HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
01-05-2007, 01:08 AM
#1
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 152
HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
I just installed a set of leather seats into my V6 Mustang. They were GT Take offs and fit like a dream. So I thought I would do a how to on it. These directions are for those seats WITHOUT Side-impact air bags and are meant to be used in conjunction with the Ford Tech documents from this forum located here https://mustangforums.com/m_1019059/tm.htm (Thanks to JJ_Stang for them) These directions can be used with aftermarket leather seating surfaces as well. My digital camera was on the fritz, so no pics, sorry. If anyone has any, feel free to add them.
Tools needed:
Needle-nosed pliers
Linesman Pliers
15mm Socket (starndard and Deep Well)
13mm Socket
10mm Socket
30 hog rings (at a minimum)
#2 Philips head screw driver
T15 Torx driver
A small Allen wrench
A small flat head screw driver
Zip ties or plastic rivet fasteners.
Utility Knife or a realy sharp set of scisors
A HUGE amount of Patience!!!!
Optional items:
Hog Ring Pliers - These make the attachment of the hog rings much easier, but a good set of needle-nose pliers will work as well.
Hair drier - This can be used to gently soften the material to ease installation.
Replacement Seating trim to match your new seats (rear release switch, headrest inserts, adjustment handles, and bottom seat trim plates) - I used my existing trim to provide contrast and flow.
First off, use a 10mm socket to disconnect your negative terminal on your battery. Then wait about 5 minutes. This will deactivate the Occupancy sensors in the seat bottoms. These sensors not only tell the car to tell you to put your seatbelt on, they also turn off the airbag. If you do not power them down, you risk having them permenently having your air-bags turned off, and then you will have to go to your Ford dealer to have them re-calibrated!
Remove Front Seats and Rear Seat Bottom from the car
Now move your front seat all the way back and use a 13mm socket to remove the bolts holding the front of the seat to the floor pan. Now move the seat all the way forward. This will give you access to the rear floor trim. Lightly pull the two pieces off them end of the seating rails, and use a 15mm Deep Well socket to remove the retaining nut. Carefully tilt the seat back and unhook the 2 sensor plugs. Now carefully lift the seat out of the car. Repeat these steps with the other front seat. To remove the lower rear seat is easy, just push in the tabs located just under the front lip, and carefully lift out. Leave your rear seat backs in place. They can be done in the car.
Rear Seat Back
Fold down one of your rear seat backs. You will notice that there is a seam there. This seam is made by a short J hook and a Long J hook. Care fully seperate the seam. On the side closest to the exterior of your car there is a velcro flap, undo this flap. Once the seam is open, undo the velcro strap. Now carefully peal the upholstry off the seat back. The best way is to turn it inside out. You will notice that the foam pad has some hooked strips on it. Carefully seperate the fabric from these strips as you peal the upholstry off.
To put your new cover on, reverse the take off proceedure. Make sure that your new cover is on straight. I found it was easier to have the new cover inside out and peal it on. Here is where the hairdrier is helpfull. When it comes to reattaching the J hooks together to make the seam, gently heat the material to ease the stretching of the material togther. Repeat these steps for the other side. NOTE: Your release straps fit through the side of your covers. Ensure that the whole for these straps are facing twoards the outside of your vehicle, failure to do this will cause the holes for the seat latch will not line up, and this will cause them to malfunction.
Rear Seat Bottom
Start as the top of the piece and undo the J hooks from the seating frame. You will see those same hooked strips from earlier. Treat them the same way as before. Here is where a choice has to be made. If you are going to sell your old covers, you need to carefully remove the long christmas trees from the plastic seat shell (it is very hard, so be warned!). I was not going to sell my old interior so I cut my long christmas trees. Keep moving twoards twoards the bottom. There will be 2 round christmas trees in the middle of the seat near the openings for the seat belt, carefully pull them out using your needle nosed pliers you will need to reuse them. Once you reach the bottom of the seat, carefully remove the final J hooks. Now install your new material by starting at the bottom and work you way to the top. Before you attach the side J hooks, attach all of the straps that are around the holes for you seatbelts and child seat anchors. Once your seat is recovered, re-install it into your car. NOTE: I took a break here and set on my newly covered seats. This allowed the material to settle and ensured that those hooked strips were holding properly.
