I need to replace the seat covers on my 1995.

What are the recommendation on suppliers, looking for the reasonable cost and how difficult are they to replace?

Thanks,

Stephen

 

Not to hard to do but will test your hands if not used to it. Wish you would have asked sooner. I got mine for $250 real leather. Look at my seat thread. To bad he stopped selling them because of bad reviews from morons that did not know what they were doing.

 

I am sorry to read this. My seats are okay for now, but it was something I had in mind in case I ever get caught up on all the mechanical issues.

 

Seat covers are easy to install if you do not care if they have wrinkles and pulls in them when done. To do it and get rid of the wrinkles and pulls is rather difficult. I have done upholstery on collector cars for about 25 years and know the methods and tricks for getting rid of them. I am now doing the last car I will do for anyone as I am old and am giving up working for a living.

If you are careful, willing to redo things and work hard it is possible to install seat covers and have them look good. Many on the forum have done it with excellent results and many on the forum have done it with less than stellar results.

 

I think that if the seat is that old I'd be better off replacing both covers and cushions. Get the full set up and it is easy. OTOH, you can replace just the covers but the cushions might not be far behind.

 

I used the Rock Auto carpet and seat covers, and am very happy with them. They're the "Plain Jane" Pleather, whatever, but they're nice. Worth the money, imo.

The difficulty level isn't terribly high. Pay close attention when you take yours off and get a better set of hog ring pliers than the ones that come with it. Take your time.

My foam is original. I used lysol on it and it is fine. There was a tear I filled with sports wrap.

If yours are unusable, suppliers like Wilcox have both the foam and the covers.

He is almost always running some kind of special too, and he seems nice.

 

Over the years I have recovered a multitude of seats. Not a difficult task. If the foam is the least bit ratty spend the money for new foam cushions.

One tip that will eliminate a lot of cussing when trying to get the new covers to slide over the foam cushions is to cover the cushion with a black plastic trash bag. Cover will slide right on, rip off the plastic before attaching the hog rings.

 

How do you use lysol on the foam? My 25 yo foam was nowhere as bouncy as the new one.

 

Might be he has some blame from his answering of emails. IMO, you cannot just put an item out for sale and expect us to buy without answering some questions first. Some will know what they want without your help but others have questions which you should answer. That will weed out a lot of issues. Everything I sell, I expect to spend some time with tire kickers and support. So if the profit I can see is $10, I probably won't sell it since I know my time to pack it and ship it and answer your questions be they good or stupid is going to kill the profit.

 

Apparently the top leaked while it was for sale, and the foam seemed fine, but was a little musty. I know the PS side seat was wet some from it. I dunno how long that went on before I bought it.

I sprayed it till it was damp and kind of wrung it a little. Put it in the sun to dry.

New foam would probably be better, but there are no problems with it to report thus far.

 

Oh, yeah.. The "bouncy foam" comment made me remember something else.

It's been a year or so maybe since I did this but, as I remember it, there were metal springs and traverse wires for support in the bottom of the seat. Ditch those. They're going to be screwed up anyway from 30 years of people bouncing on them. As the top leaked, mine were rusted a little to boot.

So, throw those away or they will break and get the seat wire kit from Wilcox. Which you will need because there are support wires that run all though the seat cover to hold it also.. And they're going to be screwed up as well.

Then, instead of the spring supports, put the elastic "bunjee" looking "trampoline kit" (I think that is what they called it?) in it.

Mine is an 85, so maybe yours is different? But if it has the wires, this is much better.

I bought it at Keen corvette in Miamitown, and to be honest I don't know if that is the official name, or just slang the sales guy there used. But it is wide, elastic looking strips with metal hardware on the ends that replace the metal spring and wire gridwork, and it works great. I mean, it's like a 100% improvement. I looked for it there and can't find it. But I know that is where I got it and they had it in stock. I am sure most of the other places are the same.

You can adjust the stiffness too. 1 "kit" will do both seats and if you are like me, that is perfect. But if it isn't stiff enough, you can fit two kits in it for added support. Then you can just throw the springs and wires out! No more need for them.

Also, something else I got there (but it was labeled "Corvette America") was some interior dye for plastic and vinyl. It comes matched to your interior color code.

It works really good for the console sides where the seat belt rubs the color off over the years. It is only accessible while the seats are out, so it is a handy time to do this.

Good luck!

 

PS: Here! I found it! It's called the "Trapeze Kit" Wilcox probably has them also. I am sure they are a common item.

http://keenparts.com/pages/detail.ph...partnum=290712

They work great. 1 kit or get two for really firm seats.

Also, here is the dye.

http://keenparts.com/pages/catalog2.php?cat=285&year=C4