Fabric (non tolex) covering questions

I have no experience with this but two things come to mind:

What kind of lacquer did you use? Perhaps a matte/satin spray lacquer will work better?

Vintage suitcases often are wrapped in fabric; perhaps there tutorials on how to make/refurbish those on the web?

Good luck and nice fabric you chose!

 

Do you think a clear epoxy resin could work? You could lay it up like fiberglass and brush resin right through it or even use plastic sheet and a roller. Impermeable and bomb proof. Shiny hard though.

 

I have very limited experience but am trying to do a fabric guitar. For glue I found using PVA but a very thin layer so it didn't soak through worked quite well. For a finish, everything I've tried darkens the fabric to some extent. I've resigned myself to just taking that into account when choosing a fabric.

 

Grab the 3M 90 next time for superior adhesive power !

 

Depending on the fabric, you may be seeing some of the substrate color coming through once you apply your clear.
So, the color tone of the wood may be impacting what you are seeing once the the fabric is "cleared". Dark color fabrics will be impacted less than will light color fabrics... ( I think I can see some of the wood grain through the fabric in you photo sample )

Do another test using the same "clear" but with the fabric on a white substrate.
If this gives you the final color you are looking for, you would need to paint your cabinet white then cover it with your material.

Clear finishes, even superglue tend to make the material, such as paper or fabric somewhat translucent and may also darken the lighter colored areas. It really depends on the material and what you have it covering.

Just a thought.
Should be a cool covering!
Good luck

 

Good old fashioned white wood glue, i use the stuff on gluing fabric on guitar cases the trick is to put it on let it start drying before putting the fabric down
stretch the tight areas and use small pin nails to keep it in place once it has dried and cured remove the pins the only way you will get that fabric off is if you rip it off

or you could use heat resistant glue the type used on car dashboards only problem is you wont get much of a time window it drys rapid and stinks

for clear coating fabric use a 2 part polyurethane, mix it well put a light coat on with a foam brush that will seal up any inks let it dry then give it a good coating
there are many on the market used for furniture, floors, bar tops etc look for the brands that state there is no yellowing or shrinking when cured

 

My only experience with fabric was some grey "upholstery" fabric that I covered some bass bins back in the day. I think there was somewhat of a "backing" that I just glued down with contact cement.

 

I often use wood glue even on Tolex. So that's a thought. It should stick to cloth very well. It may bleed through if you over saturate but dries clear and shrinks back anyway. I've used it on Tweed.

 

Not sure if this helps but Mod Podge has multiple formulas!

 

I've covered a couple cabs with fabric, I've used weldwood (solvent based not water) on the wood and spray 3m 77 on the fabric with good results. I then laquer it with clear or amber shellac. Both darken it, but obviously the amber more so. I was going for the suitcase Tweed look on my projects, so the darkening effect was desirable, I'm not sure how you could avoid changing the fabrics color when using a finish, it may depend on the fabric more than the finish itself, I would expect that natural fiber would darken and bleed more than synthetics, but you may have more compatibility problems with synthetic materials.

 

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/5c1-5c3-5f1-5e3-concurrent-builds.335898/page-6

Starts on Page 6. This is how I've done all my boxes. Materials ranged from upholstery fabric to vinyl seat covering to wool to regular cotton to fake suede to... not sure what else. If I used too much glue it bled through so I've had to be more careful on the amount I've used.

Only change to all of these was on the vinyl, I used an old tee-shirt between the iron and vinyl to keep it from melting the vinyl.

I've found that when you first iron it down it holds good enough to check your placement but at that point you can still rip it off and reset or replace it.

No stink so I can do it in the basement and nobody complains about the smell.

Have fun!!!

a

 

I'd love to read a thread about this process. So that's my vote.

(I've always used tolex, tweet or upholstery fabric and finished it with shellac. Shellac on tolex was not ideal but I've lived with it.)

 

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Find the Texas Toast videos on fabric top guitars and use that same technique to put it on an amp.

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