Azryael

I love his videos! He is incredibly skilled at what he does; I wish I had half of his shop at my disposal!

Thank you! I'm hoping so too so I can make some headway on this. My office is filled with leather and panels and tools, haha.

That's how I am with just about everything; I find with a little guidance I learn fairly quickly and do very well. I'd never built something of this magnitude before, but through my CAD experience, I drew up some plans and built a built-in entertainment center for my parents to go against the living room wall to actually give the living room some definition. The goal was something rustic, so I allowed for some relatively loose tolerances. Here it is before a few finishing touches: And after being decorated: The leather I'm using is one of those $99 hides they had at one of the local Tandy's; loved the color and feel. I tried the masking tape approach and found it didn't work well for me, but perhaps I was doing it wrong. Those low and high reliefs in the panel are what are really killing me! I'd have an easier time recovering the panels in one of my older Mercedes'! Should I potentially look into a more... methodical approach where I use a tape measure and get detailed measurements? The engineer in me wants to do this, as tedious and time-consuming as it may seem.

Hi all, new to the site, and relatively new to leatherworking. Since purchasing my truck about three months ago, I've found myself bringing up to speed and wanting to tailor (no pun intended) to my taste! I'm skilled in carpentry and metal working, but sewing/leatherworking has always been something I've wanted to do but never quite got around to. My steering wheel in my truck needed to be replaced, so I decided to remove the original leather and pattern out my own replacement skin as my very first leatherworking project!! Using basic tools, and having no previous experience (I admit I rushed through it a bit, but I've learned a lot already from a few mistakes I made), I feel it turned out alright! I'm going to get a second wheel from a local salvage yard to try again, this time taking my time and being much more methodical about my approach, including taking accurate measurements. The original owner of the truck removed the door panels to repair and replace the window motors, but broke several of the panel push rivets in the process; instead of replacing them, he simply screwed the panel into the door, leaving various exposed screws! I've discovered that all the retainers for the push rivets are in good shape, and all they needed were replacement rivets. This means that I'm left with random screw holes everywhere! I figured I could use this as an opportunity to practice some leatherworking/upholstery by covering them with some nice leather. The panels themselves are plastic, with nothing else covering them; this means I must make my own templates for each piece to put together before gluing it down on the panel. This is where I'm stumped. What is the best method to template the four sections I've decided to make for each rear panel? I've included how I intend to place them by drawing my lines on the panel with a wax pen. I'm using a ~48 sq-ft. hide that's been dyed a nice, dark gray, roughly 3mm thick. I've tried using a stretchy vinyl alternative, but can't seem to get it to work the way I'd like to get an accurate template. I already did the rear armrests, which I'm sure I could improve upon as well, but I'm very happy with how they look. This photo was before I did fine tuning by removing any excess leather and securing the rest of it for a nice, tight fit. Sorry for the long post, and thank you in advance!