Fashion photogarphs from the shoot at our Caravelle in july

Lauantai 8.11.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

A Caravelle blog published in the summer talked about a photo shoot on the Caravelle site at Turku airport when the fashion collection of Konsta Eskola, an Aalto University fashion design student, was being photographed.

The collection is a part of Konsta’s final project in his bachelor’s studies, where he has evaluated airline uniforms and the possibilities for their reuse. All materials of Konsta’s collection – except aluminium and recycled leather – are from parts of Finnair’s and Norra’s used uniforms. He has taken apart the uniform parts he received from the airlines, and from this material he created new outfits. Konsta’s final project collection includes six looks.

We got pictures which were taken on that day by photographer Simran Kaur and with Konsta’s permission we publish some of them on this website.

Photos: Simran Kaur

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Restoring the instrument panel in the cockpit

Maanantai 27.10.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri and Martti Saarinen

Suomeksi

When the former SAS Caravelle SE-DAF arrived in Finland in August 2022, its fuselage was tilted 45 degrees due to the limited height in the ferry’s vehicle deck. In the former Pansio shipyard hall, where the aircraft was brought for restoration, the fuselage remained in this position for the first five months. This allowed easier access to the upper section of the fuselage where the cleaning and grinding work started.

In the beginning of 2023 the fuselage was turned into an upright position, and we could enter the cabin and the cockpit for the first time. We were shocked – a mild expression for what we felt – to see saw how drastically the interior had been disassembled. The cabin seats, overhead shelves and surface materials had been removed, and there was not much left of the cockpit equipment either.

Cockpit interior on 27 March 2023 when the Turku team saw it for the first time

In the cockpit, about 30-35 instruments or display panels were missing from the instrument panel. The paint was peeling and the surfaces looked rundown after decades of neglect on the edge of Arlanda airport.

Martti Saarinen, a member of the Caravelle technical team, set to looking for the missing instruments and radio operating panels in co-operation with Antti Hyvärinen. Janne Salonen, for his part, contacted the aviation museums in Sweden to find missing instruments.

The cockpit on 25 October 2023, about seven months after the previous picture was taken.

Several of the missing instruments have been found, many have been donated by various organisations and private persons. Some instruments have not been available, so Martti Saarinen built copies (non-operational replicas) to replace them.

Painting work progressed in the cockpit, and the glare shield was unfastened to be restored. 
The side panels of the cockpit were painted by the Turku team. To maintain an authentic appearance, the original paintwork was retained on the instrument panels.
The glare shield above the instrument panel was restored at Vantaa by the Tuesday Club of Aviation Museum Society Finland.

The hunt for the missing instruments was still on and one by one items were found online. In autumn 2025 the instrument panel was quite complete. Other equipment in the cockpit was also restored, e.g. the throttle levers. In 2025 also the textiles of the pilots’ seats were cleaned, repaired and partly replaced.

The cockpit on 24 September.2025 when lighting had been installed

When the electrical work progressed, lighting was installed in the cockpit. The new led strip under the glare shield lights up the instrument panel quite nicely. There is still some painting work remaining and we are looking for the last missing parts and radio panels.

The autopilot control panel in September 2025

One of the latest additions on the instrument panel is the autopilot panel. Martti Saarinen had to build it because a real one couldn’t be found.

The radio panels in the pilots’ ceiling panel on 13 October 2025

The latest addition is the control panel of the ADF radio, which we were donated in early October 2025. It can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture.

We are still looking for some items and maybe one day we will find real instruments to replace the replicas we have now in the cockpit.

The control panel of the HF-radio and the fault indication panels for the navigation systems are missing. Although the HF-installation varied on the SAS aircraft. Initially, black cover plates were used on the aircraft when some equipment had not been installed.

Photos: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Inventory and other work on an autumn friday, 19 september 2025

Perjantai 19.9.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The Caravelle volunteers in Turku have been busy all autumn with the interior work in the rear cabin, electrical installation and other finishing work as well as improving the outdoor area. This blog, however, concentrates on the activities of a day when the three Team Helsinki/Vantaa/Vihti members were on site. Another blog will be written later about the interior work.

Instruments have been installed into the instrument panel in the cockpit and finally the last item could be added. We don’t have an original autopilot operating panel, but a skilfully made copy was assembled – and it looks great.

Photo: Martti Saarinen

In the cabin new stoppers were tested on the curtain track. They prevent the curtain roller slides from slipping from their track if the curtains are moved. We have some original stoppers, but new ones are needed too. The prototypes of the new stoppers proved to work well, so some additional copies will be made.

We were donated an original Caravelle first class double seat and its refurbishment will be done next spring, before bringing it into the cabin. We have already started with some preparations and planning for the refurbishment. The seat will need mechanical repairs, and new padding and covers need to be made. Now we did some measurements and padding tests for drawing the patterns for new covers.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

You may remember that a container full of material came from Arlanda along with the aircraft. It has been parked in our storage area at Turku airport since early summer 2023. Another container, located beside the aircraft, has worked as a shed for tools and material needed in the restoration work. Quite a job was done as the contents of the two sea containers were now inventoried and organized. In the organizing work the visiting volunteers were accompanied with two Turku team members.

Photo: Jouni Halme

The container in the storage area still contains some items which were dismantled from the SE-DAF in the summer in 2022, but there is a lot of other material we got from Arlanda, packed in wooden boxes and some loose in the container. At Arlanda the material was inventoried, and the boxes were labelled with texts describing the contents. During the years parts and some cabin textiles have been collected from the boxes and installed in the aircraft. The boxes have also been rummaged through for other purposes.

Now all loose items in the container were checked, the boxes were opened, and an inventory was made of the material we have. The material was sorted into two categories: a) Caravelle parts which may be used in the aircraft or in the exhibition and b) material from other aircraft types which may be sold or placed on display. A real treasure were the six original and well-preserved unused windowpanes (plexiglass) which can be installed in the cabin. Cockpit items were found too, pilot headset and microphones, among others. There is plenty of interesting material for the exhibition, such as the “black box”, refuelling panel, radio equipment and different kinds of tools and small parts.

Photo: Jouni Halme

We also collected all kinds of waste and disposable material from the storage container. This included cargo pallets, timber used in the transportation of the aircraft parts, etc. and material which had corroded or crackled or become brittle during the decades. There were also some textile items which had been dirty, torn or damaged already when they had been packed.

