Tbone4432

I'm having my 77 seats recovered with new foam. I'm buying all the materials. What is a fair price for labor to have both seats recovered and new foam in place?

Easy Mike

The lowest estimate you receive.


Prices could vary from location to location. You should expect a professional job and will be paying for their time and expertise.

Hud1086

I'd say do it yourself and save your money. With good seat covers and foam, it's a few hours of labor you'll be proud you did yourself!


For what it's worth, the shop I take things that I can't do to charges $105/hr so I use that as motivation to learn on my own.

crawfish333

I paid $500.00 for mine to be done about a month ago here in Fort Worth. I am not sure if that is the going rate. I brought the car to the guy with the seats still in rather than removing them myself because I had to bring the car to a mechanic in the same area to do a minor tweek. The guy seemed to have put the covers and pads in OK. He did not assemble the seats and install them in the car correctly. He failed to tighten some of the screws so I have to pull them out this weekend to redo some of the screws in the bottom of the top cushion. Bottom line, advice. If I were you I would take the seats out of the car and bring to to the upolstry shop so that you can make certain they are assembled correctly before reinstalling them.

crawfish333

Just out of curiousity, have you tried it on your Corvette? If so, how did it come out. I was discouraged from the comments I read on here from guys who were not upholstery experts who tried to put them on. A lot of people talk about how difficult it is to get all of the creases and folds out.

Tbone4432

Thanks crawfish. In paying more than 500. I guess the bottom line is I feel very confidant they are going to get done properly. The woman doesit for a living. I wanted to make sure I'm paying a fair price and not getting ripped off.

Hud1086

Not on MY car per se, but helped a friend with his '72. He got his covers and foam and all from Al Knoch. They were vinyl so creases weren't really too much of a problem. Hardest part was all the little fasteners around the back. Probably not upholstery shop quality, but it looks nice.

CV62Air

I refurbed a set from a '98 by myself. Bought a new set of seat/spring wires, repainted the seat frames, saw some youtube videos and became an instant expert!!! LOL! Bought a good hog ring pliers, got new foam, leather covers, used some powder to help get the foams and covers positioned properly, all in all it was a very time consuming process for me, spent 3 weekends dealing with the 2 seats. had to deal with the inflatable bladders, heater elements, PITA!

I had met a guy who did aircraft interiors and also cars on the side. He told me it was pretty simple stuff, but if I brought him everything, he would do them both for $250 total, that was about 6 years ago. After I started, I wished I would have just paid him. Although, I am very meticulous, overly attentive to details, and probably borderline OCD!!! So, they turned out perfect. But it wasn't even for my car--LOL!!

The 77 seats would probably go a lot easier. At least they look like they would be.

Good luck.

cv67

as said it varies widely its worth paying for though
Paid $250 to have the pair done and thought that was pretty decent (have no patience to diy & picky to boot

If you can, ask to see some of their completed stuff in person

crawfish333

Yep, if you get a good job and the price is fine with you, it is a good deal. Like others on here, I bought the Al Knock covers and foam and they look great. I wanted to keep mine stock looking, so I bought the vinyl. I would love to have had the leather ones, but my car came with vinyl.

oldgto

We`ve done our own on a GTO, Mustang, and Chevelle... so we will do our own on the Vette also.

Alan 71

Hi,
I think that even when installing covers for the first time excellent results can be expected and obtained.
It does take a good bit of time and some quickly learned skills.
I think one of the things that helps is to work on one seat at a time so when doing the first seat you still have the other seat and it's cover to refer to.
Regards,
Alan

AlKnock covers with new foam on the bottoms but not on the backs.

7T1vette

That estimate is strictly a function of WHO is doing the work, how much experience the person has, and how much they are trying to 'rip' you for (because it's out of a Corvette).

Other folks can tell you what THEY paid; but what they paid is NOT relevant.

540 vette

I had the seats done on my GTO in a shop with a good reputation. I paid $400 to get them done. They did a crap job. I did them over. Next set of seats were in my 99 corvette. I did them myself and they came out perfect. Instead of hog rings to pull it tight I used zip ties to get the covers tight. After everything was done I installed the hod rings and cut the ties away. The ties made it easier.

CV62Air

Zip ties! Good idea.

SwampeastMike

To Tbone:

Given the excellent advice you've received from some real pros:

1) If you have a few hours, modest skills and basic tools you can most likely do a job that others would call "professional".

2) The fee you intend to pay is fairly overpriced. Do expect perfection.

CanadaGrant

I've done the vinyl seats in my 69 and the full leather in my wife's 78 myself. Neither was that hard but knowing what you are going to do is a major factor. I read up on it and watched videos which took most of the guess work out. I have included a link to the Corvette America videos which are extremely helpful. I would think a fair price to have it done correctly would be around $500 but doing it yourself gives you a real sense of accomplishment.

http://www.corvetteamerica.com/video/68_69scinstall/

raydog9379

Did mine years back (well one of them), and just re-did the seat bottom of one today because the s hooks on the front had come off and I figured while I finished painting the halo pieces and reinstalling them after several years that I'd take care of these. Ok..It was more like I needed to unbolt the seats to then unbolt the seat belt and feed it through the hole in the halo.... so I guess I'll rip into this project too. Then there were scratches on the seat back molding so I took that apart and since I was spraying other interior pieces I may as well re-spray that. These small projects take on a life of their own sometimes.

The seat covers were a pain years ago, today's fix wasn't so bad but I knew what I was doing this time around. I had paid a shop years ago about $200 to cover the driver seat after I spent who knows how many hours on the passenger seat and wasn't all that satisfied with how tight I got the bottom on the passenger seat (fixed that today after about 11 years...life and little kids and whatnot got in my way).

Knowing what I know now, I'm confident I could do just as good of a job as a shop could. They'd do it faster but after you do a set it isn't so bad. Plan to tackle it over the better part of a day, not just a couple hours.

jcloving

The bottoms are easy to do. You can kneel on the frames and pull up the cover and hog ring them.

The backs are tougher. I've still got the scar from that episode. Pulling the cover down on to a new foam is rough.

daustin

I've done a couple of cars, i put a plastic garbage bag over the foam then the seat cover. Made the seat back much easier to pull down and get the wrinkles out.

Don