Front Seat
Carefully remove the center cover from the manual height adjustment handle, and remove the two screws that is covers with your torx driver. Now remove that handle. Tip the seat on its side and follow the reclining handle. You will see that this handle has a retaining clip. Carefully remove this clip and then remove the handle. I removed the clip by hooking it with my small allen wrench. Once the handle is removed, you can put the clip back into its slot on the handle. This handle will press back on with the clip inside it. On the back side of your seat trim panel is a single philips head screw, remove this. Notice how it retains not only the trim panel but a flap from the seat material as well. Now care fully remove your trim panel. This panel is attached to the frame with 2 retaining clip and a round christmas tree. Care is needed not to break them. Now you need to seperate the seat back from the seat bottom. Part of the seat bottom's fabric wraps around the seat back and attaches to it. You need to unhook this piece of fabric before proceeding. You will see that the seat back's hing is attached by 2 screws on each side. Use your 15mm socket to remove them. Their nuts a welded to the seat bottom's frame so they will not come loose. Once the back is seperated from the seat bottom, set it aside.
Front Seat Bottom
Start at the back of the seat bottom and undo the J hook. Undo the J hook on the sides of the seat as well. Now peel your material forward until you reach the flap attached to the cushion with hog rings. (Notice more of that %^&# hooked strips) There are 3 hog rings attaching the fabric to the cushion. Cut them and continue to peel the fabric forward. The last J hook should just slide off of the seat frame. To install the leather, I first attached the strip with the Hog rings. Hook one end of the hog ring to the cushion wire, then hook it to the seat strip. You can use your needle nosed pliers to crimp the rings down, or you can use the Hog Ring Pliers. Now attach the front J hook and then attach the rear J hook and finally the sides. Now go to the seat back.
Front Seat Back
Remove your headrest from the seat back. Note: The side of the headrest with out the adjustment nub has a small hole. This hole is where you would stick the small allen wrench to release that side. Pull
Tools needed:
Needle-nosed pliers
Linesman Pliers
15mm Socket (starndard and Deep Well)
13mm Socket
10mm Socket
30 hog rings (at a minimum)
#2 Philips head screw driver
T15 Torx driver
A small Allen wrench
A small flat head screw driver
Zip ties or plastic rivet fasteners.
Utility Knife or a realy sharp set of scisors
A HUGE amount of Patience!!!!
Optional items:
Hog Ring Pliers - These make the attachment of the hog rings much easier, but a good set of needle-nose pliers will work as well.
Hair drier - This can be used to gently soften the material to ease installation.
Replacement Seating trim to match your new seats (rear release switch, headrest inserts, adjustment handles, and bottom seat trim plates) - I used my existing trim to provide contrast and flow.
First off, use a 10mm socket to disconnect your negative terminal on your battery. Then wait about 5 minutes. This will deactivate the Occupancy sensors in the seat bottoms. These sensors not only tell the car to tell you to put your seatbelt on, they also turn off the airbag. If you do not power them down, you risk having them permenently having your air-bags turned off, and then you will have to go to your Ford dealer to have them re-calibrated!
Remove Front Seats and Rear Seat Bottom from the car
Now move your front seat all the way back and use a 13mm socket to remove the bolts holding the front of the seat to the floor pan. Now move the seat all the way forward. This will give you access to the rear floor trim. Lightly pull the two pieces off them end of the seating rails, and use a 15mm Deep Well socket to remove the retaining nut. Carefully tilt the seat back and unhook the 2 sensor plugs. Now carefully lift the seat out of the car. Repeat these steps with the other front seat. To remove the lower rear seat is easy, just push in the tabs located just under the front lip, and carefully lift out. Leave your rear seat backs in place. They can be done in the car.
Rear Seat Back
Fold down one of your rear seat backs. You will notice that there is a seam there. This seam is made by a short J hook and a Long J hook. Care fully seperate the seam. On the side closest to the exterior of your car there is a velcro flap, undo this flap. Once the seam is open, undo the velcro strap. Now carefully peal the upholstry off the seat back. The best way is to turn it inside out. You will notice that the foam pad has some hooked strips on it. Carefully seperate the fabric from these strips as you peal the upholstry off.
To put your new cover on, reverse the take off proceedure. Make sure that your new cover is on straight. I found it was easier to have the new cover inside out and peal it on. Here is where the hairdrier is helpfull. When it comes to reattaching the J hooks together to make the seam, gently heat the material to ease the stretching of the material togther. Repeat these steps for the other side. NOTE: Your release straps fit through the side of your covers. Ensure that the whole for these straps are facing twoards the outside of your vehicle, failure to do this will cause the holes for the seat latch will not line up, and this will cause them to malfunction.
