Early Sport Seat Restoration

[jbell959]

A friend of mine recently picked up a 71T with all the S options including sport seats. He wants to have the sport seats completely restored in black leather and is looking for some recomendations - preferably in the SoCal area. He wants to take them to someone that knows these seats so they come back right. - Cheers

[Scott Clarke]

John-
Tony Garcia is the man. Here is a link to his business:
http://www.autobahninteriors.com/. He'll be doing some work for me eventually!
-Scott

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by Scott Clarke

John-
Tony Garcia is the man. -Scott

Second that! He did an outstanding job transforming my 72 sports to 70-71 with houndstooth centers.

[jbell959]

Hi Michael,

What is involved in taking a 72 seat and making it correct for 70-71? We may be interested in that. These sports are out of a 73 and they will be going in a 71. We're not that particular about keeping the car absolutely correct but if we can get it as close as possible that would be great

[70SATMan]

Well, if we are talking about the seat alone it's mainly a matter of the vinyl used insert material and the shape of the headrest. 72/73s for the most part had the peanut shaped headrests. For 71 you're going to want the D shaped headrests. 70-71 used perforated vinyl on the bolsters with basketweave centers if all vinyl or you could get cord or houndstooth. 72/73 if all vinyl, the inserts matched the bolsters. Interestingly the leather sport seats for 72/73 still used the D shaped headrest I've noted.

The majority of the 73s had a double locker on the slider brackets. Up to then they only had one locker. I wouldn't bother trying to modify them by removing one. It's added safety and who looks under there anyway The main thing is the vinyl grain (go with German perforated over the domestic) and then the centers of your choice.

Here are a couple of pics of the bottom of a 70/71 seat I had before I had my 72s re-done by Tony. This was the original perforated bolsters and cord inserts. The interesting thing is that the perforated vinyl shrinks over time which makes it appear that the new perforated vinyl does not match the original when the two are compared. I've attached another picture showing a section of the same original vinyl from that seat that has not been stretched or exposed to UV the same as the rest of the seat. You'll notice the much smaller perforation sizes.

[jbell959]

Thanks Michael - Very helpful. Sounds like we'll be making a trip to San Diego next week.