Sewing canvas

[Tony Smith]

We could divert this thread a little. Mention of the Juki reminds me that this Japanese company also made Machine Guns during WW2, the Juki MG being nicknamed the "Woodpecker" because of it's distinctive slow stuttering beat. Toyota and Suzuki were sewing machine makers long before they branched out into automobiles. Hiram Maxim modelled his MG (which later developed into the Vickers) on the mechanism of a sewing machine. Lithgow Small Arms factory, after the war, branched out into sewing machine manufacture making the Pinnock machine for a South Australian co, but also badge engineered these in a variety of other brand names, one (in a parallel of the Juki, or in homage to Hiram?) called the "Vickers"!

[Mike K]

I took a few snaps of the original seat bases I have.

I think the lower base maybe is from a CMP. It has springs inside it and a lace up covering. There would be a lot of work , fabricating one of these bases from scratch.

The back covering squab, not sure what it's from.

Mike

BTW I have noticed that the stitching on these old original items is rather sloppy and loose. The thread tension is very bad and uneven.. stitch length is uneven , probably typical of wartime production with inexperienced operators and large volume output. The stitching on the GMH sidecurtain I have , is beyond description , it's that bad . A little 5 year old kid would do a better job on a toy sewing machine.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here's a guy - you know him, Mike - who has learned to sew his own canvas. For his PU 8-cwt he was helped by an experienced man, who used to work for British rail. Richard N., our esteemed ex-MLU member (thanks boss!), also got very handy with canvas. The trick is, he says, to buy a good old fashioned sewing machine, and get going copying old canvas seat covers to see how everything was stitched together. Like you say Mike, one can hardly do any worse than many of those wartime rush-rush jobs! (I can tell an original CMP cargo body by the welding - splatter everywhere.)

H.