Rear Seat Bottom
Start as the top of the piece and undo the J hooks from the seating frame. You will see those same hooked strips from earlier. Treat them the same way as before. Here is where a choice has to be made. If you are going to sell your old covers, you need to carefully remove the long christmas trees from the plastic seat shell (it is very hard, so be warned!). I was not going to sell my old interior so I cut my long christmas trees. Keep moving twoards twoards the bottom. There will be 2 round christmas trees in the middle of the seat near the openings for the seat belt, carefully pull them out using your needle nosed pliers you will need to reuse them. Once you reach the bottom of the seat, carefully remove the final J hooks. Now install your new material by starting at the bottom and work you way to the top. Before you attach the side J hooks, attach all of the straps that are around the holes for you seatbelts and child seat anchors. Once your seat is recovered, re-install it into your car. NOTE: I took a break here and set on my newly covered seats. This allowed the material to settle and ensured that those hooked strips were holding properly.
Front Seat
Carefully remove the center cover from the manual height adjustment handle, and remove the two screws that is covers with your torx driver. Now remove that handle. Tip the seat on its side and follow the reclining handle. You will see that this handle has a retaining clip. Carefully remove this clip and then remove the handle. I removed the clip by hooking it with my small allen wrench. Once the handle is removed, you can put the clip back into its slot on the handle. This handle will press back on with the clip inside it. On the back side of your seat trim panel is a single philips head screw, remove this. Notice how it retains not only the trim panel but a flap from the seat material as well. Now care fully remove your trim panel. This panel is attached to the frame with 2 retaining clip and a round christmas tree. Care is needed not to break them. Now you need to seperate the seat back from the seat bottom. Part of the seat bottom's fabric wraps around the seat back and attaches to it. You need to unhook this piece of fabric before proceeding. You will see that the seat back's hing is attached by 2 screws on each side. Use your 15mm socket to remove them. Their nuts a welded to the seat bottom's frame so they will not come loose. Once the back is seperated from the seat bottom, set it aside.
Front Seat Bottom
Start at the back of the seat bottom and undo the J hook. Undo the J hook on the sides of the seat as well. Now peel your material forward until you reach the flap attached to the cushion with hog rings. (Notice more of that %^&# hooked strips) There are 3 hog rings attaching the fabric to the cushion. Cut them and continue to peel the fabric forward. The last J hook should just slide off of the seat frame. To install the leather, I first attached the strip with the Hog rings. Hook one end of the hog ring to the cushion wire, then hook it to the seat strip. You can use your needle nosed pliers to crimp the rings down, or you can use the Hog Ring Pliers. Now attach the front J hook and then attach the rear J hook and finally the sides. Now go to the seat back.
Front Seat Back
Remove your headrest from the seat back. Note: The side of the headrest with out the adjustment nub has a small hole. This hole is where you would stick the small allen wrench to release that side. Pull
01-06-2007, 12:34 AM
#4
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 152
RE: HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
Phoenix: Thanks man, I hope it helps. Let me know if you run into problems. I may be able to help. Enclosed are a couple of pictures that my neighbor took of the final product.
[IMG]local://upfiles/53869/D38F99CDCF354C12AF62EC8B377E4A7D.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/53869/C9D05EE2F5EB49F6A6760D1592F21E20.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/53869/D38F99CDCF354C12AF62EC8B377E4A7D.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/53869/C9D05EE2F5EB49F6A6760D1592F21E20.jpg[/IMG]
01-30-2007, 10:59 PM
#7
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location:
Posts: 772
RE: HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
i plan on getting leather seats but having yellow inserts put in. im sure it would be cheaper getting the gt leather seats for 300 then bringing it to a local place and having them do their magic instead of ordering a kit online?
01-30-2007, 11:15 PM
#8
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 152
RE: HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
Yes, it can be cheaper, the cheapest set I found for two-tone was around $900. Here are some links to sites that sell leather seats:
http://shop.ayarinc.com/main/product_info.php
http://www.leatherseats.com/default.asp
Those 2 companies sell both front and back seats. There are other companies out there, but most of them only sell just the front and then the rear is an additional cost.
Good Luck!
http://shop.ayarinc.com/main/product_info.php
http://www.leatherseats.com/default.asp
Those 2 companies sell both front and back seats. There are other companies out there, but most of them only sell just the front and then the rear is an additional cost.
Good Luck!
01-30-2007, 11:35 PM
#10
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 152
RE: HOW TO: Leather Seat Install
I bought mine off of eBay for $313.00 shipped. Here is their website listing their non-eBay sale prices. The difference is about $10-15 overall.
http://www.newtakeoff.com/index.asp?...p;Category=134
Good Luck,
Mark
http://www.newtakeoff.com/index.asp?...p;Category=134
Good Luck,
Mark