There is plenty of material in the wooden boxes, waiting to be used in the future: e.g. seat covers, seat belts and tray tables which are not from a Caravelle. The boxes were re-labelled and packed into the container so that they are easily accessible.

It is easy to continue from here in the spring.

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Fashion photography at the Caravelle

Lauantai 16.8.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

On Tuesday, 29 July 2025, there was unusual activity on the Caravelle site at Turku airport when the fashion collection of Konsta Eskola, an Aalto University fashion design student, was being photographed.

This collection is a part of Konsta’s final project in his bachelor’s studies, where he has evaluated airline uniforms and the possibilities for their reuse. Before his studies Konsta worked for several years at Norra as a member of the cabin crew, so he is familiar with the work environment, airline dress codes and wearing a uniform.

All materials of Konsta’s collection – except aluminium and recycled leather – are from parts of Finnair’s and Norra’s used uniforms. He has taken apart the uniform parts he received from the airlines, and from this material he created new clothes. The uniform parts had come to the end of their life cycle in their original use and would have ended up in textile recycling. Utilizing different second-hand materials has been trendy in the fashion business already for some time, but this is presumably the first time when airline uniforms are reused in this way.

Furthermore, Konsta says he likes to play with the impressions the outfits create and to challenge the traditional views of male and female roles as uniform users. Konsta’s final project collection includes six looks.

The photographing day started on the Caravelle site by defining photographing locations and outlines as the photographer evaluated camera angles and illumination. Locations were selected outside the aircraft, on the wing and in the cabin. The Caravelle team volunteers, who were on site to assist in the shoot, moved away tools, exhibition items and all kinds of clutter from the background of the photographing sectors.

Three models, a makeup artist and a hairstylist arrived soon after noon. The first pictures were taken towards the end of the afternoon. There were some heavy rain showers during the afternoon, causing some delay in the activity, but fortunately continuous rain was avoided. The photographing session ended before twilight.

Konsta praised the Caravelle team for the photographing day, everything went smoothly, and he was very pleased with the results. “Doing a fashion shoot like this has been my long-term dream and thanks to you it was possible to make this dream come true today.”

For the Caravelle volunteers the day offered an intriguing glimpse into a different world. None of us present had ever participated in anything like this before.

The photographs taken of the fashion shoot which are published with this blog are taken by the Caravelle team members. We will get some of the actual results of the day, i.e. photos taken by the photographer, and publish them here later.

Photos: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Airveteran DC-3 OH-LCH visits Caravelle on 12 July, 2025

Tiistai 5.8.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri & Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

This year the iconic DC-3 OH-LCH, owned by Airveteran and maintained and operated by the Finnish DC-3 Society, visited Turku on Saturday 12 July. Fortunately the visit was scheduled for a weekend and our Caravelle was open to visitors. We had invited the Turku Soldiers’ Home Association on site with their van to sell coffee, doughnuts and other refreshments – and there is no summer event in Finland without barbecue sausages! The visitors enjoyed the aviation history event and refreshments in the beautiful and warm but slightly sticky summer weather.

During the day the DC-3 flew three local flights for the public, about 45 minutes each, over the Turku archipelago. Several members of the Caravelle team had booked a flight and enjoyed the piston-engine flight. Unfortunately our Caravelle will never fly again, but a flight on the OH-LCH is always a great experience and the scenery in the Turku archipelago is very beautiful.

In terms of numbers of visitors, the day and the whole weekend were a success. We had almost two hundred visitors on board our Caravelle during the two days. The visitors were interested in the history of the 1960s airliner type and this specific aircraft. The volunteer guides from the Caravelle team were asked many questions during the weekend. Many visitors commented on the great appearance of the aircraft and were amazed to hear the amount of voluntary work done so far (about 7500 hours by May 2025).

In addition to the July weekend, the Caravelle was open to visitors also on Monday, 14 July, to honour Bastille Day. We have created a tradition to open the aircraft for visitors and raise the tricolour on the National Day of France, the country where our beautiful aircraft was manufactured.

DC-3 OH-LCH arriving in Turku. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Photo Jouko Tarponen

DC-3DC-3 pilots visiting Caravelle. Captain Petteri Tarma on the left. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Visitors outside the Caravelle and the Turku Soldiers’ Home Association van. Photo Jouko Tarponen

Flying on the DC-3 over Turku city centre. Photo Erja Reinikainen

The tricolour on Caravelle on Bastille Day. Photo Ismo Matinlauri

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

The first Caravelle exhibition

Tiistai 24.6.2025 - Erja Reinikainen and Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi:

The ambitious goal in the Caravelle project for this summer was to finish the cabin interior work in the rear area so that the first exhibition could be assembled in the open area. The four seat rows in the front area were completed already in May.

The most critical work phase for the exhibition area was the carpet installation. The carpet was cut to measure and installed in late May. Now the rear cabin is almost ready, only the ceiling panelling is missing, and we are looking for suitable aluminium mesh, resembling the original material, to cover the air-conditioning terminal units and loudspeakers on the wall. Although the work was in progress in this area, the preparations for the exhibition could be started in early June.

The preparations of the Caravelle exhibition poster material began already in the winter. Fortunately Juha Klemettinen, one of the authors of the “Caravelle in Finland” book, helped us with the photographs and the Caravelle project’s technical team assisted with the texts. Kai Asplund prepared the material lay-out for printing. We needed help from the Aviation Museum Society’s Tuesday Club, too. Poster roll-up frames are normally about 220 cm tall, but we had to cut the frame height to fit the Caravelle’s cabin to about 180 cm. This was done by the Tuesday Club. We had a dressmaker’s dummy for displaying the stewardess’s uniform, but it didn’t have a head. Fortunately a member of the Caravelle Turku team offered to make a papier-mâché head for our stewardess - and it looks great. A warm thank you to all who helped us with the exhibition material!

When all the material was ready and had arrived in Turku, the exhibition was assembled on 12 June 2025. The exhibition was open to the public for the first time already on the following day.

The exhibition describes the early phase of Finnair’s jet age and Caravelle’s role in it. There is also material about the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle project and a slideshow presenting how this aircraft was brought to Finland and restored to its present condition. Also the structure and technical systems of a passenger jet are displayed. One of the unique features of the Caravelle III is the brake parachute.

