re-upolstering seats?!
#1
09-06-2007, 07:06 PM
re-upolstering seats?!
I was thinking about re-upolstering the stock seats in my EK coupe doing it by myself. I was wondering if anyone knew where the best store/website was to find some good black cloth.
And if anyone knows how hard it would be to do so, that would be totally awesome to know.
And if anyone knows how hard it would be to do so, that would be totally awesome to know.
#2
09-07-2007, 06:12 AM
RE: re-upolstering seats?!
First of all, what kind of experience do you have in sewing / re-upholstery?
I re-upholstered the seats in my old 92' DX sedan from gray cloth to black leather. If you've got some good experience sewing, it's not too difficult. As far as the fabrics are concerned, usually, everyarea has an auto trim supply store. They will carry fabrics designed specifically for autos. "Hancock's" or "Fabrics Unlimited" are pretty common cloth vendors as well. You will need to talk to someone about the fabrics appropriate for automotive as they do carry a few. I don't know nor had any experience with any online cloth vendors...
But in short the whole process involves (vaguely)...
(1) removing the seats from the car and pulling all the hog rings out,
(2) completely removing the seat covers,
(3) using a seam ripper carefully rippingall the stitches in every single seam (don't rip the actual fabric) [:@]
(4) separate the cloth from the vinyl that attaches underneath. This donein the same way as step 3(you will need the vinyl pieces to re-attach everythinglater)
(5) When that's done, you use the original seat cover pieces as a pattern for the new seats,
(6) cut new fabric using the old fabric as a guide (cut a little bigger for safety) it also helps to pin both pieces before you cut for an accurate replica,
(7) mark the stitch line (chalk) makingitmatch the original exactlyto make sure the new covers are a tight fit,
(8) unpin the OEM from new and sew everything back like the original following the chalked stitch line, you can even make new designs on the seats if you want to be creative,
If you've got quite a bit experience you won't need the chalked stitch line as a guide...
I'm actually going to be re-doing my seats in black leather /suede inserts with red stitching one of these days...
Good luck!
I re-upholstered the seats in my old 92' DX sedan from gray cloth to black leather. If you've got some good experience sewing, it's not too difficult. As far as the fabrics are concerned, usually, everyarea has an auto trim supply store. They will carry fabrics designed specifically for autos. "Hancock's" or "Fabrics Unlimited" are pretty common cloth vendors as well. You will need to talk to someone about the fabrics appropriate for automotive as they do carry a few. I don't know nor had any experience with any online cloth vendors...
But in short the whole process involves (vaguely)...
(1) removing the seats from the car and pulling all the hog rings out,
(2) completely removing the seat covers,
(3) using a seam ripper carefully rippingall the stitches in every single seam (don't rip the actual fabric) [:@]
(4) separate the cloth from the vinyl that attaches underneath. This donein the same way as step 3(you will need the vinyl pieces to re-attach everythinglater)
(5) When that's done, you use the original seat cover pieces as a pattern for the new seats,
(6) cut new fabric using the old fabric as a guide (cut a little bigger for safety) it also helps to pin both pieces before you cut for an accurate replica,
(7) mark the stitch line (chalk) makingitmatch the original exactlyto make sure the new covers are a tight fit,
(8) unpin the OEM from new and sew everything back like the original following the chalked stitch line, you can even make new designs on the seats if you want to be creative,
If you've got quite a bit experience you won't need the chalked stitch line as a guide...
I'm actually going to be re-doing my seats in black leather /suede inserts with red stitching one of these days...
Good luck!
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