Can Seat Piping Be Replaced?

Jim T · 06-16-2002, 05:08 PM

I am getting a set of sport seats for my "other car," they are in good condition, but I will be doing the Leatherique treatment on them to make them "like new."

The seats are solid, except a small strip of the piping is missing on the driver's side bolster.

Can this be replaced without costing an arm and a leg??

APKhaos · 06-16-2002, 05:59 PM

A good upholstery guy can do it. The side panel on my drivers seat was trashed - especially around the seat motion switches. Local guy replaced that panel and the two seat bolster strips and the associated piping for around $400. The piping only should be very reasonable.

LeeH · 06-16-2002, 07:02 PM

I had the piping around the back of my driver's seat replaced at a shop here in Phoenix. Cost me $180. I think this was a bit high.

One problem is that the exact piping is no longer available (according to the guy who did mine). The closest thing he had was too shiny and the grain was too deep to match. He claims it's a common problem.

I asked him if he'd ever tried to dull the piping down a bit by lightly sanding. He never had, but he dug out a Scotch-brite pad and we took a few pieces of piping and found we could age it a bit with the right amount of pressure. I didn't want to pay his hourly rate to have him sand the piece so I did the sanding while he worked on another job. It looks great!

Jim T · 06-16-2002, 08:43 PM

Yikes! This need to be a low budget project - I was hoping for all sorts of tales that this would be <$50.

LeeH · 06-16-2002, 09:08 PM

It's more time consuming than it looks. If it just needs to be stitched, then you might get it done for around $100.

You say a piece is missing. So, the seat has to come out, the back has to come off the seat, the cover has to come off the seat back, the seam along the old piping has to be ripped out, the new piping is sewn into place, the cover has to be reinstalled on the seat back, then the seat has to be reassembled and installed. It took about two hours to repair mine.

island911 · 06-17-2002, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim T
. . .The seats are solid, except a small strip of the piping is missing on the driver's side bolster.

Can this be replaced without costing an arm and a leg??

Yes, if you do it yourself. How well can you sew. . .if your a surgeon it will be easy.
Remove the bolster cover. Turn it inside-out to work on. This lets you put all te pieces in place for easy stitching. I use a stapler to "pin" (on the hidden edge) the layers before stitching. The staples will give you a good sanity check prior to stitching. (also, pins distort the layers and can cause the wavey seam lines.

As to the availability of the piping¹; You can make your own by folding a strip of the parent seat material over a the plasic piping tube stuff (available at any fabric store, they'll know what its called) or over a piece of heavy twine (the old way)

Notes:
1. I would be surprized if your piping is the molded plastic type.
2. Upholstery is not recomended for the "spacialy challenged"

88911coupe · 06-17-2002, 01:31 PM

I have same problem...about 3 inches of piping gone where my belt rubs on left side of bolster and black color is gone. How do you remove the bolster cover? Also, should this be done before I do a leatherique type treatment?
THanks

RallyJon · 01-11-2005, 11:48 AM

I know this thread is two and a half years old, but wanted to add a data point...

I'm having this done now on my driver's side sport seat at a local auto upholstery shop. Quoted me $50.