wrightm

Hi I have a 66 mustang convert...standard interior.
Bought the vinyl material and seat padding sets for the two front bucket seats and rear bench seat...that was about $350.
I thought it would only be about $100 to pay per seat to have the material upholstered with the new product that I bought.
I took it to two different shops though and they both quoted $650 for labor and some minor parts.
I thought that was outrageous; but when both the shops gave me the exact same price; I just wanted to get it over and done with and gave it to the guy.
I live in So. California....
Anyone have any other experiences with this that I can compare to?
thanks,
Micah

200ci66

That's insane. Completely insane. Doing the upholstery yourself gives you 2 or 3 days of head aches, but it's not worth paying someone $650. Even $100 a seat seems a little high to me when you could do it yourself, but I wouldn't hesitate to suggest paying that if you didn't want to do it.

The back seats are very easy to do, even for a beginner. The front seats are a little more difficult. There's more of an assemble and disassemble involved with those, and they're harder to get right. In my opinion a fair price would be $120 a piece for the buckets, $75 for the back. I could see an experienced person getting the back seats done in under a couple hours' time. The front buckets maybe 4 hours a piece. 10 hours to do the entire car. Just over $30 an hour.

What kind of shop did you take the job to? Was it a shop that typically works on restoring older cars, or was it a shop that typically works on newer cars?

scottybaccus

If you want the stitch work done, that's very reasonable. If you have a repop factory kit, do it yourself.

I am acquainted with several pro interior guys. A bench seat in a old pickup runs that much, including material. It's not nearly as complex. A full interior on a '32 roadster we just had done was in excess of $5k for carpet, upholstered seat, door panels and trunk, not including fabric, carpet or the seat frame. A period custom interior on a '50s sled can run $10k. Stitch work requires TALENT and SKILL. You will get what you pay for and you really won't get what you don't.

Ask to see some examples of their work. Discuss the pattern desired. Take pictures of what you want from magazines or the web. Be specific. A talented upholstery guy can do anything you dream up, including an OE look that is just better than OE.

wrightm

Yeah...I thought it seemed like a LOT! I mean I did the removal and also purchased the repo vinyl and the seat paddings.
It did not really look like something that I could or should do though. I have never done an upholstery job, nor were there any instructions on how to get it done...and I don't know anyone who has done it either....so that seemed like one job that I would just have done. I only estimated it would be $75-$100 per seat.
But these guys have been doing auto upholstery for a long time and supposedly have done loads of the same old mustang re-upholstery.
I would have shopped around more; but two totally separate shops, across town gave the exact same price.
So I suppose that they will be doing excellent jobs on this. They take care of all sorts of high end cars as well in a very wealthy area of town. The other shop on the other hand was in a very low income industrial part of town.
I get it back tomorrow and am excited to at least have it done. Unfortunately I don't know if I would be able to differentiate between a good job and a bad one; as I'm sure both would look very similar to the untrained eye.

200ci66

If they've done it before, then there's no doubt in my mind that it will turn out good. If you're not confident you can do it you're better off paying someone else to do it. But if others are charging $650 to do Mustang seat upholstery, I'm going into business! haha

scottybaccus

Well, there is a tremendous difference between installing factory uphostery that is already stitched and sewn, and doing the job from scratch.

Even the untrained eye can see the difference between a good shop and a great shop.

Here's a good shop, where two seats at $650 is hard to get. (I had a hand in completing this car. It belongs to a pal. He's color blind, so I was charged with interior styling and some paint work.) http://www.classicjaguar.com/32ford.html
One shot of the inside:


Here's a great one where $650 won't get you in the door: http://www.fatluckys.com/
This seat is in another friend's F100, done by Fat Lucky's. (Well over $650)

UBY289

Had my 67 Coupe done for 400 cash and I supplied the kit and it took a week . It turn out great.

wrightm

Well since I bought the repo vinyl replacement covers and seat foam; I'm not sure how much stitching was needed.

Anyways, I went to pick them up and asked him if there was anything special or out of the ordinary that he needed to do to the seats and said that most of the people I talk to said that is a very high rate for this job and that most quoted around $400 at the highest.
I had already agreed upon the price of $650 so I was fine with paying it; but he ended up giving me $50 off.
So that was very nice of him to do and I was much appreciative; but still does not help me think that I was overcharged by quite a bit still.
It seems if there was a lot of handmade custom stitching, that price would be warranted; but as it was repo covers and they just needed to be installed (and the old ones removed -from the already removed seats-) along with the provided padding...still not sure about $600.
But it is done and they look nice. I wouldn't be able to tell much difference though.
So now to install and finish up the interior!

wrightm

When I got the seats home I also noticed a little mistake in the installation. It looks like they tried to clean it up and it is on the underside and not noticeable installed; so I'm not going to make a big deal. But when professionally installed, I would expect that the installation would be perfect.

But then again, when installing anything there is always a bit of error that is usually allowed as long as it is out of sight...but was just a little disappointed after paying such a premium. It was prob just an adjustment made to stretch the vinyl properly.
But other than that they look fantastic.

www.iisource.net/temp/stangweb/IMG_9158.jpg

scottybaccus

Well, that sucks. If you provided a pre sewn kit, that was high.

That looks like a cig burn. I'd be asking for a replacement on that seat cover.