55 Fargo Posted June 9, 2009 Report Posted June 9, 2009 Hi all, I know some of you have recovered your own seats, some did from scratch like Greg and his Wife,Normscoupe bought kits from JC Whitney , some have stripped covering off old cars at the Pick and Pay Yards. I am needing to do my interior, I will order and buy a headliner, and windlace etc. But I will make door panels, kick panels, package tray too. I am thinking of taking a stab at the seat recovering/rebuilding too. I as some you may remember burnt my back seat( No Don C, my Wife as not back there with me at the time), so the frame and spring are fine, and the front seat has it's OEM material, but it is very rough and rotten. But the good news is the seat frames and spring are in relatively good shape. So how about some discussion on seat covering, ideas and pics would be appreciated. I know my car is a Chrylser coupe, and probably should have nice high end seat upholstering, but money is very tight for me at the moment, and I do not want to wait 5 years to do my interior. Plus all thet I save I can get my bumpers re-chromed. I had an estimate of $625 to rechrome both bumpers, and $650 for the grille which is a lot of pot metal, so very good prices for chrome work in Winnipeg..........................Fred Quote
MacGyver Posted June 9, 2009 Report Posted June 9, 2009 I hope this thread takes off as I'd like to "officially" redo my interior as well. I went the VERY cheap route just to get me by for the time being. I bought a Queen size memory foam mattress pad for about $25, cut it into strips the size of the bench and back rests, laid that over what was left of the original fibers, covered the whole area with duct tape and tossed an old blanket over the works. She's held strong for quite some time and has actually proven to be quite comfortable and supportive. Probably not the answer you were looking for but the price sure was right. Quote
BobT-47P15 Posted June 9, 2009 Report Posted June 9, 2009 Fred, here's what appears to be an original door panel in a 46-48 Chrysler four door sedan here in town. The seats have box covers on them. Evidently the armrest was recovered too. This 46-48 Chrysler two door sedan had already been reupholstered when I saw it. Quote
hkestes41 Posted June 9, 2009 Report Posted June 9, 2009 Fred, You might want to take a look at these. I have not used these companies so can't endore them just info I found while doing searches for my interior. http://www.automotiveinteriors.com/ From $288 for front and rear seats in vinyl http://www.customseatcovers.com/index.htm No pricing but they show that they have the patterns. Quote
Dennis Hemingway Posted June 9, 2009 Report Posted June 9, 2009 I found an upholstery where buisness was slow and they did the interior of my 48 P15 for $1500. that included the carpet on the floors, and in trunk of the car. Dennis:o http://rides.webshots.com/album/59719957vpOPwX Quote
old woolie Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 I hope this thread takes off as I'd like to "officially" redo my interior as well. I went the VERY cheap route just to get me by for the time being. I bought a Queen size memory foam mattress pad for about $25, cut it into strips the size of the bench and back rests, laid that over what was left of the original fibers, covered the whole area with duct tape and tossed an old blanket over the works. She's held strong for quite some time and has actually proven to be quite comfortable and supportive.Probably not the answer you were looking for but the price sure was right. Man,thats livin' up to you name. Quote
Captain Neon Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 I'll probably have mine done professionally. However, my wife reminded me that she is allergic to wool so I am planning on using nylon upholstery of similar nap to what's in my Neon that looks correct. Quote
RobertKB Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 Professional upholstery usually isn't cheap. I had my '38 Chrysler done by a professional upholsterer and it turned out nicely but was pricey. Years ago, I took a night upholstery course at our local college and did my own upholstery in my '48 Dodge D25 and it has stood up quite well but I now need to redo parts of it. I did buy the headliner for it and a friend of mine installed it for me. If I ever did another car's upholstery, I think I would do a combination of professional and my own work. I think I would attempt everything myself except for the seats and have them done professionally. Quote
Brendan D25 Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 The year before last I went to Wal-Mart and found some gray material at a good price and brought the seats to a local upholsterer. She charged me $250 for both seats. Quote
PatS.... Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 Many moons ago, when I was in the taxi business there was a local upholstery shop doing a good business making and installing some very durable seat covers. They were padded with some stitching to make them look like upholstery and the shop installed them using hog rings as the factory upholstery in installed. These seat covers stayed in place, looked OEM and lasted a few years in a cab. I think that company still makes seat covers for trucks and delivery vans. I'm sure there would be a company in Winnipeg doing this. Expensive for seat covers but very cheap upholstery idea. Might be worth a visit to a couple of upholsterers to check it out. At least you could choose your own fabric then. Quote
50 Deluxe Posted June 10, 2009 Report Posted June 10, 2009 I also was quoted a high price for headliner and windlace replacement and $2600 for carpet, seats, and door panels. so I did it myself ordering from JC Witney and their subcontractors. the only hard part was the headliner which was a real bear, I now know how to do it better. the seats were easy and the panels were fun. Total cost about $800 Quote
