New seat cover - Make it new with pics

[landarts]

What I have here is a 72 LWB Cheyenne . I am in the process of rebuilding the seat and thought possibly someone could use this information. First let me say that I pulled the seat out of the truck and disassembled the seat by first cutting off all hog rings then removing the old factory stock seat cover. After I removed the seat covers I pulled out all of the seat cover wires and laid them on top of the old cover in their respective locations. Then I inspected the springs and the bottom support and top support area. What I found was all springs were in great shape except for one spring on the bottom support had snapped out of its holding place and was missing about 1/2" of the spring area that slips thru a holding slot. So I clamped down the spring in that area and welded to the location.....took about 3 minutes from the time I pulled out the welder. Then after closer inspection I found a little grease and roughly unpainted areas on the frame. I then removed the grease with some degreaser, washed off the entire frame with soap and water then let dry. Set everything up out in the yard to give it a couple of light coats of gloss black spray paint. I let everything dry over night.

Day two
I went to the local fabric store and purchased a product called (Nu-Foam) in the 1/2" size, it is a non-allergenic foam substitute that is easy to work with and cost about $6.50 a yard. I also purchased a product called "Heirloom" cotton batting, it comes in various sizes. I purchased a bag that was 90" x 108" . When I got back to the house I laid the seat cover out on the fence to get it heated up and make things a little more pliable to work with.

I laid the Nufoam on a table and put the bottom seat foam upside down and traced the top of the seat out on the foam and proceeded to cut it out. Then I put the bottom support up on the table, put the foam bottom of the seat on top of the frame and the newly cutout of Nufoam on top of the old foam. Everything looked great from there. So I proceeded with the Heirloom cotton batting layer on top of the entire seat cushion and let it hang down low all the way around. I also had a few scrap pieces of Nufoam that I positioned under the springs on both ends ( see Picts). The reason for this was the springs in those location had really wore that area of foam and I thought this would give it a new area of support for the springs. Now was the time to pull the new seat cover over the assembly of old and new foam and give it a test sitting before I moved on to the stretching and fastening. It felt perfect, not overly plump but firm in all locations.

See next post for the final product.

[landarts]

Part Two

I also had painted all of the seat wires do to them being somewhat rusting. I used the same gloss black spray paint that I used for the frame. I pulled the bottom cover over , stretched and fastened as I went along working from the center points to the outer. Seat bottom cushion completed. Moved onto the back cushion. This foam was in excellent shape so I wrapped the entire back rest of the foam from the bottom that goes against your back , up and over all the way down to the bottom of the backside of the cushion (see Picts). By doing this it left a really clean fabric on the backside instead of the old aged foam. Pulled the seat cover over the entire cushion and trimmed any excess of the bottom area after smoothing out. I moved forward with fastening and stretching the seat cover to release it of any wrinkles of lose areas. I then put the seat back up in the location to fasten all the newly painted bolts and secured it down firmly. I had to give it a test drive in the garage and see how it all felt. Good to go!

Seat cover was purchased thru LMC
NuFoam and Heirloom cotton batting purchased from House of fabrics.

[Mordachai]

Nice job. looks good, should look better in a week or so:


For all you guys that might not know, any little wrinkles in the cover will almost always come out once the seat is in the truck/car and set out in the sun for a few days. The heat in the cab will let the foam pads and cover stretch and relax in all the right spots for a nicer fit. Working auto upholstery, some picky customers have had something to say about the tiniest of wrinkles upon pick-up. We always tell them- give it a week, they should come out, if not come back.

we've never had anyone come back...
but the down side- most of the pics of my work are before the seats get a chance to puff up... very rarely will a customer come by just to thank ya!

Originally Posted by CG

I did my seats today too. Yours looks very nice. My hands hurt some from pulling everything taught with one hand and trying to hog ring with the other.

yeah, def takes some strength. But bench seats are easy! everything is right there- now a set of racing seats with full bolsters- that'll really put your fingers to the test.





Just one more little tip- if your foam is collapsed, before you re-tighten a new cover over it, try to steam the foam, it'll usually puff up a whole lot.
if you have no access to a steamer a closed bathroom with the hot water in the shower usually does pretty good.
or you can also do the sun trick- set in the sun for the hottest part of the day, it will puff up....but not as much as with the steam...