Some Reupholstery Tips and Tricks

[Paulporsche]

I don't have the experience or equipment to fabricate my own seat covers so I bought a set from World Upholstery. The material match was great, the delivery was fine and the price was reasonable.

My old covers looked at first like I may have been able to just have the broken seams restitched, but upon opening things up I realized there was more to it. All the listings had completely disintegrated, the foam was partially collapsed or broken, and hardware was missing or broken.

I watched quite a few videos on Youtube by a guy from Meca Tapiceria in Miami. He had a lot of techniques on building up and sculpting foam, fitting the covers and using hog rings.

I repaired the pockets that hold the seat bottom bolster frames using vinyl drafting board cover material (AKA Borco) and burlap, had someone reweld one bolster frame for me, added to the underside of the bottom with foam from a yoga mat and burlap, and added to 1" of foam to the tops and sides of the cushion including the seat interior and the bolsters. This brought the bottoms up to the original height and width they were when new.

Since I did this I had trouble getting the hog rings to attach to the bottom of the cushion through all that foam I used small screw eyes to secure the listing rods. This allowed me to leave them loose for easier access, then tighten them once the hog rings were attached to snug everything down evenly. I also found that, by forming an H pattern by sliding the top rods together as shown, this also gave me a more even look.

For the seat back I added 1" to the front of the interior and 1/2" to the headrest and bolsters.
To facilitate getting the hog rings attached, I loosely held the listing rods with zip ties until I got things the way I wanted, and then added the hog rings while snugging down the zip ties. I then placed a plastic bag over the insert and slid it into place.

I had tor straighten a lever for releasing seat back, added new pull wires and some other hardware, and reinstalled the seats. They were originally held in place with hex head screws so I substituted Allen head socket screws per later cars.

I'm happy with the results and ready for some happy motoring! BTW the installed shots are from my dark garage so they don't do the seats justice.

It wasn't really difficult, I just had to figure out some methods for making it easy for me to do.

[Paulporsche]

Some work in progress picshttps://forums.pelicanparts.com/forum_redirect.cgi?go=home

[Paulporsche]

Some work in progress pics

[Paulporsche]

[Paulporsche]

[Paulporsche]

Pic function doesn't seem to be working well right now. If anyone wants to see some work in progress shots email or PM me.

[Bill Douglas]

they look fantastic. Great skills.

I bet it's given the whole car a lift.

[Hi_Fi_Guy]

Well done

[jjeffries]

Many of of could use more upholstery how-to's. It's the next frontier. Thanks for posting. John

[Paulporsche]

Thanks. Trying to get more pics up. Will keep trying.

[Paulporsche]

One last tip: The seatback covers are identical. The bottoms are not. Pay attention to the longer cutout near the back to accommodate the mechanism on the exterior side of the seat.

[Paulporsche]

Underside view of adjustable screweyes holding lower listing rods in place.

[Bill Douglas]

Ah ha, so that's how you haul the seat part down. Nice having the screw eyes to adjust the tension. Loving that car's color.

[Discseven]

Originally Posted by Paulporsche

Underside view of adjustable screweyes holding lower listing rods in place.

That's smart thinking.