DIY Re-upholstery Front Sport Seats kit 85-89

[somoney311]

Yes, clicked the link and a new window popped up and on the right side was the install button.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DRACO A5OG]

okay, will go back to my archived tutorials and download onto my hd. Thanks fellas!

[DRACO A5OG]

Thanks for the trick Chris :-)

[DRACO A5OG]

Chrome Hot Fix works as well.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-hotlink-fix/kegnjbncdcliihbemealioapbifiaedg?hl=en

[Jdub]

I bring this thread up to highlight first what a great piece of work this is, and second, that the pictures are still appearing. I am going to use this thread to guide the rebuild of a pair of standard seats, German vinyl, on a 1978.

I know many of you are aware of Photobucket's 2017 effort to restrict sharing unless the account owner took monetary steps to retain the sharing. So thank you for this excellent work! Very much appreciated.

[tsuter]

I was just about to post a new thread on DIY seat reupholstery and then I found this thread. So I‘m adding a few tips and pics. Hope the OP doesn’t mind.
First I used a seat kit from World Upholstery for Standard 1977-1985 seat 917 Black Leather Perforated - both front seats for my 1978SC.
First pic is the tools used. This project does not require much tools unlike engine jobs. The only non standard tool may well be the hog ring pliers. These cost less than $20.



After the seats are removed….
The first tip is how to disconnect the wire that the seat release lever uses to disengage the back rest from the seat. You do not need to cut anything for this and reconnecting is also done with the seat fully assembled…just bring the back forward so you can access the wire and clip underneath.



Now use your needle nose pliers to separate the wire from the clip and set the clip aside for reuse.



Once disconnected and the backrest fully separated you can see where the wire comes out a small slice in the back rest leather. You will need to replicate this cut in your new upholstery. The wire is never removed from the backrest. It travels inside the new upholstery down to the seat connector.



The second tip is the backrest reupholstery. The upholstery is attached to the backrest wire frame with three wires in sleeves that get hog ringed in place. The first wire/sleeve is horizontal right below the headrest. The other two run down the sides of the seat back between the side bolsters and the seat back(perforated area). These wires are what pulls the upholstery in tight to the frame and make its shape.
The wires must be salvaged from your old seats as they are not part of new kits.
The best and maybe only way to attach these wires is to completely turn the seat back upholstery inside out and shove it down over the headrest first. With no wires in the sleeves.
Do not have the backrest center cushion installed yet. Install, it after the top wire below the headrest is hog ringed.
Next pic shows the inside-out upholstery, shoved partially down over the head rest and you can see the top wire sleeve with no wire. I’m holding the sleeve.



Now put the wire in the sleeve and lap the ends of the wire over the inside of the seat frame. Note there is no backrest cushion yet.



Now crimp two hog rings on that wire to secure the sleeve and the upholstery to the frame.
At this point you reinstall the back rest cushion and linens and make sure you have the upholstery started very straight and symmetrical on the headrest though the rest of it is still inside out.
Also install the two side wires in the side sleeves. They will be in a big curl up over the headrest. The next pics shows what it looks like when the side wires on in and you are putting back the backrest cushion and prepping to roll the upholstery down.

[tsuter]

The earlier posts pretty well explained how to roll down the upholstery and hog ring the two side wires as you go. When it is all rolled down and massaged as well as you can, a fourth wire ties the back to the bottom of the seat on six metals ties. I found that the World Upholstery kit backrest leather was a bit long and I had to roll up the sleeve with the fourth wire in it (about ½”) to get it as tight as I wanted.



The third tip is the heat gun!
The next two pics show my seats fully assembled with the new upholstery stretched as best as I could do by hand. Some wrinkles.





I installed the seats and heat gunned the seats in the car but I guess they could also be done outside. The heat gun is set on HIGH. You must get things really hot to properly shrink leather. This is like doing window tint but if you melt the tint you waste $20 of tint, If you burn the leather you lose $600! I would be very careful doing this on vinyl so be aware!
Here is the seat after heat gunning.



Oops, sorry that is the wife’s Jeep! I reupholstered her seats first in two tone leather charcoal and gray after ripping out old cloth. The Jeep seats were more difficult than the Porsche. So it was good practice. Ha!
Here are the Porsche Seats after heat gunning.





And a section closeup:
Before heat gun:



After heat gun, It won’t remove big tucks but all the smaller creases will come out. Rather amazing actually.



You work with the gun 1-2 inches off the leather using a circling movement. I also used a wet sponge to dampen the leather first. It gets smoking hot - well almost but you can see it shrink. Do a bit. Work another area, then go back. Small areas. Easier than shrinking window tint as the leather shrinks in all directions and no squeegee required.

Overall project took six partial days. At my age day one was remove the seats. Days 2, 3, 4, 5, I did one cushion per day. Maybe 2-3 hours per cushion. Day six, I put them back in the car and heat gunned.
In reality, this could be done in a long weekend but get ready for tired sore hands from pulling leather.

[DRACO A5OG]

Outstanding Tsuter!

[glewis80SC]

Nice...thanks for sharing.

[rothaus]

Originally Posted by tsuter

The third tip is the heat gun!
The next two pics show my seats fully assembled with the new upholstery stretched as best as I could do by hand. Some wrinkles.





I installed the seats and heat gunned the seats in the car but I guess they could also be done outside. The heat gun is set on HIGH. You must get things really hot to properly shrink leather. This is like doing window tint but if you melt the tint you waste $20 of tint, If you burn the leather you lose $600! I would be very careful doing this on vinyl so be aware!

Here are the Porsche Seats after heat gunning.





And a section closeup:
Before heat gun:



After heat gun, It won’t remove big tucks but all the smaller creases will come out. Rather amazing actually.



You work with the gun 1-2 inches off the leather using a circling movement. I also used a wet sponge to dampen the leather first. It gets smoking hot - well almost but you can see it shrink. Do a bit. Work another area, then go back. Small areas. Easier than shrinking window tint as the leather shrinks in all directions and no squeegee required.

Overall project took six partial days. At my age day one was remove the seats. Days 2, 3, 4, 5, I did one cushion per day. Maybe 2-3 hours per cushion. Day six, I put them back in the car and heat gunned.
In reality, this could be done in a long weekend but get ready for tired sore hands from pulling leather.

Thanks for that tip with the heat gun. It worked like a charm.

Here the seats I just did with full leather from Autoberry.



Thanks and happy new year !
Engelbert