CorvetteForum - Chevrolet Corvette Forum Discussion - New seat skin installation write up

Here is the install for my new seat skins. Couple of points, and comments first. It may be a little long but I am windy at times and try to be thorough.

I was on a budget due to other items I have done this year so I ordered these from the Auction site. In appearance and texture they seem to be good quality covers. The fit was true and tight. My recommendations are as follows. If you are not on a budget I would order the new leathers already mounted to new foams, for obvious reasons. If you wish to save a few bucks I would go with new leathers and new foams and do the install yourself. The next choice would be new leathers from any number of places to include where I got mine. I have never purchased new leathers from the Corvette stores so I can't compare their leathers to others in appearance or quality.

The tools I used were, scissors, pliers, heavy duty wire cutters, hog nose pliers, hog rings (those little fasteners they send to bind the covers to the foam), clips for fastening the rods through the foams that hold the creases in place, the tool for pulling those clips through the foam. I think that's it. If I forgot something I will edit.

Couple of points on this. I ordered the installation kit from CC because they were the least expensive. The hog ring pliers were small and poor quality and I ended up tearing my hand up and finally breaking them. I recommend you get a quality pair of hog ring pliers for this, you will be happy you did. The kit was also suppose to have 100 hog rings but only came with 85 so I ran out of hog rings. I speant all morning yesterday trying to find some more in town. I couldn't find any and had to go to Moberly, Mo (about 20 miles away) and get some actual hog rings from a farm supply store. they were a little larger but I managed to use them. I also purchsed a new set of pliers but I would get a good quality set from one of the Corvette stores if you can find a quality set. (there is a difference in actual hog ring pliers and the ones they send with the kits) I recommend you have at a minimum 150 hog rings on hand because you will waste a few I promise. The kit did have ample clips but the kit did not have enough metal rods for the covers I installed and I ended up having to reuse rods and such from my old covers. ( I imagine the covers from one of the Corvette stores are made a little differently is my first guess)

The install took me 4 hours per seat of actual work but it was actually longer trying to figure out how to go about it. I watched the video on Mid America and found a couple old posts here that talked about them. You can do this without taking your seats out of the car but I recommend you take them out and take the opportunity to clean out from under your seats and possibly even shampoo under there.

I found 49 cents, 2 packs of unopened ketchup, an old coolly cup, a lighter and all kinds of dirt and scum from the po. I also found a screw I had lost from my sill plate and my sun glasses I swore someone stole. (they were mangled pretty good)

The hardest part was figuring out how the foam disconnected from the seat back and bottom. You will see the receiving part of the locking system here.
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0107.jpg

Now you will see the metal rod that slides into the above receiving part here
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0108.jpg

I placed the seat on it's side and just pushed the foam down until they disconnected from each other. You don't have to worry about messing anything up, so push down until it comes loose. There is a locking system like this on both sides. One near the top about 8 to 10 inches down from the top and about the same from the bottom. Note: I do not have any lumbar blabbers. If you do there will be other things you need to address and be aware of before you start tugging and pulling on stuff. Your FSM will address this. But the FSM does not tell you how to take the seats and foam apart. At least mine didn't.

The bottom foam is held in by just the rear sliding under the backs and then with a wire clamp coming up under the seat in the front, here
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0106.jpg

Now then, as I said I was on a budget and used my old foams. Another member here told me about how he installed new leathers on his daughters car and reused the old foam as well. What he also did was get some thin foam and glue it to the existing foam so as to give it more strength and to make the covers fit tighter. (new covers on old foam may have that "seat cover" look and not fit snug. But sometimes they will. It just depends on how old and what kind of shape the foam is in.

So what I did was go to a fabric store and buy some batting, about the thickness of a mattress cover, and a can of spray 3M adhesive. I cut pieces of the batting and glued it over the existing foam like this
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0112.jpg

The hardest part of the install was trying to get the hog rings down in the creases and fasten them. That's where the good quality hog ring pliers will be helpful and to me almost a necessity.

I started by taking the foam off the seats and then taking the old leathers off the foams. After I took off the leathers from each section I went ahead and recovered that section. That way if I had a question I could look at the other seat foam still together and get an idea what I needed to do. If you take all of the leathers off of the foams before you start recovering and then have a question as to what is going on, you may be screwed. I also had the computer on to the video on Mid America in case I had a question, and I did have to look at it a couple times before I started.

Note: Putting the seat backs back on was a little troublesome, but just do the reverse of how you took them off and be patient. I found when I was being patient it was much easier than my first attempt at slamming them into the receiving portion. (Thought I would get lucky I guess)

If I think of anything else to add I will edit, or if you have any questions feel free to pm or email me. One other note of interest. I feel I stay in decent shape, but by the time I finished and woke up the next day, to include today, I feel like it is my first day of Basic Training. I used muscles I haven't used for a while I guess. It was just as labor intensive taking off the old leathers as it was installing the new ones. So be [prepared. It wasn't that bad and I got to show my wife I am not only a great mechanic I can also upholster.

This was the end product.
http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0114.jpg

http://i888.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_0119.jpg

One other note, I do believe they made my vette a little faster as well. You know, just like when you wash it or change the oil. Always seems to go faster for some reason. :D

Also. The seats feel like new seats and are more firm in every aspect. My wife told me she would be happy when they stretched back out to like they was, because they are much more snug.

One more thing. Make sure you get all of the corners covered up good. You may have to overlap differnet areas in order to do this. You may also cut some of the overhang (you will know what I am talking about if you get new covers) off and wrap it around the corner sections to dress it up some. Mine show just a smidgin but you have to look for it in order to see it. I thought of the overhang idea after I was already finished.

And yet another point. On that piece that goes across the seats, just below the headrest. My new covers did not come with any type of fill in. So I had to cut the piece of foam off of my old covers and install it on the new covers. It is a round piece of foam about 10 inches long.