth versions came direct from Ford UK but possibly the more unique variants I have seen may have however been locally sourced as Scheel was here in Australia and supplied seats for other local factory cars so after seeing the British Beta Cloth break down so rapidly Ford probably sourced a more robust cover from Scheel Australia.

On 30/12/2019 at 04:33, Ray said:

yes the original ford beta is very UV sensitive, and a generally very weak material, my purple car had only done 6289 miles from new when I bought it in Jan 2014, but it had sat outside in northern Ireland for best part of 12 years, the beta cloth had been slaughtered by the sun and as you touched it your fingers fell through the cloth, prior to that the car had been garaged and then in a barn covered up, so it was that last part.  With then vicious sun you have out there, then std beta wouldn't have stood a chance, so I don't think its that there was an inferior beta for the Australian market, just your weather conditions with that material tbh

the Aldridge beta is all round far more hard wearing, but we also need to bear in mind that most of us looking at genuine beta today are looking at 50 year old cloth, so its probably also unfair to make that comparison now

dont forget the Beta on a mk2 escort was different, and it was called beta plus, I have a NOS piece of that, that I bought in error, and that looks like its probably a tad more hard wearing

That confirms what I long suspected about UV sensitivity of the original Beta Cloth. The sponge layer just below the surface cloth would turn to powder and the upper cloth would appear thin and loose. It really was quite bad. That and rear spoilers would deteriorate so rapidly under the sun that they were having to be replaced under warranty. To be fair I guess no one had any real concept of UV resistant plastics and cloths back then and no one in Europe could have anticipated the hide stripping sun of Australia. I remember French cars in particular with plastic trims, knobs and handles would go white and crumble in your hands. Chinese plastics do the very same thing now so they haven't learned anything in 50 years. Your not the only one that has mentioned the Aldridge Beta cloth is harder wearing than the original. I read the underlying sponge is much more substantial. So while it may not be a perfect replica, having it last longer than a year is well worth the trade off I think.

[notenoughtime]

I’ve stripped the base of the drivers side and stopped there as I didn’t want to many bits all over the place 

bolsters although dirty are good but the centre foam needs replacing and the webbing, obviously won’t get any of that before the beginning of next week so seat refurbishment is now on hold! Always something!

i removed the rear seat, parcel shelf and rear door cards and will give the metal work a wipe over once I’ve sorted the patch in the floor

drivers door removed so I can replace the door pins, I won’t want to sell it once I’ve done all this! 

 

[Rally Pack 2000]

I agree both you and Yellow Tax have to keep your cars now. Cars for sale is supposed to be the least used section of the forum.