I had a Black split bench with armrest in my ratty 72 that I am working on, and the bench had the usual seam splits. The vinyl cleaned up nice ie I killed the mold and green stuff and the vinyl still "shone". One gash and several seams were busted at the drivers "seat" area, and two or three unthreading seams in the drivers seatback exposed the seat foam and showed signs of worsening. Not wanting to leave well enough alone, I decided that although I have no upholstery experience whatsoever I was qualified enough to recover this seat. I really did not like it when I found out that the seatcovers for these benches cost around $300. SO I decided that I would use the vinyl from an extra rear seat set I had. I had replaced my 72's rear seat with a cleaner set from another car. So the extra seats I had werent in the best shape. Mice had made a nest in the seat back and it definitely had the funk, though the vinyl and stitching was good. The lower piece was rusty and the blue connecting fabric on it was rotted bad, though the "seat" of it was totally solid, with good vinyl. The lower bench: The vinyl from the rear lower seat is not the same size as for the front, obviously, when the covers are removed. However, the visible "seat" area is almost exactly the same size. I cut the entire front "seat" area of the front bench piece at its rear seams, and followed the forward contour a couple inches lower than the seat "front and side edge", leaving a lower "skirt" that would be reattached to the seat frame when done. The rear seat donor skin I trimmed the exact same way, excepting that the rearward portion of it requires using some of the material wrapped around the frame. The rear donor piece was sewn to the original piece and "skirt", overlapping a half inch and face to face. this way when the cover was reinstalled, the stitching is hidden inside the cover. Some hand stitching was required. It is not a perfect fit. The blue rotten fabric was replaced with old torn bluejean denim, and the assembly hog-ringed onto the original frame. The Drivers seat "back": The vinyl from the upper rear seat piece matches the drivers seatback pattern, with two horizontal trim bars and the padded vertical bars. I cut the front seams of the drivers seat back, freeing the torn/worn piece that I wanted to replace. I then trimmed the "piping" as I did not intend to use it and it would get in my way. I laid the now removed worn and torn vinyl piece against the donoir seatback and cut to size the solid piece I needed, being sure to leave the half inch overlap for the stitching. I turned the drivers seatback inside out, sewed the donor piece in place and reattached the original blue attachment fabric. Slipped it onto the seatback frame and foam and hog ringed it into place. It came out great. All visible areas look just as the original did, but now with no tears. there are areas that required hand stitching and areas that did not line up perfectly, but they are hidden by the bottom of the front seat backs and the center armrest. If I can figure out how or if someone will tell me how, I will post pictures. Sorry for the long post and cryptic details, but if you read it all, you can see that it can be done. All told I have maybe $50 and 10 hours in it. I have to admit though there were times I felt I was in waay over my head. Now that its done I am absolutely thrilled with how it came out. how do I post a pic or two?
aha i think this attached pic is working So the whole seat surface is from a rear seat, and the drivers seat back is from a rear seat. There is a visible horizontal seam arouns the sides of the bench, and the piping is missing from the drivers seat back, but I think it came out plenty good for my driver. and cheap too.
Very good work and you saved a ton. Thanks for sharing the info. To me this proves that if you try something new you can succede
Looks like you did a decent job and saved yourself some money too.It is great when people can come up with these kind of ideas to save money.I have did many of these Money Saving things over the years out of neccesity and I think some people just take the easy way alot of times and spend the dough but those in limited financial positions have to be creative.Not everyone can afford to do a 100 point resto and even when you do the return on your high dollar resto is just not there if you have to sell for some reason.You would be surprised what some intelligent thinking and often not noticed resources can do for you..Good Job......
