There you are, watching the Declaration of Independence being signed in the year 1776. It’s hot inside and outside, showers are not an everyday occurrence so there is a slight smell, and all you can think about is entering your nice air conditioned Tesla vehicle. Well, actually you didn’t have a Tesla back then … or air conditioning, or cars in general.Since it’s around that time of year with a National Holiday, many of us wonder how people survived back in the beginnings of America. There was no plumbing, heating, air conditioning, or elec...
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Summer is fully here. There’s not deny it. May’s weather was touch and go there for a bit, but now in June the sun has fully settled into place, turning us all to ash. We have all had that terrible experience of entering our cars to have our backs seared to a nice crisp.Did that picture give you the willies like it did for us? It’s awful, right?Now, you gotta imagine, that kind of heat cannot be good on the leather… can it? As the temp heats up and the sun spends more time beating down it’s important to take a few precautionary steps fo...
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If you’ve been a reader of our blog for some time then you know we love summer time road trips. Each year we talk about the trips to take, stellar roads to drive, and more. We love our cars (and trucks, and Jeeps, and and and!), and this beautiful, amazing country we get to call home. There are thousands of sites and sights scattered across the country and if you jump into the driver seat with a full tank and a desire you’re going to have a great time. But! If you adequately prepare and pack your bags and car for the adventure, you’re bound to ...
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Here at VIP Interiors, automotive upholstery is our bread and butter. Repairing it, installing it, you name it we live and breathe it. That could be laying out new carpet inside antique vehicles or repairing a soft top convertible with a tear. The world of automotive upholstery is wider than most might realize. That’s what we are here to talk about this time on the blog.UpholsteryUpholstery is the trade of making stuff comfortable. Adding seats, padding, springs, fabric, webbing, covers, etc. to furniture. As long has man has been craft...
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leather seat repair

This month we are giving some basic tips on fixing leather seats. If you haven’t read the last entry, we’d suggest going back and reading. It’s on how to use a leather repair kit to fix the small tears and cracks in a leather seat. But kits are not the only way to take care of these. You want to make the fix yourself (for now, until you can get into the shop of course,) use a patch like so!Fixing Leather with a PatchBefore you begin the process, you need to carefully select a proper leather patch. This will be something that matches the...
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Welcome back, grab a seat and pull out your notebooks. We’re going back to class! Last time we gave a basic rundown of what automotive upholstery is, who does it and why. A decent enough overview to understand what it is we do here at VIP Interiors. This time around, we’re going to go into the tools we use and how they work. You should leave this page with an understanding of how we do what we do. The Tools of the Trade, What Goes in an Automotive Upholstery Repair Kit Bone FolderDespite it’s grim name, the bone folder serves a pretty ben...
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torn leather seat repair needed

It’s April here in Tempe and the weather has rarely been better! Give a few more weeks and summer will be here fully. If you are anything like us you already have the top down and are cruising, loving this weather while we got it. Also, if you’re anything like us you are focused on keeping your ride the best it can be. That means keeping the soft top spotless and the leather pristine.But what happens if you get a small tear? A hole, a crack? Even if they’re small damages they can be incredibly eyesores and if you don’t have the time or mone...
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Welcome back to the blog! Last time you gave you a DIY rundown of how to get your convertible top repaired, or at least functioning, to make sure you could fully enjoy Spring. We hope that was a useful entry for you. Because we are completely in Spring now! If you put all that elbow grease into repairing your top, it’s time to enjoy it. Here are just some of the awesome events, exhibits, and adventures you can check out. After all, what’s the point of having such a nice ride if you’re not going anywhere?Ancient Musical Treasures from Centra...
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Welcome back to the VIP Interiors blog! It’s March, Spring should just about officially be on its way (or maybe we are just hopeful) and you know what that means! It’s about time to put the top back and enjoy cruisin’! Now, what if your convertible top is in need of repair? That’s where we come in! This post is all about some very basic convertible top repair tips. Remember, a repair done poorly will just cost more to fix correctly. ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’ and all that.Fixing a Tear in Your Convertible TopFixing a tear in the fabric can ...
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The Comprehensive Guide to Convertible Tops We’ve written a lot about car upholstery recently, so today we are covering how to care for convertible tops. Convertibles were made for cruising in the sun, but not so much for the rain, wind, and snow. The elements can wear down the fabric overtime, but cleaning a convertible top can help it last longer.  In the end, every top will need to be repaired or replaced at some point, so we’ll Cleaning a Convertible Top Without cleaning a convertible top, dirt and dust collect on the fabric. The abrasi...
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