First In The Shop - ‘48 Chevy Custom Interior

Well, we finally took the leap and opened up Shaffer Auto Upholstery in July of 2024. The collective “we” being Shelby, who is the upholsterer and crafstman behind Shaffer Auto Upholstery, and myself, Katherine (Shelby’s wife), who handles all the behind-the-scenes stuff like social media, bookkeeping…and now, apparently, these blog posts.

When we decided to open our own upholstery business, we were lucky to have the support of so many friends, family, and previous customers that Shelby had done work for. One of our biggest ongoing sources of ecouragement and support are our dear friends Don and Leza Wicks. After years of Don coming to Shelby for custom upholstery work in many of his roadsters, old trucks, and hot rods, Don was always telling Shelby to go out on his own and open his own shop. He was the original Shaffer Auto Upholstery cheerleader (Don will love being called a cheerleader). So, it only made sense to have Leza’s 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster as the first car in the shop.

This beautiful custom Fleetmaster had been meticulously restored by Don himself, and was finally ready for a fully custom interior. Leza wanted a classic look, so her and Shelby brainstormed a horseshoe pattern on the bench seats with a hand sewn diamond pattern. Shelby upholstered the headliner, seats, carpet, door panels, trunk, dash, and even all of the garnish moldings. The single tone “smooth peanut butter” color makes for one good lookin’, timeless interior.