Seats

[pwDave]

Mama says its time to cover the seats, I have a set of buckets from a 1965 dodge window van, light weights, they still have the oridginal covering of light blue and a light blue plaid in the middle, all the padding is excellent, no holes in the coverings anywhere, is there anyone out there that does covers for these seats at a reasonable cost? maybe in black? or something besides blue. pwDave. PS she is finally on board and told me to get all the shocks and tires today, COOL!!

 

[PurpleBeeper]

You'll probably have trouble finding reproduction seat covers for a non-muscle car. I suggest you try upholstery/convertible top shops in your area OR someone that re-upholsters furniture (you may have to find the fabric for them). