Caravelle's seat covers repaired

Suomeksi

Caravelle two years ago. Some of it clearly belonged to the SE-DAF but there was also material from some former SAS Caravelle and probably from other types of aircraft as well. The material could be partly from the Transwede Caravelle 10BR (SE-DEC) which was damaged beyond repair in an unsuccessful take-off in Arlanda in January 1978.

In autumn 2023 we rummaged through the crates in the storage container at Turku airport. We found out that there were enough seat covers and other material for the 4-5 seat rows which were to be assembled in the front section of the cabin. The Caravelle seats could be fitted with original seat covers and seat belts. Original seat padding or cushion material has not been preserved so new ones will have to be made.

This blog describes how the old seat covers were repaired for use.

The dark green seat covers, made of some kind of wool mix fabric, consist of three parts:

• the cover of the actual seat part which is fastened to the bottom of the seat frame with four poppers (snap fasteners)
• the seatback “hood” which is pulled on the seatback frame and its padding, and fastened with Velcro tape on the backside of the seatback and by its lower edge on the seat pocket part
• the upholstery material for the seatback’s backside and the seat pocket which is fastened on the seat frame with screws by its upper corners, some glue and two hooks connected to the seat pocket, furthermore the lower edge of the seat pocket is fastened on the lower edge of the seatback hood with Velcro tape  

Further examination of the textile material showed that there were about 40 seat part covers, some of them broken and worn beyond repair. There were far less seatback hoods, about 25 of them. They are mainly rather worn and already patched. Seat pockets we have in large numbers, but many of them are dirty and several are broken. However, the situation looked good and there was useful material for covering about 25 seats.

The repairing of the seat covers was started with a washing test. The seat cover parts of one seat were washed in an ordinary household washing machine, in a 30°C gentle wash cycle, and dried. Comparing the washed parts to the unwashed ones proved that the fabric didn’t shrink. The wet fabric had a really odd smell, maybe it was due to decades of storage in the wooden box, or maybe it was some fire-retardant chemical from the 1960s… After the washing test the repair work commenced, the repaired seat covers would be washed later.

The first parts to be repaired were the actual seat parts. The typical damage included ripped seams, broken or missing poppers, round holes – probably caused by a cigarette fallen from a passenger or by the ash fallen from a cigarette. As patching material some non-fraying green cotton fabric was bought from Eurokangas, the colour proved to be very close to the original one. The patching fabric was washed before use. The holes and worn or frayed areas were patched by placing a piece of patching fabric under the area and stitch criss-cross over the hole area, using a household sewing machine. Poppers were moved from seat covers beyond repair to the ones in better condition but missing poppers. 

Then the seat cover hoods were repaired. The typical damage in them were ripped seams and threadbare areas in the lower parts of the hood where the seat belt and the seatback movement have rubbed the fabric. There are so few seatback hoods available that repairing the worst ones meant sewing new patches on old patches. The household sewing machine couldn’t handle the trickiest patches and help from a friend with an industrial sewing machine was needed.

The last item to be repaired were the seat pocket parts. At the time they have been removed from the seat frames without opening the screws on the top corners, so the corner pieces have been ripped off. Nearly all seat pocket parts needed their corners patched. The actual seat pocket is a pocket sewn on the fabric covering the backside of the seatback. There has been an elastic band at the top edge of the pocket, fastened on the seatback frame with small hooks. We don’t have any original elastic bands or hooks. Developing a new elastic band and hook system took some time. Eventually a small birdcage lock clips which fitted a 20 mm elastic band were found and the clip will be easy to fasten on the seatback frame. The downside of this solution is that it was quite arduous to slip the elastic through the seat pocket edge and sew the clips on the elastic band on 24 seats…

When all seat cover parts had been repaired, they were washed in 30°C gentle wash cycle. The ugly stains (maybe coffee?) on the seat pockets came off quite nicely even in the household washing machine. Weather permitting, the washed textiles were hung outside to dry to get rid of the odd smell.

There are plenty of turquoise seat belts in our container and we could select the ones in best condition to be reused. A pressure washer was used for washing the seat belts, then they were hung out to dry. The fastening mechanism on both ends of each seat belt needs to be checked and oiled. Each belt has a label with the manufacturing or installation date, the belts have been labelled in the 1960s and 1970s.

The repaired and washed seat covers and seat belts are now waiting for the seat frames to be repaired and for the new padding material to arrive.

Photos by Erja Reinikainen.