The exhibition is meant for independent visits; there is no guided presentation. However, there is usually a Caravelle team member present to answer questions during the opening hours. The display items have posters with information in Finnish, presenting the item and its history. We will improve the exhibition by adding small items and posters in English. We welcome you to Turku airport to visit the Caravelle and the exhibition!

Photos: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen

Signposts to the Caravelle "Bluebird"

Sunnuntai 15.6.2025 - Tuesday Club member

Suomeksi

The Tuesday Club received a request from the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle team in Turku to make two signposts. The signs would guide the visitors to the Aviation Museum Society’s Caravelle III OH-LEA Bluebird, which is situated by the Turku Airport terminal building. The permit to install signposts had been obtained from Finnavia, the governing authority in the airport area.

We answered in the affirmative to the Turku Team, so on to it. The Tuesday Club was in a good position because we already had a vector model of the word “Caravelle”, in the appropriate font style, after the restoration of two tow bars. We had taped the word Caravelle to both towbars.

On the basis of the sign measurements obtained from Turku, model prints and model images were drawn. The signs will be made of aluminium sheet, painted, and the text will be taped. At the stem of the sign, a looped square symbol (St John’s arms) denoting a place of interest, will be placed. We’ll make the signs to resemble the official signs denoting a place of interest. The background colour of the signs will be brown. The text and the looped squares will be in white.

We acquired 3 mm thick aluminium plate, cut to the measures of the signs, i.e. one 18 cm x 100 and the other 189x150 cm. The aluminium plates were ordered and fetched from Uudenmaan Teräsleikkaus Oy. The end of the shorter sign was cut to arrow shape with an angle grinder, after which the cutting surfaces of the arrow and the edges of both the aluminium signs we ground smooth.

We searched the brown shade for the signs on the internet. The shade was found as a printing code, because the modern way with traffic signs is to print straight on the aluminium. The printing code was changed with a transformation software to respond the commonly used RAL-shades used in paints. We mixed accordingly the Isotrol- paint we used.

Photo: Mårten Juslin

For the painting the aluminium plates were ground with an abrasive pad and fine sanding paper, after which grease was removed from the surfaces.

Photo: Mårten Juslin

Both signs were first painted with adhesive primer on both sides. Priming was done with spray paint. After the primer had dried the signs were lightly sanded and painted with brown Isotrol. After the topcoat paint had dried, the signs were sanded once again and given another coat of paint.

The tapes for texts and the looped St John’s arms were made as outside work in a decal firm. For that purpose, the vector presentations for the Caravelle-text and the looped squares were sent to the firm. When we received the Caravelle and looped square decals, they were fastened on the surfaces of the signs according to the drawings.

Photos: Ismo Matinlauri

Lähettäjän osoite:
helsinki@reservilaisliitto.fiThe Turku Caravelle- team stopped by at Puusepäntie to collect the signs we had made and installed them to guide visitors to see the magnificent Caravelle III, OH-LEA “Bluebird”, owned by Aviation Museum Society Finland, and outstandingly restored by the Turku Caravelle Team.

Photos: Lassi Karivalo, unless otherwise mentioned

Translation to English: Matti Liuskallio

The passenger seats are ready

Sunnuntai 18.5.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The interior and assembly work in the Caravelle’s cabin has progressed well during the spring. Finally the hard work is showing results - and about time, too! The passenger seats for the front section of the cabin have been under work for about 18 months, since early 2024.

One of the first tasks for the seats was the inventory of the existing seat covers. There were just enough original seat back covers for about twenty seats, which was the starting point for the cabin lay-out. The seat covers were washed and repaired last summer. The seat belts were cleaned and checked. New plastic foam padding was delivered for the seats during the summer too.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

In August 2024 the actual repair work began on the seat frames and their mechanisms. The seat frames which were in good condition were selected and the remaining seats were stripped of spare parts. The “seat repair team” managed to put together 19 seat frames which were in fair condition and suitable for further assembly. The pre-cut padding material was glued into form to fit the seat frames. When the weather got cold in November, and it wasn’t possible to work outside anymore, the painting work was moved into the office container in the Caravelle area.

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

During the winter months the seat frames were sanded and painted twice. First a base coat of paint and then the top-coat paint, which matched the original colour. Then the seat frames were stored for the winter in the DC-3 fuselage (DO-5) which is located beside our Caravelle.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

When spring 2025 arrived the seat assembly was continued, working outside with the seat fastened on a jig built on cargo pallets. The seat back covers probably had shrunk a little when washed or the new padding on the seat back is slightly thicker than the original, so putting them on caused a lot of huffing and puffing and some broken nails. The years of use and decades of storing have left their mark on the seat covers, and we had to pay attention that the covers with more damage were on the seats by the window. But the overall appearance is nice.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The carpet had been installed in the front cabin section before the seats were brought in and the curtains had been put up, so the surrounding was ready for seat assembly. The seats were easily fastened on the original seat tracks on the floor. The seat assembly was completed by adding the headrest covers we got from the Finnish Aviation Museum.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

Translation to English by Matti Liuskallio

Caravelle's cabin got the first refurbished seat and curtains

Maanantai 21.4.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The interior work in the Caravelle’s cabin has been going on almost since the aircraft left Arlanda, nearly three years ago. The surfaces in the cabin have been cleaned, insulated, refurbished, upholstered and painted. Now we have reached a point where some surfaces are ready, and the hard work is paying off. I am sure this summer the visitors will appreciate the outcome too.

A passenger cabin section has been built in the front part of the cabin, separated from the open rear section with new bulkheads. Four rows of passenger seats will be assembled in the front part, to illustrate what the cabin looked like in the 1960s. The seat frames, brought from Arlanda, were restored and painted last autumn, and the seat covers were washed and repaired. Now it was time to assemble a demo-seat where all restored parts are included.

Each seat has two pieces of padding made of foamed plastic: a section for the seat back, shaped according to an original model, and the thick seat cushion, cut to form. All padding parts had to be made from new material. The original set of seat textiles consists of three parts: the seat back hood, the cover for the backside of the seat back (including the seat pocket), and the seat cushion cover.  The seat back hood is fastened on the seat frame with Velcro tape, the seat pocket part with two screws and Velcro tape. The seat cushion and its cover are fastened on the seat with four snap fasteners, located under the seat. The seat belt halves are fastened on the seat frame with lock hooks.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The seats are assembled outside the aircraft, using a jig built on cargo pallets. The seat frames are fastened on aircraft seat tracks on the pallet, and there is more working space around the seat than in the cabin. This proved to be a good arrangement, the working height was good and even the weather was favourable when the first seat was assembled. Developing the working methods and the correct assembly order required some discussing and testing, so assembling the demo seat took almost the whole day.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The original cabin curtains were removed to be washed and repaired about a year ago. The curtains were mainly in good condition and no major repair was needed. At this point we installed back ten curtains in the front section of the cabin. The curtains are fastened at the top and at the bottom on the roller slides on the curtain track with snap fasteners. There are 28 snap fasteners per curtain and fastening them required some dexterity and patience.

