Bucket Seat Skirt Repair

[29od1]

I bought a "well used" set of 71-72 bucket seats with all the brackets from a swap meet for a really good price. I knew they would need repair, so I decided to tackle it. I thought I'd post some of the process pics incase they could be useful to anyone trying this themselves.

Here's some pics of what I started with. The frame on the left has already been stripped and blasted. The frame on the right, well... needed a bit more work

[29od1]

The first process was to drill/grind out the spot welds to remove the skirts. Once I got them off, I made a template based on the original so I could make a couple of new ones.

[29od1]

Once I got the sides made, I fit them up with clecos while I made the front. The front is a little more involved.

[29od1]

I made a straight piece the same height as the sides and wrapped it around and fastened it using clecos also.

[29od1]

Then I made a pie cut on each side in order to get the proper angle on the front piece. The measurements in the pics are very crude, but luckily you don’t have to be exact on this.

[29od1]

So then I needed a filler on the bottom to make the front match with the sides. So I bent up another piece of sheetmetal to fill the gap and welded it to the bottom of the front. Here’s some pics of the three pieces by themselves.

[29od1]

Then I fitted them all back on and spot welded them to the frame.

[29od1]

The next step was to make some hoops to attach the hog rings to for the upholstery. I cut some sinuous springs and welded them on the inside in approximately the same place as the original hoops.

[29od1]

Then I cut some seat springs and painted the frame and skirts. Now they’re off to the upholstery guy and I’ll post some finished pics when I get them back.

[29od1]

Hopefully this will help anyone that is thinking about giving it a shot. It's not really hardcore metal work, so anyone with a welder and some time could do it.

Plus it'll be covered in the end, so it's good practice for anyone just starting out.

Good luck!

[BB72CHEVKT]

They look great. I have a pair with bad skirts but do not have those skills.

[Classic Heartbeat]

Great job! and Great wright up. Hopefully this will save a few bucket seats in the future. WES

[BMERDOC]

Nice job! Really good work. I think its the first time I've seen someone post seat repairs even though I've heard about so many that needed repair.

[LUCKTRUCK]

Good Job!

It's great to see people saving parts that would most likely otherwise end up in the trash.

With good quality original truck parts getting hard to find, we need to salvage what we can. Not only parts but trucks too.

If you do not have the skills, try it anyway. You will gain the skills.

[29od1]

Originally Posted by LUCKTRUCK

Good Job!

It's great to see people saving parts that would most likely otherwise end up in the trash.

With good quality original truck parts getting hard to find, we need to salvage what we can. Not only parts but trucks too.

If you do not have the skills, try it anyway. You will gain the skills.

Yep I agree. It's always nice to reuse old GM parts, especially since they don't reproduce these seat frames yet.

[special-K]

This is an excellent thread for FAQ. Thanks for sharing. What a great contribution to the site.

[midniteblues]

give yourself a big pat on the back that was nice work! I'll be looking forward to seeing the final product

[29od1]

Thanks guys for all the compliments! It's always nice to share work and ideas with fellow enthusiasts.

[BMERDOC]

I bought a pair of buckets tonight that are a little crusty. I'm gonna pull the foams off and see what I can do with them. Thanks for the walk through!

[29od1]

I got my seats back from the upholstery guy so I wanted to post some pics as promised. They came out as good as I could have imagined.

I got the new vinyl covers from Tim - (Truckseats) and the new seat foams from Frank - (PICKMUP). Both are good guys to deal with and both are vendors on the forum.

[29od1]

Installed pic.

[midniteblues]

[QUOTE=midniteblues;5740358]give yourself a big pat on the back that was nice work!

do it again and say atta boy!! they look factory fresh! and ready for another forty yrs.

if you wouldnt of had the photos too prove most people wouldnt believe what you started with.

[cericd]

Wow. Those look terriffic. Congrats on a job well done.

[Cash3481]

David,

What great, quality work, you produce there my friend.
I appreciate all the assistance you gave me doing my seats as well!
Although it took a while for you to get them back from the upholestery guy... it was worth the wait. Thanks for contributing to the board.

Mike

[teeitup]

SWEET David, you did AWESOME!!!!!