Hey guys, I know very very little about re-apolstry, and I was wondering if it possible for an apolstry guy to take the "center" design out of my original bench seats and use them to cover the center of a set of buckets? I REALLY dont want to lose my '70's design in my bench... but I want buckets too. I also want to keep the design through the back seats too... The blue bench and rear seats are mine... and as an example, this set of buckets. I would just want plain blue vinyl on the sides, etc. What do you guys think?
Sure, as long as the original isn't rotten, a good upholstery man can do that. I think DMHines did something simular on his grabber before he found the comfortweave he has now....
My grandpa had comfort weave taken out of the back of another seat and put into the bottom the driver's side seat in his Boss 429, while keeping the original vinyl on either side. You couldn't tell anything had ever been done to it, looked factory. Anything is possible if you find the right place to do it.
Awesome, thanks guys. Im gonna have to print out some pictures and go around to some shops once I get back home.
if its too short to reach the top, then I would just have to finish it with plain blue. but it should atleast go 2/3 of the way up, dont you think? I wonder if it would look bad that way...
If it's to short, I would just cut it and put a piece of plain blue in about 3/4th way up with one of those chrome pieces like some stock buckets had.
I think on Mustangs the area above the strip of vinyl that has the emblem was just a sold peice of vinyl ... you could do that on yours. They only time I reused vinyl was when the upholstry shop converted my 4-door LDO rear seat to a 2-door LDO rear seat ....
Why not have the shop start with new vinyl and stitch your old pattern into it? That way you have enough material for whatever you want to do, have your bench seat undamaged, and have new material totally covering your 'new' buckets. Probably cost more, but the results would be awesome. Edit: Okay, (DUH) I just looked at your full pic and saw the center strip. You would certainly have to save that part. I thought it was just the regular pattern, not fancy.
If the seats in the third pic are the ones you are going to use, the center from the bench could stop at the break at the bottom of the headrest. Then use the smooth vinyl on the headrest. You could seperate them with a chrome strip, a section of piping, or just stitch them together.
"Piping", is that the 'hard vinyl covered bead' that usually seperates different panels? If so, thats what I was thinking too, and just run smooth vinyl up to the head rest and over it. The buckets in my picture were just an example, Im gonna do some looking around and find a pair that I like. But they will defiently be out of a Mav or Comet, want to stick to the 70's. Thanks again guys for the input!
Those basic buckets were used in a few different FoMoCo models, not just Mav/Com. 71-73 Mustangs are a good source. Each model used different mounts and covers, but the frames and foams are all the same. You will most likely find them needing covered no matter what, so you can get a head start by broadening your search, then covering as Mav/Com seats. Good luck Dave