Photos: Erja Reinikainen

When the 3-passenger seat had been brought into the cabin and the curtains were in place, it was time to sit down and relax. A new milestone had been reached in the Caravelle restoration project: the cabin is beginning to look like the interior of an aircraft again. It has taken a while – and it looks good.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Photo: Jouko Tarponen

Repairing the flight deck seat covers

Tiistai 1.4.2025 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

There are four seats on the Caravelle’s flight deck: the captain’s and co-pilot’s seats in front, the third crew member’s / observer’s seat at the back on the right-hand side and on the left-hand side an auxiliary seat, without a seatback, located on top of the box containing the manual library. Last autumn all seat textiles and safety belts were dismantled in the cockpit for repair and maintenance. The seat frames and most of the padding material were in surprisingly good condition.

The captain’s seat’s armrest mechanism as well as all the seat position adjustment mechanisms were checked and fixed before the winter break. The padding for the pilots’ seat was all right, but new padding had to be made for the observer’s seat and for the rectangular auxiliary seat. There was plenty of plastic foam sheet, left over from cutting the padding for the passenger seats, to be used for this purpose.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The seat covers on the flight deck, however, were in poor condition. Especially the pilots’ seat cushion covers had worn thin and almost transparent, and the seatback covers had actual holes in their upper part. We discussed the possibilities for repairing the covers, but came to the conclusion that for the seat cushion covers the only alternative was to replace the cover fabric.

Photo: Annya Crowther

New fabric resembling the original seat cover wool-mix fabric in the right colour is quite impossible to find, so we decided to make the new sections from completely different material. The colour of the heavy cotton fabric resembles the faded greenish grey colour of the original seat covers (originally the fabric has obviously been dark grey).

On the pilots’ seats the covers for the seat cushion and the seatback are fastened on the seat frame with snap fasteners. There are 44 snap fasteners per seat. We found out that similar snap fasteners are not easily available, and the top parts of new snaps don’t fit on the original bottom parts, fastened on the seat frame. Therefore we decided to keep the sections of the seat covers, which held the top parts of the snap fasteners. The worn mid-sections of the cushion covers were unstitched from the snap fastener sections and replaced. The new fabric was cut into shape, using the unstitched section as a template, and sewn on to the original snap fastener sections.

Photos: Annya Crowther

The holes on the upper edge of the pilots’ seatback covers were patched with the original fabric, using the better sections from the unstitched seat cushion parts. The patches were sewn on the holes and worn areas.

Only the top side fabric was replaced on the rectangular pillowcase-like cover of the auxiliary seat. The observer’s seat cover was in such good condition that it needed only minor mending.

Last summer we managed to repair the passenger seat covers with an ordinary household sewing machine and very basic sewing skills. This time we got help with the flight deck seat covers from an experienced soft furnishings sewer, who is using a heavy-duty professional sewing machine. A good sewing machine was needed when sewing the seams of old and new fabric.

The back sides of the pilots’ seatbacks have seat pockets and the elastic band at the top had lost its stretch and the pockets were sagging. New elastic bands were put in and the seat pockets got a refreshed look in an industrial pressing machine.

Photo: Annya Crowther

The seat belts from the flight deck were cleaned with a pressure washer and spread to dry. When the belts were dry their leather parts were wiped with colourless shoe polish. No other maintenance was needed for the seat belts. When the photo was taken the belts in the middle had been washed and the ones on the sides were waiting their turn.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The flight deck seat cover repairs were completed just before the work season in 2025 began in Turku. “Caravelle Team Helsinki” travelled to Turku on 25 March to check the counterbalancing mechanism of the passenger door before the door was taken into use and brought also the repaired and refurbished flight deck textiles. The padding material had spent the winter in the storage container and felt slightly damp, so it was put up to dry in the sun against the office container wall for a moment before installation.

Assembling the flight deck seat padding, seat covers, and seat belts required some effort: there isn’t too much space on the flight deck and the covers had slightly shrunk when washed, so fastening all the original snap fasteners wasn’t easy. A good hour later, and after some foul vocabulary, broken nails and scratched fingers, the two pilots’ seats and the observer’s seat were ready. And they looked great. The fastening of the auxiliary seat cover still needs some adjustment.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

When the last missing flight instruments had been installed in the instrument panel, the flight deck was ready for the summer season and visitors.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Caravelle's flight deck door

Torstai 13.2.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

The Caravelle’s flight deck door came from Arlanda dismounted from its hinges and the wall panels around it were mainly missing, so it took us a while to figure out how the door had been installed and what its surroundings looked like. We were surprised to find out that the door opens both ways, which explained the unusual fasteners on the door frame and the double-sided hinges.

The restoration work of the flight deck door followed the same steps which we used earlier when working on both toilet doors. First the edging strips were removed, and the door handle was dismantled, together with other possible elements. The flight deck door has a ventilation grille at the bottom which could be closed from the flight deck side using a small panel.

Then the surfaces were sanded and spackled. A new surfacing material was installed on both sides: on the flight deck side a vinyl wallpaper and on the cabin side a wallpaper which resembles the original surface material.

The following step was to install the edging strips and other elements back into place. The photo below shows how the closing panel on the ventilation grille was installed.

Then the door was mounted into place, to test how it worked. After some adjustments the door was in place in its correct position. As the door has been designed to open both ways, the brackets on the door frame had to be adjusted before the door functioned properly.

Finally the wall panel above the door had to be built because the original had not been preserved. In the photo below the wall panel is preliminarily in place but it requires some adjustment. The edging strips on the door frame are also missing.

In the photo on the left you can see the new electrical board and the lighting switches above it. On the right you see a photo of the original flight deck door on the wall. We used this photo to figure out how the door is installed. A new lighting fixture has already been installed in the ceiling. The ceiling panel on the left side still needs to be resurfaced.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen and Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinikainen.

