qwank

Anyone have the Al Knock cloth seat covers installed in thier cars? my 1981 came with blue cloth from the factory, but somewhere along the line someone installed blue vinyl. I was thinking of going back to cloth but havn't seen any pics of these covers installed.

I noticed they even sell the matching arm rest too.

gbvette62

Have you talked to them to see, if they still have blue cloth?

None of the original 77-82 seat cloth material, is being reproduced. I know that Knoch has a small quantity, of some of the original cloths still. If they have your color and cloth pattern, they will make you up a set of seat covers.

The quality and fit, is the same as any other covers, that Knoch does. There shouldn't be any problem with the installation.

qwank

I didn't realize it was a limited thing depending on what was left. i'll have to call and get a quote then. Thanks for the info

AGVI

eBay has a set for sale from Al Knoch. They were custom made for a customer that backed out of the deal. $350. Good price considering you cannot find these anywhere.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-1982-Co...0a1d7e&vxp=mtr

qwank

Wow thanks! Those look really dark though. I know there's 2 different dark blues, but i thought '81s had the darker blue. Maybe it's the lighting in the picture. I'll have to call and ask more details.

qwank

also, looking online I see cloth with leather trim like pictured above, and I see all cloth for '81. how do I know which style originally came with my car? I don't have a power seat if that means anything.

EDIT: i guess not, both pics I posted show a power seat

AGVI

I don't think all cloth was an option, probably recovered.

gbvette62

1980 Corvette cloth seats, had cloth inserts and vinyl, not leather, bolsters. 81-82 cloth seats were all cloth, there was no vinyl on them at all.

The top picture is typical of an 80 Corvette, with cloth seats. The second picture, with the all cloth seats, is what 81-82 cloth seats looked like.

On 80 Corvettes with cloth seats, the upper portion of the door panel (in the area around the inside door handle and arm rest), has a cloth insert. 80 Corvettes with leather seats, have all vinyl door panels. On 81-82 Corvettes, the door panels are vinyl, with either leather or cloth seats.


This is what a 1980, with cloth interior, looks like. If you look closely, you can see the cloth insert, on the door panel. I'm not really sure, what's going on with this car though. It has a power seat, which was only available in 81-82, but the seats and door panels, are clearly of the type found in 79 and 80 Corvettes, not 81-82. It looks like this interior has been put together, from a couple different cars.
This is an 81-82 interior.

The cloth seat covers that Knoch has on ebay, are not correct for your 81. Besides the fact that they have vinyl bolsters, instead of being all cloth, the pattern of the cloth is wrong, too.

The 80-82 cloth, has a square pattern to it, sort of a small waffle, or houndstooth pattern. If you look at the the cloth on the 81-82 seats, in the second picture, you can see the square pattern, of the 80-82 cloth. The seats that Knoch has for sale, have the ribbed patterned cloth, found on earlier, 77-79 Corvette cloth seats.

qwank

Thanks for the info!!

AGVI

Holy Macaroni! That's a lot of seat info!

qwank

but it's good though, cloth seats are kinda rare, so you don't see much about them on here.

qwank

here's what Al Knoch wrote back to me on the covers:

"These are actually 1980 Dark Blue color. The correct original covers for your 81 would be completely cloth. These are listed as 78-82 because they are all pace car seats. If you're not worried about them being original, these may work for you, but I would recommend sending you a sample of the material before you make the decision to purchase. Feel free to give us a call at 1-800-880-8080 if you would like the samples."