Learning the Trade: Bar's Oil Stop Leak Test and Upholstery

This website will stop at nothing car related. I have been learning a lot, and I have truly learned more about cars in the last two years than my whole life before that, and at this point, I want to start sharing. It's hard to figure out where to start, I know. I have been teaching myself about cars for a long time now and I have been learning about upholstery for a short while.

Upholstery tools and materials. 

Learning the Trade will be typically short articles on what I am working on and we can both learn together. I have a little upholstery update as well as a test I am doing with a certain Stop Oil Leak product. I don't take much stock in these products, meaning that I have only found two that work. I'm talking about the magical liquids you pour in that fix a problem. SeaFoam works but I recommend that you do NOT use it in your LS400 - I had problems because of it but most other older cars benefit a lot. Google your car and see.

The other product that gave me instant results, including quieting noisy lifters and clearing out a ton of sludge, is MMO or Marvel Mystery Oil. This product came out in the 1920s if that's any indication it works.

Currently I have a pretty bad oil leak in my car and I don't have the money to fix it for a month or so. I decided that if this product has no chance of actually damaging something, I'll try it. Never use one of these products that COULD cause other problems.

The directions say to put the whole bottle in your oil. Add it first when you're topping off your oil. The bottle states that it will take about 200 miles of driving for the product to fully work which makes sense. It also states that if one bottle doesn't work, try one more. Makes sense to me. It hydrates your gaskets (my valve cover gasket is what's leaking) and I assume that if any leaks out, it hardens in that part to seal it but I have no idea about that.

I do know that it is mainly composed of petroleum spirits which is... Oil. I wasn't scared putting it in like some other products.

I have driven 40 miles so far and plan to come back with an update in one of these articles once either the leak stops or when I drive the 200 miles required for the second bottle. Fingers crossed. The next Learning the Trade will have an update on this as well as the upholstery.

75% of one front seat.

As far as upholstery goes, I am almost finished with the front seats. Teaching myself, I'm using a totally different method of sewing/attaching pieces together that I don't feel comfortable sharing just yet but you may be able to figure it out. And no, I'm not using 3M to do it (that's to glue one fabric on top of another).

If you look at the picture above, the piece that's rolled up is kind of like a sack that slips over the seat with the headrest removed. That goes back on after. The rest of the fabric will be connected with some leather trim pieces while the entire back seat will be upholstered completely in that leather. It's going to run down the middle, so the center console will be done in leather as well.

This is the leather I'm going to be using and no, it won't be like it's pictured. I just wanted to show my readers the leather.

This original interior will consist of this extremely durable cloth mixed with leather. Another thing I should mention is that I can always use vinyl paint to change the color of the cloth. For now, however, I love the fact that it actually looks like it came out of a 90s car - like a Celsior maybe? That was my inspiration.

Marking where the cloth needs to be cut.

I hope this article encourages you to work on your own stuff. Thanks for reading. Let's learn together.