Caravelle's bulkhead restoration - Part 3 of 3

Tiistai 28.1.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

The segments of the cabin’s back wall panelling were found among the separate parts which came from Arlanda with the aircraft. The panels have some maintenance and inspection hatches for various equipment. The cabin crew seat which moves sideways on tracks fastened on the back wall was also found among the panels.

When the restoration and coating of the side wall interior had progressed to the rear part of the cabin, the restoration of the back wall panels could be started. In the photo the coating work has reached the rear wall, the following phase was to test-fit the wall elements into place and check their condition.

After some digging in the rear galley and the sea containers all wall panel segments were found. The last item to be found was the segment between the tracks for the cabin crew sliding seat, it is still missing in this picture. A small section of this panel, by the cabin wall, was not found and it had to be made. Some small parts of the left-hand side panelling remained missing, too.

The rear part of the overhead storage shelves was moved to the right-hand side, so a new part had to be made for covering the shelf end hole in the rear wall.

The missing parts were made of flexible building board, purchased earlier. It was protected from humidity by painting it with a suitable undercoat paint, then a suitable piece was cut into shape.

Finally the new panelling pieces were covered with vinyl coated wallpaper, resembling the original coating. Then each piece was fitted into place and fastened.

The assembly of the rear wall panelling went well. We took into account that the panelling may have to be disassembled in the spring when the ceiling coating is assembled in the middle of the aisle area.

The cabin crew seat was assembled into place and its bearings and wheels were oiled to make sure it moves smoothly. The seat frame was removed, it will be sanded and painted before final assembly in the spring.

The seat padding and cover had already been disassembled and taken to the Caravelle Helsinki Team “textile manager” to be cleaned and repaired.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen and Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinikainen.

Caravelle's bulkhead restoration - Part 2 of 3

Keskiviikko 15.1.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

A passenger seating area, consisting of four seat rows, will be built in the front part of the cabin. Seats for three passengers will be assembled on the right-hand side and double seats on the left-hand side. The overhead storage shelves and wall surfacing material on the right side were dismantled by the Swedes while the aircraft was still in Arlanda. With the four seat rows the cabin would look rather odd without the overhead shelves, so we moved some shelves from the rear of the cabin on left-hand side to the front on the right side.

The passenger seating area is separated from the open cabin area at the back with a new bulkhead. This kind of original bulkhead (or parts of it) did not exist in the aircraft, so it had to be made.

Building the new bulkhead

We had plenty of 10 mm plywood left from an earlier work phase, so we decided to use this material to make the new bulkhead. This saved a good amount of money; it will be needed for other purposes before the interior is ready. The outcome looks good and resembles an original bulkhead, which meets our requirements.

We used the bulkhead halves of the cabin front as a template to define the shape of the bulkhead parts. The outline of the bulkhead was drawn on a plywood board. It should be noticed that the line of overhead storage shelves on the left-hand side continues further back in the cabin and therefore we had to shape an opening in the bulkhead for the shelf. A rough sketch for the size and location of the opening can be seen on the plywood board in the photograph.

After the bulkhead halves had been cut to shape, they were test-assembled several times and the curvature on the cabin wall side had to be modified before the final shape was reached.

The plywood parts were sanded, and the largest holes and dents were spackled before the elements were surfaced.

Surface treatment

Both sides of the new bulkhead halves were surfaced using the same vinyl coated wallpaper which was used on the front bulkhead in the cabin. Vertical plastic strips were fastened on the aisle side of the bulkhead edges to protect the plywood material and to give the wallpapered sides a finishing touch.

Outcome

The surfaced bulkhead halves were assembled into place and fastened at the top and bottom with small corner brackets. At the bottom they will be covered when the carpet is installed and at the top they were hidden inside the overhead storage shelves.

There is a narrow gap between the cabin wall and the bulkhead, it will be filled with a strip of foamed plastic in the finalising phase next spring. The asymmetry of the bulkhead halves can be seen in the picture. The reason for the asymmetry is that the seat arrangement will be 3+2 seats, and the aisle is not in the middle of the fuselage but slightly on the left-hand side. (The picture was taken from the front of the aircraft towards the rear.)

Photos by Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinikainen.

Caravelle's bulkhead restoration - Part 1 of 3

Torstai 2.1.2025 - Ismo Matinlauri

Suomeksi

During the summer and autumn the interior work in the Caravelle’s cabin progressed surprisingly well. There were no major surprises on the way and the work progressed as planned. There are three bulkheads in the cabin and individual blogs will be written about each one.

This first part concentrates on the restoration work of the bulkhead in the front part of the cabin. It separates the front galley from the actual passenger cabin. As we don’t have a galley in our Caravelle, the front section could be called the entrance area.

The following blogs will describe the construction of the bulkhead which separates the seating area from the open rear area, and the restoration of the rear bulkhead which is between the toilets and the open area.

Test assembly

The cabin front bulkheads are original, they came with the aircraft from Arlanda, where the Caravelle waited for its fate from 1974 until 2022. On the entrance side the bulkhead had a grey plastic coating, which had broken and crackled in large areas during the decades. The remaining parts of coating were scraped off and then the old brown glue under it, covering the whole wall, was ground smooth.

In the picture both halves of the bulkhead have been test assembled into place for defining suitable fastenings.

Notice how the lower part of the bulkhead elements protrudes forward, towards the entrance area. This gave the passengers on the other side of the wall, on the first seat row, a little more legroom.

Dismantling and cleaning

The following step was to dismantle all decorative elements and add-ons, such as ashtrays, newspaper pockets, loudspeakers, etc. Furthermore, the fabric covering, on the lower part of the bulkhead on the passenger cabin side, was also removed as it was in poor condition.

The add-on elements were cleaned so that they were ready to be re-assembled on the restored bulkheads as the finishing touch.

Restoring the surfaces

A vinyl coated wallpaper, designed for humid spaces, was installed on the entrance side of the cabin bulkhead. Its pattern and colour corresponded with the original style quite well. The wallpaper was glued on the bulkhead surface using glue which is suitable for outdoor use and is water-soluble, which made it easier to get all the tools clean.

All the other bulkheads in the cabin were covered with the same vinyl coated wallpaper to create a uniform style inside the passenger cabin. On the passenger seating area side the original brown fabric on the lower part of the bulkhead was changed to the new carpet material. Finnair had donated a roll of aircraft carpet earlier in the year. Suitable pieces were cut from the carpet roll for the legroom part of the wall and glued on the bulkhead. The wallpaper on the upper part of the bulkhead was still in good condition, it only needed to be cleaned. This required a magic eraser, some cleaning liquid and a fair amount of proper scrubbing.

