I'm not poor....but would much rather do something for myself if it saves me a lot of money. I am actually thinking about trying to do my door panels myself...I saw a guy, (who restores antique cars) in the process of recovering door panels on an old cheby....looked easy to do.....think I'll try. D. Ray
My mother is a retired reupholster, and she has done a lot of seats. You will need a heavy duty sewing machine(the ones in "Yarn Barns" just wont cut it. You will need a set of hog ring pliers and hog rings to attach the covers to the seat frames. Take off the old covers(we're talking about the material that covers the foam) with out cutting, cut the seams apart with a seam ripper. Cut new pieces of material using the old pieces as patterns(cut approx. 1 larger at the edges to allow for mistakes). Sew together with heavy duty thread. Add new foam to replace old wore out foam. Fit new cover over old seat frame. Hog ring the cover back into the hole in the frame. Enjoy new seats. It would take my mother about a good 3 days work to redo a set of buckets. IT's not really hard, you just need the know how. My sister-in-law recovered my buckets in my Mav. She said that they were her first and last set of bucket seat she would do. Lots of pulling and streching to get th wrinkles out. I may get the sewing machine off of her and try to learn how re upholster. I'm thinking that there may be a market for it Russ
i did my own door panels also, tried those first just to see if i wanted to do the rest. anything to save a buck or two
You beat me to is Russ. I'll be the skeptic about home sewing machines. If you are using cloth, maybe it can be done. Vinyl I really have doubts. But, hey, I have never sewn more than a button on a shirt. I know that it is money, but I thought $500 redoing mine-front buckets and rear seat-same color black-was a decent price. I think that for the high rise factory front buckets, I would try and use the '71-'73 Mustang seat covers that are very similar. They may be able to be adapted to fit. Good luck with your project. Let us know how it turns out.
I think doing the seats will be a bear....personally, thats one of those jobs that I would pay someone to do....cause I know I'd screw it up! Door panels will be easy. I have one spot on my front bucket where it's coming apart at the seam, right in the middle of the seat...bout 2 inches long...might try to sew that back myself and while I'm at it, replace the foam.
the front seat was a bear,had to try, just to see if i could do it. did them in cloth with a home sewing machine, made up some new words while sewing them together. just did the door panels to see if i even wanted to try the rest.
I love this forum, my bank account doesn't but I do This is how mine used to look http://www.sonic.net/~pampel/car/mav001.JPG but now the cloth on the bench on driver's side is pretty much shredded. I'm thinking I'm going to go with vinyl and make it two-tone probably a slightly lighter color as I think I would have a hard time matching the existing vinyl.
looks good for stock looks....and i like the shine on the turn signal knob...is that a paint shop add in?? lol looks goood
I'm planning on doing our upholstery on our Comet in a few months. Order Carpet and Headliner, the rest will be done in black and red "Ultrasuede" The Panels and Back seat should be easy enough, but the 95? Probe bucket seats will be a little tough, might have to send them out. The fabric comes off easy though, has zippers. There are a couple books available on doing custom interior that give some good info and places to order your supplies.
Looks Good, were you able to use the original backing panels or did you make up new ones? I can't tell on my crappy monitor, is that red or orange?
