Seat Covers & New foam

[63_downlow]

So as the title states I just started doing new foam and seat covers on my front buckets, so far I have one seat bottom finished up.

I had gotten all of my seat frames including my passenger side seat track media blasted & that ran me $80 which was really cheap. I got all of the frames painted in some cheap $1 flat black cans of quick color from Home Depot, went thru about 11 cans doing everything & since they were only $1 cans it really saved me quite a few from buying something like rustoleum for something your never going to see.

Pointers for anyone thinking of doing this job, the side pins that stick out on both side of the seat bottoms that the back rest hinges slide onto MAY or MAY NOT break on you, unfortunately for me one broke inside of the shallow retainer that keeps the two pieces together. I had to order two new kits from Tbird HQ & went to my local hardware store & bought two universal clevis pins to accommodate for what broke & I simply welded it on and took the die-grinder to cut off what I didn’t need.
And as far as the other seat bottom another pin did break but not completely, only at the actual weld so I just laid a fat weld on it problem fixed.

Now onto the seat covers & foam.... I ordered a complete front & back kit in black from BirdNest but it shipped from Tbird HQ so I’m assuming they all use the same supplier & a big plus was that the seat covers were made here in the USA by TMI , there’s a tag on the carpet section that goes on the front bottom covers so that was pretty cool, And as for quality they feel very nice I would give them a 8/10 I say 8 because the sleeves for which You slide the listing rods/wires into were not stitched I had to use a stapler with the wire inserted to get it to stay in place.

Foam was also from Tbird HQ I opted to add a thin sheet of jute padding on the bolstering because I had a feeling even with the molded seat foam the bolstering was going to be a little loose.

I used 3/32 welding rod I got at harbor freight,for the listing channels inside of the covers & 16 gauge paper covered wire for the bottom of the seat frame where the burlap is.

[63_downlow]

Progress pictures

[WNC Bird]

What you've done so far looks great! Thank you for posting pics. My seat project is coming up soon and this will help. Have you done this kind of work before? Other than the broken pins you've mentioned anything else I should look out for? I have a 62 but I would think the process would be the same. And thanks for the tip on the bolster issue. I'll some on hand in case i need it as well. Did you use spray adhesive to attach the jute?

[63_downlow]

What you've done so far looks great! Thank you for posting pics. My seat project is coming up soon and this will help. Have you done this kind of work before? Other than the broken pins you've mentioned anything else I should look out for? I have a 62 but I would think the process would be the same. And thanks for the tip on the bolster issue. I'll some on hand in case i need it as well. Did you use spray adhesive to attach the jute?

So far my main issue was the welds pins breaking, and yes I added spray adhesive to both the jute sheet and foam sides then I just used a razor blade to trim off excess, I didn’t have any quality upholstery shears to cut the jute, that stuff is tuff, beware of hairy finger tips with the combination of adhesive getting in your fingers haha. Take your time and don’t be afraid to use a heat gun or blow dryer to loosen up the vinyl. Be careful with the heat gun.

And I have not done any upholstery work before I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos and it looked fairy easy & I have a couple friends who’ve done upholstery work before so I got some pointers there.

-Adrian

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Moving along to the Backrest frame

[Ian M Greer]

Very nice Job !!!!

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Backrest finished & one bucket complete

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Bucket complete

[WNC Bird]

The beer is on me. Thank you for all the tips and photos. Is there anything you would do differently? The new back boards don't have clips? Good to know since i only have one.

[63_downlow]

The beer is on me. Thank you for all the tips and photos. Is there anything you would do differently? The new back boards don't have clips? Good to know since i only have one.

. The new back boards do not have the clips, the new clips will work but you have to get them positioned properly. And also to be careful with the backboards they are not made as tough as the originals, whatever these new ones are made off really suck, feels really cheap but that’s about it.

And the thing that comes to mind right now is I would of liked to add just a little more jute on the top corner for tightness

[63_downlow]

Let the seat sit out on the sun so it could work it’s magic and relieve some of wrinkles and looseness I’m the bolstering & it did just that, bolstering is a lot tighter now & all little wrinkles disappeared, & thanks to that jute padding I laid underneath also.

[63_downlow]

I got pretty lucky and found the complete seat trim for both seats awhile back on eBay & were in very good condition as far as dings go, very very small dings nothing I can bang out myself.

All 4 side guards, both hinge covers & both skirt trim.

I will be straightening these out myself however I do not like the look of the Matte aluminum so these will get chromed & they forsure will be a lot more scratch resist then the factory coating/plating.

[caseyc]

That looks great! I have the foam and covers also so sometime soon I will start mine also. Great timing. Thank you for all your tips and the pics!

[63_downlow]

So I ran into an issue with the rear seat cover on the bottom side I was having a hell of a time trying to install it and it just was not complying at all with me, & it turned out the cover was half an inch to big so it threw the entire thing off very bad, looked horrible. Took it to my upholstery guy and he took the cover apart and trimmed where it needed it and sewed it back and wala I got this.

[63_downlow]

Picked up the rear seats, all done now.

Like i stated in the previous post the seat cover for the bottom was just a hair to big that caused me a nightmare trying to install, nothing lined up. My local upholstery guy had to take apart the cover & trim the excess material that was causing the problem. And it came out beautiful. The backrest was not taking apart it was a perfect fit.

I had to paint up the bird emblems in the dark green metallic pearl I’m painting my roof to install on the backrest.


SO BEWARE of you do plan on doing this task and order the complete kit the bottom the bottom cover for the backseat may be just a hair to big that will cause you a headache, OR it may not who knows, I would like to believe I just got dealt a bad hand and got one that was just a little to big. Either then that just need to do the driver bucket seat, since I did the passenger one and came out awesome this should be no problem second time around.