anyone only recover the centers of your stock seat bottoms?

[supark]

I'm going through the usual 2002 owner's dilemma of determining the most cost effective way to repair the seat bottom of my driver seat. Here's a pic of my seat. Topping my option list is getting a world upholstery front seat set for $450 plus shipping.

I however am not concerned about making this a concourse quality restoration - it's just a decent driver quality car. So I'm fine with taking a bit of license with the interior. I am thinking about getting just the strip that runs down the center replaced with a similar color vinyl (probably perforated for looks and ventilation) and just re-installing. Anyone ever do this and if so was it less expensive than going the full seat recover route? If it's a wash I might as well just go with the world upholstery ones, but I figure no harm checking.

[eastsidebimmer]

Place a WTB add in the WTB forum for rear seat material of this same year/color. Have the seller remove the material from the seat back and cushion and ship it to you in a box. Take this material to an upholstery shop along with your seat. Have them take the seat apart, replace the center section with the new material, add some additional foam padding on top and cover the underside that touches the springs with burlap. The only additional expense over the idea you described above is the cost of the used seat material.

There are a lot of old roached out upper seat backs out there that would be perfect donors for a re-freshened driver's chair. Be certain that whatever vinyl you buy still has some elasticity or it will split very quickly all over again.

[supark]

Ah yes good call on the rear seat material! That way I'd only have to do the one seat and it would match perfectly. WTB ad is going up in t minus 3... 2..

[Guest Anonymous]

Tried this in the past. 40 year old rear seat vinyl doesn't last long.

Be sure to get new horsehair pads to cover those springs or your new vinyl will be shredded by them.

[supark]

hmm - I was thinking I'd also do a bit of reinforcement on the back side of the vinyl. Perhaps have some additional vinyl glued on to both strengthen it and protect it from getting ripped up from the springs.

[jdt10768]

I had the same thing going on, and chose to order a very similar texture/color of a Mercedes fabric called "MB-Tex" for the center pieces. Took it to an upholstery guy who works on mostly old cars, and he knocked it out quickly. Looks very good, but not undetectable. That MB-Tex fabric is pretty strong - bulletproof maybe not, but it will last a lot longer than another piece of 40 yr old vinyl

[supark]

how much did it run you per seat?

[eastsidebimmer]

per my comment on elasticity above, yes--there are cons/risks with using old vinyl. If you can find a good piece of material, then you avoid a mis-match on your passenger seat--let's say it lasts 3-4 years--hopefully you have enough leftovers to do it again! It does look like your seat pad is almost gone--the other poster is right, you need a new seat pad or lots and lots of foam to build it back up.

[jdt10768]

how much did it run you per seat?

As I remember, it was $300 plus I bought the MB-tex material beforehand

[supark]

hmm it's sounding like the world upholstery set really is the most cost effective thing to do then if I'm doing the installation myself... esp considering you get covers for the whole shebang with that kit. Hmm

[supark]

Decided to just pull the trigger on the world upholstery front seat kit. Figure long run they'll be cheaper being that I'll be able to R&R the entire seat versus piecemealing it.