Do most people on here install their own seat covers or have a shop do it? Today I took my seats to a shop and he said he could do for $785. Which includes foam and rebuilding the front bench. Front seat is tore up and rear seats are good just need seat covers. Ive attached a pic of the bench. Does that quote sound ball park correct? Or I can pick up a complete cover set from OPGI for about $400. Im wondering if installing the covers is easy or something an amateur should not attempt.
If you can buy complete seat covers, I would do it myself. $785 sounds pretty fair. I had mine done by a local guy in his home shop for $600 in my convertible...but that was 2003. He made them using the old covers as templates, since they don't make full size seat covers.
You Can Do It Yourself And Save Money,heres A Couple Of Tips,1:be Patient..2:get Some Silicone Spray,helps Covers Slide On The Foam.put New Seat Cover Near Heat It Will Help Them Stretch. 4: Take Lots Of Pictures It Will Help You Know Where All The Hog Rings Go......hope This Helps!!!
Front bench seats with folddown armrests are not the easiest seat covers to install. Plus from looking at your seats they need some help besides covers. You might want to ask the installer if that includes the correct heat-sealed covers, or ask what he would charge to install a set of correct covers on the seats if you brought the new covers to him. Duane
You can do it yourself, but bench seats in particular can be a pain. For the extra couple hundred, save yourself the aggrevation and have it done, especially if it includes foam. :Smarty:
I do some upholstery work on seats @ my shop and even with good quality repro covers there's still alot of work involved. Usually the foam and batting is shot or ate up by mice, etc. and will need to be built back up and check the frame work of the seat for cracks in the steel that might need a weld job from all those neck snapping powershifts over the years. I always polish up the chrome trim like seat release latches, head rest posts, and vinyl dye the side guards or headrests. Sometimes folks think they save a ton of $$ by stripping the seats apart but then you have no reference points to begin with, the same thing happens when folks remove their headliners and bows thinkin' they are going to save some coin, let the upholster do the re& re please. If there are no repro seat covers available then be prepared to pay the piper, there's a lot of work involved to making new sections from using what remains of the old pieces and marking the order for it all to be sewn together. It takes alot of time to get it right and another thought is you'll find that the auto upholstery trade is filled with guys 55-65 years old doing the work, there are no new young upholsterers coming up in the business, nobody (well almost no young folks want to work with their hands or take pride in a job well done or spend the time to learn) unless the the young folks are second generation trimmers who have helped their Dad in the business. Give the hobby another 10 years and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone left to install vinyl tops, conv. tops, carpet, seat covers, etc. The guys doing it now will have retired or died off. That's why I have my son Adam to help me in my shop, @ 22 years of age he's ripe to learn what I know and he loves working on muscle cars anyway, so trimmers take note as well, don't hoard away all your trade secrets to yourself, there might be a young person out there that could benefit from learning your knowledge and perhaps become a productive working person in society instead of just being a hoodlum on the streets. I have always found that alot of folks in the old car hobby will spend 1000's on paint jobs, 1000's on motors, 1000's on wheels and tires but when you tell them of the work involved in doing a complete interior from carpet to headliner, seats to door panels, pkg trays, dash pads, etc. alot of them seem to think it can be all done for $299 and tax! LOL! If you are a detail oriented type of person who is careful and thinks things out well I know that most folks could do the work with some guidance, but they will be shocked to find that it will involve alot more time and money than they may have imagined, but if you feel you would like to try it yourself by all means, and if you get real good @ it it may even work out well for you as some extra income. Just my two cents worth on the subject and I welcome opinions from others on the board especially upholstery and trim folks. Jeff
Thanks for the input. Im gonna go ahead have the shop do them since the bench seat is pretty messed up.
It was crooked (crocked) to start with... maybe it can't be fixed for a reasonable cost. I think it looks great!
Jeff Corey got this one Nail(Head)ed - there' no PRO like a 55 to 65 (75 ?) year old PRO to make new interiors that MATCH, WEAR WELL, and FEEL GOOD TOO. I'd bet a well-done interior could add $3,000 to your car's value, while a "home made" seat cover job will take away a $1,000 ! I'm getting an old guy to do mine. Hopefully my billiard buddy's older retired brother will come out for one more interior. And hopefully he'll have a junior birddog to assist him and learn the business. He specialized in 195X Cadillacs - probably did 500 interiors in them Caddy's (one nicer than the last one) over the years, and another 3,000 other car styles, including hundreds of custom creations - that's a double skill. IMHO - Rip Rohring :Comp:
Looks good, and judging by your 12/31 post that said you were going to have it done, I would say that it was pretty decent turn around time! Worth the money for the amount of work that they do. I still may try doing my own. Not so much to be cheap as just to do it my self. May end up costing me in fact by trying to do it myself! Of course I may go with something other than a standard factory material on the seats and door panels in which case it's a pro for sure. My wife's uncle went so far as to get the equipment to make the covers for a custom car that he built. Came out very nice, but I just can't imagine doing all that my self instead of paying a wise old interior guy.
Another possible apporach is to dis-assemble and send your seats (and the rest of your interior, for that matter) to Legendary, and they will re-cover them and send them back. (May not be practical with a bench seat). I will most likely eventually go that route, since I have previously gotten into it with an upholstery shop that ripped a cover and said that it was miscut by the manufacturer. I kind of like the "one source no excuses" approach of having Legendary do it all. -- Steve
Got a quote do put on my covers for 300.00. I supplied covers and foam. I took my covers of intending to do job myself but for 300.00 and a better job that I can do I'm going to let them do it. I have too many other things to work on.
