Seat’ Seat’s Seat’s

Two weeks ago I began to re-do the seats for the super. The old interior was completely shot; it had been in storage for 8 years and had become a home for small woodland creatures.  My wife, being the wonderful woman she is bought a re-upholstery kit from California Pacific’s for my birthday (which was in January, and its now July! procrastinator? I think so.)

Well I finally decided I was tired of tripping over it, and the newly powder coated seat frames in my basement. Originally I had extremely high hopes for this interior, 8in monitors for the headrests all kinds of other little things but the project budget would not allow it.

Here is a picture of all the components of the seats as I begin the job.

Unfortunately I really didn’t know I was going to document all of this rebuild process when I dis-assembled the seats, so I have no pictures from that stage. All I can say about the dis-assembly was it was very messy.  In the stock seats the padding had all deteriorated, and it actually looked like it was a Horsehair type pad that was used for cushioning the seat.  The Back pad resembled the fabric of a late 70’s couch; it was really strange, but still useable.

I unpacked all the components from California Pacific, and began with cutting and securing burlap over the springs. You use Hog ring pliers to secure the material to the seat frames, these special pliers are available through California Pacific’s. Once the Burlap was secured, I fitted the new Seat Pad onto the seat frame. These do not get secured to the frame; the seat cover holds them into place.

I chose to do my re-upholstery job on a nice sunny day on my deck. This helps out in 2 ways:

1. It helps to lay the new covers out in the sun for a while, to make them more “Stretchy”.  Or put them in the dryer for about 30 seconds.
2. No one likes to do things in the rain. 

Once I had the seat cushion on I took the Seat pan cover, and carefully worked it over the seat cushion, it slid on pretty easily. When the seat pan cover was on I secured it with the retaining points and the secure line in the seat cover.

On to the seat back:

Seat Back was pretty much the same steps as the seat pan with the exception of 1 step.

1. Remove the seat tilt knob on the side of each seat.

Pull on the outer knob and it will pop off, and then pull on the trim ring it will pop out also. Once you do this, cover the lever of the seat tilt lever with Plastic wrap, this keeps it from ripping the new cover as you slide it on.  Also drape pieces of Plastic wrap over the shoulders and the head rest of the seat, this helps as you slide the new cover onto the seat back.  When the seat cover is on insert the retaining rod into the cover flap, then overlap it and secure with the retaining points.

Use a Xacto razor knife, find the seat tilt handle and cut a slit. Re-Install the trim ring, and then re-install the knob.

Assemble the Seat back to the seat pan, and repeat the steps for the next seat.

Total time for re-upholstering the driver and passenger seat was approximately 1.5 hours.

The seat kit from California Pacific was absolutely fantastic. Do yourself a favor and also buy the “Restoring the Interior Video” from them it gives allot of great tips.

Later,

Moondogie dog.