Leather Dash & Floor Boards

In Kit 19 Steam Traction World provided a wood dash that was to be outfitted with some trim pieces etc to simulate the Locomobile's typical leather dash. I had noticed that in one of the Production Updates late last year, they had made a prototype of the wire frame that would be covered with leather like was done "back in the day". So I enquired to Steam Traction World (Dean) if I could purchase this prototype. Well Dean sent it to me gratis because they were not going to use it. Below is the frame pictured in the production updates that was sent to me.

The wireframe is close to what was the original design, but I could modify it to bring is even closer. The two inside rods should actually be about 3 inches away from the outer frame. So I cut these rods out and re-welded them in the more original place. The next two images shows the before and after of the relocation of the rods.

Before

After 

Now I have to say, that during this whole process many times I thought to myself, did I chew off more that I should have. I have never tried to stitch anything -- Let alone leather! Where to start, where to get supplies etc. etc. Well with the Covid-19 pandemic, the closest leather craft shop to me (about 2.5 hours away) was closed indefinitely. So I resorted to the internet and spent a great deal of time searching and educating myself on what to do. I finally found on eBay a supplier of some nice "shiny" 4 to 5 ounce leather (1.6 to 1.8 mm thick). From this I decided to make a recessed template that I could use to start to form the leather around the wireframe.

I placed the leather on the wood template and then the wireframe and weighted the frame down to depress the leather into the recess. I let this stand for several days after which I then traced the wireframe outline into the back of the piece of leather.

I'm not sure that I really needed to make the recessed wooded template, I think I could have just traced the outline without making the leather depressions of the frame. From this outline I again score parallel lines spaced about 15 mm from the centerline of the depressions.

These lines will be my guide to stamping/pounding stitching holes into the leather. Pounding holes into the leather is necessary due to the toughness of the leather. The leather crafters have devised all sorts of specialized tools to do this -- As shown below.

The use of a sheet of rubber is really required to prevent dulling and bending the multi-pronged tool. A two pronged tool is used to go about the radius' and a single pronged tool to space the last few holes if required on a stitch line at the end to blend the spacing. Once I had pounded out all of the stitching holes on front piece of leather, I needed to pound out the second back piece of leather. Therefore I needed to stitch the two pieces together so that I could maintain alignment between the two pieces of leather.

The needle is actually very dull and stout, the thread is Ritza 25 Tiger Thread 1.4mm Wax Braided Polyester impregnated to repel water.

Once stitched in four places around the perimeter I used the previously punched holes to guide the punching tool to punch the second piece of leather. Now I have two pieces of leather punched and the stitching onto the wireframe can commence. First I had to slice two places to insert the mounting flange through the back piece of leather.

Then I place the front piece of leather over the frame and align the stitching holes and begin the stitching.

I stitched the whole outside perimeter and mounted the dash to see if everything looked correct.

I kept the frame mounted to stitch the remaining lines because it was a lot easier having it upright. The process was to stitch the interior lines closest to the outside and work my way to the middle. This way I reasoned the leather would stretch in an even manner. The next image shows all of the wireframe stitched.

Now I remove the dash and trim the leather. Typically "real" leather craftsmen cut the outside edges before stitching. I was too hesitant to do this just in case I needed to make some adjustments.

The metal flat stock bar used as the straight edge will be placed in the next image in the leather as a stiffener for the lower flap.

Once this is stitched in I trim the last pieces and mount everything onto the Lykamobile.

The last thing to figure out is how to burnish the trimmed edges. Supposedly you take a special leather burnishing compound and rub the edges until the leather heats up and seals. I decided to take a break. It took three days of hand stitching of the leather and let me tell you, your fingers and hands get quite sore. All in all, once I got started, this was a weeks worth of effort.

Now on to the floorboards. I decided to purchase some diamond patterned rubber to glue to the floor boards. Its a pretty simple process. Just get some contact cement and coat the floorboards and the underside of the rubber pieces, let it set up for about 30 minutes, then squeeze the two together. I placed some weight on the pieces and let them cure overnight and then trimmed up the sides. Also in the last few pictures you will see the "Locomobile" nameplate mounted on the engine panel below the seat.

The final trimming for the pedals and fuel access will happen when I receive the necessary parts to complete this task. Only two kits to go and the penultimate kit (second to last - Kit #21) got lost in Memphis, Tennessee (FedEx) going on 4 weeks now. So I don't know when I'll get that kit -- if ever! But Steam Traction World is on top of it and I will be taken care of.