Recovering the vert rear seat

[ishkabibble]

So, I decided to a cheap recover of the rear seat today. My old covering was tan leather and I'm switching to black seating. Also, the rear seat was stained and cracking from sun damage. I didn't want to go through the hassle of finding a black vert rear seat in good shape, nor did I want to pay a shop a ton of money to do it so I re-did it myself using matte black marine vinyl. Looks much better now. Total cost for the project was about $50.

I decided to do a write-up in case others want to do the same. Sorry, no pics of the process. I might be able to take a post-installation pic tomorrow when it's light out.

First, a couple warnings:-This is pretty much a 2 person job. You will need help pulling the new material taut while you staple.-The bottom half of the seat is a real PITA to do due to all of the curves. My gf and I were cursing at the seat nonstop because we kept missing with the staple gun.-This is a cheap re-do for a daily driver type car, not a show car. Also, don't anticipate the install to hold up for years if you constantly have people in the back seat (who does, though?)

What you will need:-2 yards (6 feet x 54" wide) of material. I recommend marine vinyl for the vert rear seat since it has a UV blocker in it. 2 yards is almost exactly what you need, so don't be wasteful when cutting.-About 20 ft of square wooden dowels - should be less than 1/2" thick-Small saw to cut the dowels-Decent staple gun-Pack of over 1,000 staples - must be long enough to penetrate the material, underlying fabric, and the dowel. I used 3/8" staples.-Ratchet, 10mm socket, extension-Small flathead screwdriver-Scissors-Hair dryer-Patience

Steps: 1. Remove the bottom half of the seat from the car. It's held in by two pull latches on either side of the front of the seat.

2. Use the ratchet, extension, and 10mm socket to take off the two bolts holding the bottom of the top half of the seat to the car. Put the bolts in a safe place.

3. Lift the top half of the seat straight up and remove it from the car.

4. Flip the halves of the seat upside down. You will see that the material is held on by hog rings wrapped around a metal subframe.

5. Cut pieces of dowel in lengths so you can run the dowel between the existing fabric and the foam right next to the hog rings.

6. Work the pieces of dowel under the existing fabric but above the foam. Push the dowel so it runs under the fabric right next to the hog rings all the way around the seat. You basically are building a wooden subframe around the entire bottom of the seat. This is to give you something to staple the new material to. In two areas, the existing material was too taut to allow me to work the dowel under it. For those areas, I cut a small hole in the existing fabric so I could push the dowel in.

7. Cut the new material so it is approximately in the shape you need. Too large is better than too small - you can cut off the excess later. However, if you only bought 2 yards of material, be extra careful about sizing- you do not have much excess material to work with.

8. Staple the new material to the seat in about a dozen places around the seat. This is to temporarily hold the fabric in place so it doesn't get off-kilter while you are doing the final stapling.

8. Start the final stapling of the new material to the wooden dowels on one side of the seat about 6" after the corner of the seat.

9. Work your way around the seat, with your partner pulling the new material taut while you staple. Do not leave spaces between the staples; the more staples, the better. When you get to one of your temporary "placeholder staples", use the small flathead screwdriver to lift it out. When you get to a corner, use the hair dryer to heat up the new material. Create a neat, clean fold, then pull taut and staple. All folds should be stapled on the sides of the seat, not the front or back.

10. After you are done attaching the new material to the two seat halves, reinstall the seat in the car. It will be a tight fit due to the extra layer of material, but should go in without any problems.
Modified by ishkabibble at 2:40 PM 12/17/2006

[wirelessalpha]

Good write up - wish you had pics. Have any "after" shots?

[thomasjamal]

Thinking about doing this. Pics would be awesome!!!

[Eikon]

Great write-up!

Added to the FAQ's sticky on top of the forum.

Any pics you can take and share would be wonderful. Nice work Ish...

[thomasjamal]

[ishkabibble]

I'll get a pic up soon. Sorry, but this month is really busy. There's not a whole lot of daylight and my camera stinks at taking low light pics.

[ishkabibble]

Let's see if I can get photobucket to work...

The pic is a bit lighter than it should be - the side panels are red, not orange. It was taken at dusk, and my camera is terrible in low light.