seats refurb

[James467]

Another club member (James) is looking into sourcing a fabric that was as close a match as could be got, not sure how far down that route he is. I've looked myself and there is polyester cord material out there, such as this from Yorkshire Fabric Shop, but I'm only looking on screen and that might be too chunky, the pencil thin version might be better. No idea what the seat material looked like brand spanking new, so hard to judge against the 45 year old 'sun kissed' stuff in my car!

Yes, I have samples of this in all colours and it is near perfect to the original 5 wale design. Colour is correct as well, I am waiting for some to arrive before doing my seats and publicising.
It's not cheap!

[new to this]

I'm planning on using some of my newly found 'free time' to refurbish the front seats.

The original plan was just to replace the torn diaphragm on the driver's seat, fix any split piping and generally give them a clean but looking at the wear on the drivers seat I think I might need to do more to get them working and looking good.

I've managed to get my hands on a spare set of front seats that are better than my originals but the driver's one also has the diaphragm missing...

Getting a diaphragm on whilst the seat is fully built isn't easy (understatement ! ) so I was thinking of what else I could do to make it easier, for example removing the cushion cover to gain access from above. Then I though maybe I'd remove the old cover and fit the cover from the 'new' seat.

As both my passenger seats are better than both my drivers seats I was wondering, rather than swapping the covers is there any way of converting a passenger seat into a drivers seat? Looking at the parts list diagrams it looks as if both the cushion- and the squab- frames are handed so I guessing that it's not likely to work.

Does anybody have useful experience of rebuilding front seats and can point me in the right direction please?

When ive recovered seats before i fit the cover and then do the diaphragm from below

[GTiJohn]

As with most things, there's obviously a knack to it and after a few hours pushing and pulling, then stopping to think and actually look at a built-up seat, I worked out where I was going wrong.

It took me about 15 mins in the end with just a couple of the side clips proving awkward.

Even cleaning the nylon seat facings is paying off

[JPSPRINT]

Whilst my seats look great, I hope an accurate material does become available, we'd see more beautiful interiors!

[tonybsa]

I also need to refurb my drivers front seat.The seat base foam is desintergrating. Would anybody have a decent seat base foam,or a seat I can canabalize-obviously not a mint seat,would be a waste.Would buy a new one if Cliff the trimmer has sorted some?

[Manta]

I have recently had my Bri-Nilon replaced with Alcantara suede by a company in Baldock, Hertfordshire (A & R Pound)
they did a great job at a resonable price, similar colour, and with the original stitching patern.