Oaker57

Picked up a nice new set of seat covers from Al Knoch at Carlisle this year, and am now well underway redoing my seats.

Have the frames all cleaned up and painted. Installed the set back cover with no problems, but the seat bottom is giving me trouble when trying to pull the hooks up through the foam to hook onto the frame springs





I'm wondering if my clips are long enough, (they come pre-installed) the ones toward the front (thicker part of foam) are 1-7/8" and the one in the rear is 1-3/8".
Seems to me these should be a bit longer as they will just not make it through foam, jute, and the burlap, no matter what, I am pushing down and compressing everything as much as I possibly can, the clips start to unbend and I can only just barely get them in place. Does anyone know how long these should be?
The seat backs were 1" all the way around, and although they were a little challenge to get through, they all went on nicely.



My hands are hurting from all the pulling and pushing, there has to be a better way, especially when the guy in the installation video is practically doing it with one hand behind his back

daz_au

I use the Corvette America covers, foam and installation videos. There were actually clips missing from my kit and I had to make some. You can probably find the relevant part of their video but I think they mentioned some clips 2" and 2.5" long from memory.

My fingers were really sore after it all but the results are worth it !

67's

If you do a google search, Corvette America has their video posted on for free, I haven't done '64's but that length sounds about right.

I do them on the floor and compress everything with my knee, have you tried that.

VITIV Coupe

You forgot to put an assemble wire in when your doing the bottom. This wire eventually gets removed when you attach the clips to the spring bottom. Go to Corvette America and 1.51 min/sec on the third video is your friend.
http://www.corvetteamerica.com/video/63_64scInstall/

Tampa Jerry

Here ius a tip I picked up on the Team Chevelle forum. Before you put the seat covers on, put a plastic bag with a slit at the top, on the frame and foam. The cover will slide on easier. When the cover is on, pull the plastic bag out. Jerry

Oaker57

Thanks for the reply's fellas.

As I had mentioned at the bottom of my original post, I do have the video, and have watched it over and over, but there are a few minor differences, such as CA doesn't use the jute padding between the foam and burlap, so that makes it thicker, and very difficult to do the extra assembly wire trick that "VITIV Coupe" mentioned, I did try it but if you notice in the video he pull's the clip through like there's no tension to deal with at all. I'm actually attempting that again and trying a few different angles on it, but even that's hard to get them through, they could really be a tad longer.

Tom McCabe: that's a good tip using you knees, I will try that.

Tampa Jerry : The plastic bag sounds like a good idea too, certainly can't hurt any....

Also thanks to those that PM'd me......it's nice to have support......I may take a few breaks between tugs, but I won't give up....

Oaker57

Just watched the video again, and the guy actually says that the 1st two clips are 3.5" long and the back two are 2.5" long....I think I found my problem.....I will call Al Knoch tomorrow.........

woodsdesign

Are you trying to pull the clips through the cushion and attach them to the frame? The way I do it is to pull the clips through and attach them to a wire on underside of the foam. Then, temporarily hog ring that wire to the seat bottom (wavy springs). I use four hog rings, one for each corner. Then pull the cover over the frame, attach it with the "S" clips and remove the hog rings. This is the way 65 and up seat bottoms are attached. They used a different type of wire clip originally and attached it directly to the seat bottom. I can see the remains of the wire still on your frame.
Another tip for pulling the cover over the frame is to pull the cover over the foam then lay the seat upside down, put a board across the frame and kneel on it to compress the foam with your body weight. Then snap the "S" clips in place.This will give you a nice tight cover install.
Feel free to PM me if you need any additional help.
Also, I don't see any need for the jute padding. I just use burlap.

Larry