I’ve just got to give a public Thanks! To DJ Lauritsen at Cleaveland (which, interestingly enough, is in Iowa…). Over six years ago, I went to her for custom seats for the RV-8 I was building. The design and workmanship was outstanding, they have always been very comfortable, and she easily incorporated the design I wanted to embroidery on the seat backs.
1350 hours and close to six years of flying later, I am still totally impressed with the seat and aside from a fuzzy spot that got grabbed by some Velcro, they looked like new. Unfortunately; time, temperature, and sun take their toll….and a couple of weeks ago, I was getting out of the airplane after a short cross-country and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted…FOAM! I did a double-take, and sure enough, there was a tear, right across the middle of the pilot’s-seat back, right next to a seam. Closer examination showed that the material had simply pulled apart – and I could see that sun and sweat had done their damage to weaken the fibers.
A quick call to DJ the next morning confirmed that yes indeed, they could fix it – and that they could turn it around the day they got it! While they still had the same fabric, DJ couldn’t guarantee that it would match the stuff that had been in the field for six years, but replacing the entire center panel would at least make it uniform. I shipped it off on a Tuesday and DJ called me on Thursday to tell me that it was ready to return – and they’d replaced the side panel with the Velcro damage for good measure. The cost? Well, all I can say is that I hope they make their living selling tools, cause s he’s not going to get rich doing repairs for this price!
The repaired cushion arrived in a couple of days, and looked like new – and it matched the old fabric perfectly – no fading! I was impressed with the whole process – the fact that the cushion could be repaired, the speed and cost, and the cheerful, “can-do” attitude of DJ and her team. I don’t think you can go wrong if you’re looking at them to do your interior!
Paul
1350 hours and close to six years of flying later, I am still totally impressed with the seat and aside from a fuzzy spot that got grabbed by some Velcro, they looked like new. Unfortunately; time, temperature, and sun take their toll….and a couple of weeks ago, I was getting out of the airplane after a short cross-country and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted…FOAM! I did a double-take, and sure enough, there was a tear, right across the middle of the pilot’s-seat back, right next to a seam. Closer examination showed that the material had simply pulled apart – and I could see that sun and sweat had done their damage to weaken the fibers.
A quick call to DJ the next morning confirmed that yes indeed, they could fix it – and that they could turn it around the day they got it! While they still had the same fabric, DJ couldn’t guarantee that it would match the stuff that had been in the field for six years, but replacing the entire center panel would at least make it uniform. I shipped it off on a Tuesday and DJ called me on Thursday to tell me that it was ready to return – and they’d replaced the side panel with the Velcro damage for good measure. The cost? Well, all I can say is that I hope they make their living selling tools, cause s he’s not going to get rich doing repairs for this price!
The repaired cushion arrived in a couple of days, and looked like new – and it matched the old fabric perfectly – no fading! I was impressed with the whole process – the fact that the cushion could be repaired, the speed and cost, and the cheerful, “can-do” attitude of DJ and her team. I don’t think you can go wrong if you’re looking at them to do your interior!
Paul
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