Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-11-02 | Page 54 | Give your Car Upholstery Proper Care, is Good Rule

Give Your Car Upholstery Proper Care, Is Good Rule a jjood substitute is infinitely bettor than a poor cut from the hide. After the cutting operation the leather goes through a number of other processes. It receives a further tanning and is treated ivith oils to make it pliable. Finally, it is given various treatments to produce the gloss aud finish desired and is colored ivith pigments pig-ments applied mixed with oil. In the cheaper grades of leather the thinner anri lower cuts the surface is generally covered with a chemical compound which forms a sort of flexible film. Practically tho spine thing is done in making leather substitutes, so that tho two products are almost identical, identi-cal, except that one has a leather base whilo the other has a cotton cloth as a foundation. Cloth as Substitute. Leather substitutes consist in the final anlysis of a base of cot.tou cloth. On W'hich is laid a deposit of celul'ose compound. These iugTedicnts in somewhat some-what different form are also the basis of many modern high explosives, so that the m7tcrists of today may be said to be sitting on the first cousin to a charge of nitroglycerin. Stripped of detail, the process of manufacturing manufactur-ing leather substitute simmers down to treating cotton cloth with nitric and sulphuric acids to give it a gelatinous consistency, after which oils are added to make the product pliable. As with leatiher, the value of the substitute is governed priucipally by the thickness, not only of the cotton cloth, but also of the compound which is deposited upon it. This is not au invariable rule, but it is near enough to beim so that the car buryol is justified justi-fied in rejecting substitute leather upholstery up-holstery that is thin and lacks substance. sub-stance. So perfect is he likeness to Teal leather that has now becu produced in the substitute that "sharp" salesmen sales-men frequently pass the latter as the former on unsuspecting customers. But, as a matter of fact, the manufacturer with good grade of substitute has nothing to apologize for. It will give excellent wear and will look exactly like real leather during its period of service, if a few simple attentions are given it at stated intervals. Slip Covers Invaluable. To begin with, the sooner the American Amer-ican motor car public leam3 the valuo of slip covers, the sooner it will begin to save needless expense for rcuphol-stering rcuphol-stering vehicles. These covers protect tho upholstery, whether it is rel leather leath-er or substitute, and they will repay their cost in any car. Secondly, gasoline should never be used to clean the upholstery, no matter mat-ter which kind it is. The first step in cleaning is to clean off any dust or dirt that may be present by a brisk brushing with a stiff whiskbroom. Next wa:lh t!v upholstery vakh castile soapsuds soap-suds and water anil twn dry the surface sur-face carefully. Finally go over the surface with a cloth dampened in sweet oil or somo standard upholstery dressing. THE ignorance of the average motor mo-tor car owner in regard to tho upholstery of his vehicle would be laughable if it were not so-rious so-rious and in the aggregate costing American motorists somo millions of dollars every year simply because this necessary part of the. car's equipment does not receive the care and attention that will keep it serviceable. Not long ago a' new car owner decanted to me on the subject, of the handsome Spanish leather upholstery which graced his car. A mere glance told that the Spanish Span-ish leather was really an excellent leather substitute which would give quite as good service as what the car owner thought he had. Leather Substitutes. As a matter of fact, almost all the cars that have been turned out within the past several mouths have been upholstered up-holstered in leather substitutes, which is so well done now that it cau scarco-ly scarco-ly be detected from the genuine. Cars selling below $200(J have not. used the real leather in some time, simply because be-cause tho supply was inadequate and prices enormously advanced. The military mili-tary demands for leather are tremendous, tremen-dous, aud little has been available for private enterprise. Suppose we examine briefly the methods of manufacture that go into the making of real leather and substitute upholstery Leather upholstery comes, of course, from the hide of a steer. The tanneries receive tho hides in what is known as a "gTeen state" -that is, with the hair on and the skin untanned. After going go-ing through the various preliminary processes of cleaning, hair removal, etc., the hide goes into a vat of weak tanning tan-ning fluid. From this it goes into a stronger solution and then into a still stronger one, and so on until the operation opera-tion is completed, which requires about eight days. Tho hide has now become leather, but its interesting career has only begun. be-gun. The next step in the odyssey is a cutting machine. This ingenious tQol is so accurately set and guided that the single hiiie, only a fraction of an inch in thickness, may be cut into almost anv number of sheets of leather, even down to a thickness of tissue paper. Obviously, thou, the term leather is merely a relative one. The leather may be a quarter of au iuch thick or it may be as thin as a cigarct paper. All else being equal, the thicker the cut the more serviceable and long-lasting will be the leather. Hide Now Leather. Leather manufacturers have different differ-ent names for the different cuts of leather. The top cut is known as the "buffing," anil is generally employed in the manufacture of bookbinding, pockctbooks and similar light articles. The best grade of leather is the cut which comes under the buffing. From this second cut of leather we get the finest tvpc of automobile upholstery' that can be made. But below this there are several more cuts that vary in value according to thickness and other considerations. From ail this it will appear just why the term "leather upholstery up-holstery "' does not necessarily menu whSt it is usually taken to mean. While the best grade of leather is uneoualed,