The outcome

When the restoration and cleaning work was ready, the add-on elements and decorations were fastened back on the walls and the bulkhead halves were installed into place in the cabin. Only the curtain is missing and the vertical strips from the sides of the bulkhead doorway. These will be installed during the spring 2025.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen and Ismo Matinlauri.

Translation to English by Erja Reinokainen.

Santa Claus visited Caravelle

Tiistai 10.12.2024 - Ismo Matinlauri

SuomeksiThis year Santa dropped by at Turku airport on 7-8 December and visited our Caravelle a week earlier than last year. This year Santa was accompanied by his wife and one of his helper elves. These two served the visitors glogg and gingerbread.

Santa sat down on the captain’s seat, fastened his favourite soft toy (a Santa Claus, naturally) on the instrument panel and everything was ready for the Christmas journey.

This year we had 49 visitors during the weekend, about 20 of them children. There were several Christmas markets and bazaars in the Turku area during this weekend, and this probably affected the number of visitors at the airport.

The Christmas crew served glogg, juice, gingerbread and chocolate. Old Feeniks aviation history journals were available for free, as souvenirs from the Caravelle visit.

Before Santa’s visit the office container and the Caravelle’s passenger cabin were cleaned after the busy autumn’s work. The tools were gathered, the floors were vacuumed, and all loose items were arranged neatly along the walls. This meant that the actual working period of this autumn has come to an end. Winter is coming and the lower temperatures restricts work in the aircraft and outside. We will come back to work in March when the winter is almost over.

The sales table in the office was slightly less impressive than in the summer, but quite adequate for Santa’s visit.

Several members of the Caravelle Turku team were present. Jari was there on both days and on Sunday also our chairman Janne arrived although we had a table in the Christmas bazaar at the Turku Fair Center during the weekend. This meant that the Aviation Museum Society Finland volunteers were busy in these two places. Janne, Mikko and Tanja were behind the sales table at the Turku Fair Centre.

We were pleased to have a good number of visitors in both places. Next year we will try to improve our programme in the Caravelle and hopefully get more visitors.

Translation by Erja Reinikainen.

Repairing the cockpit seat covers

Torstai 28.11.2024 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

This blog talks about the situation of the Caravelle’s cockpit seats and their covers.

There are four seats in Caravelle’s cockpit: the captain’s and co-pilot’s seats in front, the third crew member’s seat at the back on the right-hand side and an auxiliary seat on the left-hand side, located on top of the box containing the manual library. The third crew member seat can be moved into multiple positions along a curved rail fastened on the floor. The auxiliary seat has no seatback and is literally shaped like a box. The seat frames are made of metal sheet, they are in good condition and their adjustment controls seem to work, so there is no need for repairs.

Photo 1: There are several levers for position control under and beside the pilots’ seats.

The seat covers were removed to be cleaned and repaired. There was a multitude of snap fasteners to be unfastened in the most difficult places! The seatback covers of the pilots’ seats are in fair condition, both covers have a small worn area and a hole in the upper corner, probably where all visitors have been leaning when talking to the pilots. The captain’s seat cushion cover is very worn and is almost transparent in a large area. It will need thorough repair or renewal. The co-pilot’s seat cover is not in as poor condition as the captain’s. The third crew member seat covers are almost undamaged.

Photo 2: The captain’s seat cushion cover has worn thin. Photo by Jouko Tarponen.

The cover for the rectangular auxiliary seat is badly broken on top and on the side. The fabric cover has been made to hide the original leather-covered seat cushion, which remains inside in very poor condition. The padding will have to be replaced and probably also the top part of the fabric cover.

All seat covers are light grey but partly so dirty that they have turned dark – or this is what we first thought. The third crew member seat cover was taken off for a wash test. The test proved that the dark grey colour is not dirt but probably very close to the original fabric colour and the lighter part has faded in the sun. The original colour has remained unchanged on the snap fastener strips under the seat, on the rear side of the seatbacks and their seat pockets.

Photo 3: The seat covers have partly faded in the sun.

At this point a sub-plot must be told. When the storage shelves of the restoration workshop in the Finnish Aviation Museum were cleared, a cardboard box was found, and it was labelled “Finnair upholstery patterns”. The museum let us have a look at the material. The patterns, made of cardboard, proved to contain a good number of patterns for Caravelle seat covers. Among the 50+ sets of patterns there were four piles for Caravelle’s cockpit seats. We made copies from these patterns on non-woven fabric and took the copies to Turku to be test-fitted on the pilots’ seats. We were not lucky this time: none of the patterns found in the museum matched the seat covers on the flight deck of our Caravelle. Obviously the pilots’ seats on the Finnair aircraft were different from the ones on the SAS aircraft (our Caravelle was originally the SAS SE-DAF). Finding the correct patterns for the seat covers would have been a real stroke of luck, but it will be possible to repair the covers even without the patterns.

Photo 4: The seat cover and other upholstery patterns found in the Finnish Aviation Museum.

Plans for patching and partly replacing the fabric on the pilots’ seat covers and the auxiliary seat cover have been made. The following step will be to choose a new fabric which matches the original one. The aim is to have all flight deck seat covers repaired and the seat belts maintained before the spring season in the Caravelle refurbishment begins in March. There is a load of work ahead.

Photos by Erja Reinikainen except if otherwise mentioned.

Refurbishing the passenger seats, Part 3: All sorts of odd jobs and layers of history

Keskiviikko 6.11.2024 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

The Turku team of Caravelle volunteers has been working hard this autumn and the interior work in the cabin has progressed well. The front part of the cabin, which will be furnished with passenger seats, is now separated from the rear part with refurbished partitions. The surfacing material is in place on the walls and ceiling, electrical wiring has been installed and the new distribution panel connected. Only the strip of led lighting in the ceiling is missing. All floorboards are in place, but the carpet is waiting to be installed before the seats are brought in. The cabin curtain tracks have been fastened on the new wall covering and the curtain slides were fiddled back on the track. Everything is ready for installing the curtains.  

Interior refurbishment has been started also in the rear section of the cabin. This part will be an open exhibition area which can also be used for gatherings and meetings. The new wall surfacing material progressed well before the winter break. Hopefully we can start building a Caravelle exhibition in the spring.

