MikeC5

I'll have to search that out. Thanks!

Hi Hubert, Thank you for the interest. It may be different on a '22 Dodge than what I found with the '25 as far as the upper rear seat back. Although I am not 100% certain, it appears to me that the seat back was designed to be upholstered and then installed (I think my seats still had the original leather/horsehair too). Like the upper front seat back I had attached photos of earlier, there is a tack strip on back side of the spring assembly so the leather can go up and over and tacked on the back side (you can kind of see this in last attached pic). As it also shows for the front seat back, the rear seat back has hooks that engage the tub inner edge to hold it in place (and bolts hold the lower portion to captured nuts in the tub, see attached). The rear side pieces work the same way. Unfortunately, curved wood segment that bolts to the top of the rear tub was missing and so this piece of evidence was not there and I saw no evidence of wood down on the floor pan as in your photo. I would welcome hearing from anyone who can confirm how their '25 was put together. The rear side pieces work the same way as described for seat back. It would seem that being able to upholster the seats separately from the body assembly would be advantageous from a production viewpoint but that's just a guess. You are correct about the rear inner curtain. I did initially try to attach it to the rear side of rear bow but it was impossible to get it stretched out wrinkle free because it can't be moved independent of the outer curtain (you have to drive tacks through both). I finally gave up and did it as shown. It would be nice to learn how a pro would do it... As for the bottom of the inner curtain, I copied what I observed on a '25 I saw at Hershey one year (attached earlier in this thread). Actually, if this was correct, it would jive with the seat back being upholstered separately. I need to get some good photos of the rear seat back....

Don't tell us you parted it out... That is quite something!

I would tighten until the nut slot lined up. A rod bolt is not a good place for an insufficiently tightened nut. Torque readings can be highly variable due to differences in friction between the nut and cap. I suspect sanding/filing or grinding the nut would only make this condition worse. I've seen on some (newer) engines the final bolt tightening is specified by angle of turn rather than torque. I suspect it gives more consistent tension in the bolt.

Hi David, It is hard to tell from the photo but the seams are sewn with orientation as in the diagram. I cut the side panels as rectangles for simplicity; I know a fair amount will be trimmed off once I get it on the car and mark where the edges should be. I thought you sewed the top and side panels together before trying to mark where to trim the sides so I made sure I left extra trim allowance. Laid on the table, the seam may appear to be a single straight line but it isn't. The seam does change angle slightly at the 2nd and 3rd bow and the seams are further apart at the rear bow than at the front (by roughly 3 inches), forward end is closer to the camera. But they are straight lines from 1st to 2nd bow, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to 4th. The first photo showing the black side up after sewing may be a little confusing because the edge panel on left is partly hanging off edge of the table. I'm not sure I understand why it wouldn't lay flat at this point. The seams did end up at my string locations.

I got the seams sewed up. I can say that any extra time spent setting up a large table(s) at equal height to feed and receive the sewn top as it goes through the machine is well worth it. I tried to get by with a little less than that and it just makes keeping it going straight that much harder. Overall, they came out pretty straight but not error-free.

A bit buggy...

He's 7 years old and 100 lbs and thinks he's a lap dog.... He loves to ride in the Dodge.

I'm almost ready to sew the top seams. Good thing I have a helper...

Thank you David. Your help is invaluable. I am using the UV resistant polyester thread (138 size). Strong stuff!

I hope everyone enjoyed this New Year's day! I have a question for David with regard to laying out the top panel seams. You mentioned earlier in this thread: I understand that you want the pads to hide the seam that joins the top panel and the side panels and I want to make the seam parallel to the inboard edge of the pads(?). I've got my marking cord stretched between the front and rear bow, 1 inch outboard of the pad inboard edge at each of these bows (a straight line between these two anchor points). The cord position at the 2nd and 3rd bows comes closer to the pad edges than 1" so I need to move the cord to achieve the 1" spacing to edge of pad for bows 2 and 3 and then do a stitch to hold it in place at those points. Does this sound correct? Also, when you say fold over and top stitch with top stitch toward center of car, do you mean the fold should point to center of car (see photo)? I did some practice pieces of top stitching and am also curious about the location of the stitch closest to the fold. I seems easiest to position the stitch such that the fold is made immediately adjacent to the stitch since the stitch then controls where the fold occurs. Some sources show leaving some distance between the stitch and fold. How do you normally do it? As always, you advice is greatly appreciated.

My understanding is that the cushions and seat backs and the inside rear trim pieces are upholstered separately. The seat backs go on first and have fittings that hook under the aft sheet metal wrap around and then bolts secure the lower portion. I don't have any good photos of the rear seat details at the moment but it works similar to these of the front seat back. The side pieces use the same idea.

Well I got the rear curtain on there. Not perfect where it wraps around the sides but I'm hoping I can smooth out those areas with a little heat.

The helicoils worked perfectly.

Thanks David, I did cut the binding material on a 45 bias. On the tight outside corners I ended up carefully cutting 'pie slices' out every 1/4 inch to keep things flat. I bought new 'pull-a-dot' anchors and fasteners for the side flaps since my top frame was missing a few of the anchors. The originals have a wood screw thread so I assume there was solid wood inside the sockets. That is no longer the case, in these locations anyway, so I've got to come up with an alternate plan to get the anchors to hold. The anchors are available with an 8-32 stud instead of the wood screw thread so I can weld up the holes and re-drill/tap but I'd like to avoid that option. I'm going to try Helicoil inserts and cross my fingers...