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Doing it myself seat rebuild

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Old Feb 14, 2010 | 03:43 AM
  #1  
jc67's Avatar
jc67
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Default Doing it myself seat rebuild

I just rebuilt one of the bucket seats in my 67 coupe. Thought I would share the results of a few hours and some pretty sore fingers. One of the members of this forum was kind enough to share a few of his secrets. Though the reupholstery of this seat may not be completely professional, and there may be a few faults, and it was my first attempt, it turned out pretty good. Here are some pics. Please be easy with the critiques.
John





Last edited by jc67; Feb 14, 2010 at 03:49 AM. Reason: new photo link
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 04:07 AM
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I'm not sure what you're worried about. Looks to me like you did a fantastic job! Congrats!
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 06:34 AM
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Looks good to me.
Did you restore and repaint the seat frames as well?

Lynn
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 11:02 AM
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Looks absolutely perfect to me. Nice job man!
Are those headrests some sort of option that can be added to regular seats? I'd love to have those.
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 12:39 PM
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i did in fact recover my own seats out of my 66. once i got them complete, i drove to an upholstery shop to have them redone. it was not my forte.

I really took my time and found it to be a major PITA! it only cost me $150 to have them both redone by a pro. money well spent
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 02:24 PM
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Looks great, there's nothing like doing it yourself. I redid my high back seats (and rears) and while they may not be perfect I can say I did it myself, and I was only 17 at the time. You did a fantastic job and I like the headrest added on, it looks good and will give you some good safety and comfort.
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 03:36 PM
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72fastback
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Nice job I'm planning on redoing my seats in my 72 you give me hope that i might be able to do it myself
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 04:33 PM
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Thanks for all of the nice comments. When I was about 3/4 the way thru with the seat back I thought this is not going well and was about to give up, but I left it alone for an hour and went back at it, and when it was done I thought, "It was a pita, took about 4 hrs., and my fingers were sore as hell, but it turned out pretty good." The pros do it all the time and know all of the tricks. I am so thankful that one of our forum members PM'd me and gave me his phone # and when I called he spent about 15 minutes during a workday and gave me some really good pointers. That is who I owe any success too. You have to get thru the first one, then the second one is easier(still pita). But I'll bet the next seat will be even easier. I don't know if the sport seat (with the nicely contoured headrest) was an option in 67 but there is an aftermarket kit though a bit expensive(~$240) and yet very easy to convert too is available at all of the Mustang stores. I thought about doing a "how to thread" and sharing some of the difficulties and success, with photos. Is there an interest?
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 04:42 PM
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LynnBob, I did sandblast the frames, weld 2 broken springs, etch primed, and painted them gloss black. I wanted to cleanup the mechanism but I am not sure how to do that and come up with a good end result. If I use a solvent to get into all of the nooks and crannies to get the 40 year old gease and dirt out then I will ruin the paint. I may just spend the $100 or so on a new slider mech.. I worry that the repro mechanism won't be as good of quality as the original is. Anybody have experience with this?
Old Feb 14, 2010 | 04:57 PM
  #10  
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You did a nice job! Congrats and the sore fingers will go away but not the pride when you get to say "Yeah I did 'em myself".

I see you bought good hog ring pliers. Can you imagine trying to use the ones they ship with the covers?



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