Photo 1: Caravelle volunteers from the Turku team and the Helsinki team having a coffee break.

This blog talks about the progress of the passenger seat refurbishment. The so-called Helsinki team has been responsible for this work. (Funny though that not one of the four members of the Helsinki team actually comes to Turku from Helsinki…)

In the beginning of this autumn we were hoping that there will be one refurbished demo seat ready before the winter, fitted with new padding and “dressed” in repaired seat covers. We didn’t quite reach this goal.

The refurbishment work includes four seat rows, i.e. 8 seat frames with a total of 19 individual seats. These include five 2-person seats and four 3-person seats. Mechanisms of the armrests and seat tables were repaired, the broken seat back structures were reinforced and broken seat back rubber bands were replaced. Fortunately we have some seat frames in the storage container, and they have been stripped of various spare parts.

Photo 2: The seat backs have needed all kinds of repair and maintenance. Photo by Erja Reinikainen.

When dismantling the seats we have experienced some time travelling: the arm rest shield on the aisle side seat holds a good deposit of “history” from the time when the aircraft carried passengers. In this case this means nondescript lint. Among hair, dog hair, dried bread and other food residue, etc. we have found hair pins and coins, dropped by the passengers, and various kinds of small metal parts, which probably have escaped from the fingers of technical staff. The Caravelle team has now a collection of some Swedish crowns, but the big hoard of gold has not been found yet.

The seat frames have been painted several times when they were in use from the 1960s to the 1980s. (You may remember that the seats are from the Transwede Caravelle 10BR (SE-DEC) which was damaged beyond repair in an unsuccessful take-off in Arlanda in January 1978) The latest layer of the cream white paint was crackled and had partly peeled off. The painted surface is mainly visible on the seat legs and on the baggage guard rail, which prevents the baggage under the seat from moving uncontrolled on the floor. From these parts of the seat the layers of paint were sanded off before repainting. The sanding work was done outdoors, in rainy weather under the Caravelle’s wing. When sanding, we found some chewing gum under the seats, placed there conveniently out of sight at the time.

Photo 3: The seat frames were sanded under the Caravelle’s win.

Photo 4: The seat frames have been painted with primer and are drying in the autumn sun.

Towards the end of October the passenger seat legs and baggage guard rails were painted. The undercoat paint could be applied outside but the topcoat painting was done in the Caravelle area “container office” as the weather got colder. The “office” has proved to be very multifunctional, it serves the volunteers as an office, visitor centre, storage space, coffee room, paint shop and as workspace for the interior refurbishment.

Photo 5: Topcoat painting under way in the office.

The passenger seat frames were stored for the winter in the DC-3 fuselage which is located beside the Caravelle. This aircraft (DO-5) served last in Utti as a ground training device for the paratroopers and it has canvas seats by the walls with a wide empty space in the middle. So the DC-3 is quite suitable to be used as a storage – but there seemed to be mice dwelling in it. Small uninvited visitors are not wanted to build nests in the foamed plastic pieces, cut for the passenger seat padding. Therefore we decided to move the padding material to the sea container for the winter.

Photo 6: Caravelle seat frames and new padding material stored inside the DC-3.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen except if otherwise mentioned.

Refurbishing the passenger seats, part 2: Padding

Maanantai 21.10.2024 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

Refurbishment of the Caravelle’s passenger seats is under way. We repaired and washed original seat covers and now padding for 22 seats has been acquired. The refurbishment work includes four seat rows, i.e. 8 seat frames with a total of 19 individual seats. These include five 2-person seats and four 3-person seats. We are still debating about adding 2+2 seats to the open rear cabin area.

This is how the seats will be placed in the cabin. When this picture was taken the cabin partitions and ceiling material had not yet been installed.

This blog talks about replacing the seat padding.

We have only one original seatback padding piece, made of foamed plastic. We had to order new padding to fit the seats and the original seat covers. Muovikum Oy from Raisio cut new seat cushion and seat back padding for 22 seats, based on seat measurements and on the test versions we had prepared. The new padding was delivered in the beginning of August.  

The seat cushion (40x40 cm) was cut from 10 cm thick E30 quality foamed plastic. Its thickness at the rear edge of the seat is about 5 cm and at the front edge 10 cm. The cushion will be covered with thin felt plate to hide the bevelling in the material, needed for the change in the cushion thickness. With the felt plate the seat cover will also fit better and look neater. This finishing job we will do ourselves.

The seatback padding is made of 5 cm thick E30 quality foamed plastic. The size of the padding is about 41x75 cm. Preparing new padding for the seatback proved to be rather arduous because at the top there is a piece of foamed plastic, placed horizontally on top of the seatback edge as padding and supporting the seatback padding in its position. Originally this supporting piece has been made of hard foamed plastic and had a rounded shape. To save costs we didn’t acquire similar material or had it cut to shape but made it from E30 foamed plastic.

Left: The upper part of the original seatback paddin. Right: The first prototype of the upper part of the new seatback paddin.

First we made some prototypes of the supporting piece to find the right shape and make sure the seat cover fits nicely on the padding. Fortunately Muovikum had given us the waste pieces from cutting the seatback padding so there was plenty of foamed plastic for prototype tests and practising with the spray glue.

The parts for the upper edge of the seatback padding were cut from foamed plastic waste pieces.

After three test rounds, we had the seat cover top shape and angle right and “series production” could be started. Two foamed rubber pieces, cut to shape, were glued to the top edge of the actual seatback padding, using spray glue purchased from Muovikum. Spray gluing proved to be rather messy, fortunately we could work outside.

New seatback padding on the ”gluing line”, with finished items drying in the background.

The following step in the padding will be to cover the seat cushion with the 20 mm thick felt plate to make the seat cover look good.

We aim to get the seat frame refurbishment as far as possible this autumn. Hopefully we will have one refurbished demo seat ready before the winter, fitted with new padding and “dressed” in repaired seat covers.

Photos by Erja Reinikainen except if otherwise mentioned.

Refurbishing the passenger seats, part 1

Sunnuntai 29.9.2024 - Erja Reinikainen

The interior work in the Aviation Museum Society Finland owned Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle III at Turku airport is under way and the passenger seat refurbishment has also been started. There will be four rows of seats in the cabin, with a partition at the back, separating the open area in the rear section from the actual cabin part. The front seats on both sides of the aisle will be double seats, but the other three rows will have the original lay-out with three seats on the RH side and double seats on the left. We have original textiles and seat belts for fitting about twenty seats.