Don Jordan Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 I never know how much is "good" to pay. I guess I'm happy because I got the material I wanted and the workmanship was excellent. There's an old saying: "The less you pay the more it costs." I paid $3,000 - that was head liner, door panels, seats, carpet, and he did the trunk. If I ever get the car running I'm going to enjoy it. Quote
55 Fargo Posted June 11, 2009 Author Report Posted June 11, 2009 Found leather seats out of a Concorde locally, just down my road, price if Free, will see if I can make these leather covers go over my seat frames or not..... Quote
Young Ed Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 I never know how much is "good" to pay. I guess I'm happy because I got the material I wanted and the workmanship was excellent.There's an old saying: "The less you pay the more it costs." I paid $3,000 - that was head liner, door panels, seats, carpet, and he did the trunk. If I ever get the car running I'm going to enjoy it. Don I think you did ok. Remember the cloth material is more expensive then vinyl. Quote
Young Ed Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 I think I should have said wool not cloth. The seats that are in my coupe came with it but the 1 seat I had done in my truck cost me 375 for both pieces and matching door panels. I did have to supply the weird clips to attach the seat stuff to the frame. Trucks don't use hogrings Quote
Young Ed Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 My truck was done by a neighbor who does it as a second job. So its kinda a shop kinda not. It sure made one heck of an improvement. I think I sit 2in higher now! Quote
P-12 Tommy Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 I never know how much is "good" to pay. I guess I'm happy because I got the material I wanted and the workmanship was excellent.There's an old saying: "The less you pay the more it costs." I paid $3,000 - that was head liner, door panels, seats, carpet, and he did the trunk. If I ever get the car running I'm going to enjoy it. Don, Where did you get those door sills? Make em or buy em? Tom Quote
Young Ed Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 He does do good work. Also did everything but the top and the carpet for Dads convert. I dont know what that one cost though. Just ignore the sister and BIL in the back seat. Its the only pic I could find that shows the interior Quote
Young Ed Posted June 11, 2009 Report Posted June 11, 2009 It is. All the seams are french stitched. Fred sorry for derailing your thread. Hopefully some of this will be useful. The only DIY interior I've done so far was basically just to get buy until getting something better. Like in my truck while the seat was being redone I hog-ringed old blankets over a spare seat set to have something decent to move it around on. Quote
55 Fargo Posted June 13, 2009 Author Report Posted June 13, 2009 Hi all, pulled the back seat , and front bucket style seats from a late 90s Concorde, leather or man made leather interior, dark grey in color. I then skinnned off the covering off the back seat and did a preliminary fit on my back seat frames, will work good, need more foam and hog rings to fasten the covers down. I am considering pulling my OEM split bench, and using the buckets from this car temporarily, not sure if this is a good idea, as I will need to make a bit of a frame for the buckets to mount on, and to get them up higher. Or I pull off the covers on the buckets, and try and get them to fit on my split bench, will need to sew in a middle piece to join the bottoms, but it can be done. I bough the seats for $20.00, so even if I scrap the idea, I am not out any real money. Any thoughts, ideas, how many of you out there not using factory front seats?..........................Fred Quote
Young Ed Posted June 14, 2009 Report Posted June 14, 2009 Any chance of finding a second rear seat to use on the bottom of your front seat? Quote
55 Fargo Posted June 14, 2009 Author Report Posted June 14, 2009 Any chance of finding a second rear seat to use on the bottom of your front seat? Yes thats always a possibility, although the back seat from an Intrepid or Concorde, is wider, but hat can be shortened, lengthening is more of a problem............Fred Quote
Dennis Hemingway Posted June 14, 2009 Report Posted June 14, 2009 I am considering pulling my OEM split bench, and using the buckets from this car temporarily, not sure if this is a good idea, as I will need to make a bit of a frame for the buckets to mount on, and to get them up higher. I bough the seats for $20.00, so even if I scrap the idea, I am not out any real money. Any thoughts, ideas, how many of you out there not using factory front seats?..........................Fred I have the front seat out of a 86 Dodge Aries in my P15, you can see the rizer that we made to make the seat 5" higher. Dennis:cool: Quote
55 Fargo Posted June 16, 2009 Author Report Posted June 16, 2009 Thanx Norm and Dennis, not sure exactly how I am going to proceed at this point, at least I have seats in there at the moment. Quote
adam_knox Posted June 16, 2009 Report Posted June 16, 2009 Here's how my seat covering went. Fabric was $70. My mum sewed with a basic sewing machine and hand stitched. Back seat was phenomenal, front seat still need to tie down. We sewed ties to the fabric to keep it taunt, but the front seat was a tad more complicated as there isn't a way to hide the ties. Before: After: Before: After: Here's the ties that can be seen from the back: Quote
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