This blog talks about starting the seat refurbishment.

All the seat frames in our possession have suffered from the decades of storage and they will have to be repaired. The work was started by choosing from our storage sea container eight seats, which were in the best condition. In good weather the repair and refurbishment work has been done outdoors, with the Caravelle’s wing sheltering a little from the heat of the late summer sun. On rainy days we have been using the cabin of the DC-3 (registered as DO-5 in the Finnish Air Force), standing next to the Caravelle, as a workspace.

The condition and functioning of the seat back, arm rests and seat table are checked and tested. If some part is not moving as it should, the aim is to repair and fix it to functioning condition. Especially the arm rests are broken or not moving. The plastic covers at the end of the seat frame, under the arm rest, have suffered from transport and storage, some of the covers are broken.  The seat back webbing is made of rubber belts, some of them have dried and crumbled and the metal hooks, fastening the webbing to the seat back frame, have broken. It seems that during their lifetime the seats have been repaired several times, mainly the arm rests and the seat back webbing.

Photo by Erja Reinikainen.

Fortunately we have six more passenger seat frames stored in the sea container and it has been possible to dismantle armrests, seat tables, seat frame plastic covers and seat back webbing from them to use as spare parts for the seats under refurbishment. Up to now the functioning parts on a couple of seats have been checked and refurbished, faulty and broken parts have been dismantled and replaced with spare parts – and the work continues. Seat tables have been overhauled and cleaned. In some seats the seat back structure, made of light metal, has broken and it has been strengthened with a patch sheet. The life vest pouches were removed from the seats. We don’t have any life vests and the pouches under the seat obstruct the refurbishment and painting of the seat frame.

The following step will be the sanding of the seat frame legs, where the paint is flaking and peeling off. The legs will be painted using paint which matches the hue of the plastic cover on the seat end.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen except if otherwise mentioned.

Caravelle's seat covers repaired

Sunnuntai 11.8.2024 - Erja Reinikainen

Suomeksi

Caravelle two years ago. Some of it clearly belonged to the SE-DAF but there was also material from some former SAS Caravelle and probably from other types of aircraft as well. The material could be partly from the Transwede Caravelle 10BR (SE-DEC) which was damaged beyond repair in an unsuccessful take-off in Arlanda in January 1978.

In autumn 2023 we rummaged through the crates in the storage container at Turku airport. We found out that there were enough seat covers and other material for the 4-5 seat rows which were to be assembled in the front section of the cabin. The Caravelle seats could be fitted with original seat covers and seat belts. Original seat padding or cushion material has not been preserved so new ones will have to be made.

This blog describes how the old seat covers were repaired for use.

The dark green seat covers, made of some kind of wool mix fabric, consist of three parts:

• the cover of the actual seat part which is fastened to the bottom of the seat frame with four poppers (snap fasteners)
• the seatback “hood” which is pulled on the seatback frame and its padding, and fastened with Velcro tape on the backside of the seatback and by its lower edge on the seat pocket part
• the upholstery material for the seatback’s backside and the seat pocket which is fastened on the seat frame with screws by its upper corners, some glue and two hooks connected to the seat pocket, furthermore the lower edge of the seat pocket is fastened on the lower edge of the seatback hood with Velcro tape  

Further examination of the textile material showed that there were about 40 seat part covers, some of them broken and worn beyond repair. There were far less seatback hoods, about 25 of them. They are mainly rather worn and already patched. Seat pockets we have in large numbers, but many of them are dirty and several are broken. However, the situation looked good and there was useful material for covering about 25 seats.

The repairing of the seat covers was started with a washing test. The seat cover parts of one seat were washed in an ordinary household washing machine, in a 30°C gentle wash cycle, and dried. Comparing the washed parts to the unwashed ones proved that the fabric didn’t shrink. The wet fabric had a really odd smell, maybe it was due to decades of storage in the wooden box, or maybe it was some fire-retardant chemical from the 1960s… After the washing test the repair work commenced, the repaired seat covers would be washed later.

The first parts to be repaired were the actual seat parts. The typical damage included ripped seams, broken or missing poppers, round holes – probably caused by a cigarette fallen from a passenger or by the ash fallen from a cigarette. As patching material some non-fraying green cotton fabric was bought from Eurokangas, the colour proved to be very close to the original one. The patching fabric was washed before use. The holes and worn or frayed areas were patched by placing a piece of patching fabric under the area and stitch criss-cross over the hole area, using a household sewing machine. Poppers were moved from seat covers beyond repair to the ones in better condition but missing poppers. 

Then the seat cover hoods were repaired. The typical damage in them were ripped seams and threadbare areas in the lower parts of the hood where the seat belt and the seatback movement have rubbed the fabric. There are so few seatback hoods available that repairing the worst ones meant sewing new patches on old patches. The household sewing machine couldn’t handle the trickiest patches and help from a friend with an industrial sewing machine was needed.

The last item to be repaired were the seat pocket parts. At the time they have been removed from the seat frames without opening the screws on the top corners, so the corner pieces have been ripped off. Nearly all seat pocket parts needed their corners patched. The actual seat pocket is a pocket sewn on the fabric covering the backside of the seatback. There has been an elastic band at the top edge of the pocket, fastened on the seatback frame with small hooks. We don’t have any original elastic bands or hooks. Developing a new elastic band and hook system took some time. Eventually a small birdcage lock clips which fitted a 20 mm elastic band were found and the clip will be easy to fasten on the seatback frame. The downside of this solution is that it was quite arduous to slip the elastic through the seat pocket edge and sew the clips on the elastic band on 24 seats…

When all seat cover parts had been repaired, they were washed in 30°C gentle wash cycle. The ugly stains (maybe coffee?) on the seat pockets came off quite nicely even in the household washing machine. Weather permitting, the washed textiles were hung outside to dry to get rid of the odd smell.

There are plenty of turquoise seat belts in our container and we could select the ones in best condition to be reused. A pressure washer was used for washing the seat belts, then they were hung out to dry. The fastening mechanism on both ends of each seat belt needs to be checked and oiled. Each belt has a label with the manufacturing or installation date, the belts have been labelled in the 1960s and 1970s.

The repaired and washed seat covers and seat belts are now waiting for the seat frames to be repaired and for the new padding material to arrive.

Photos by Erja Reinikainen.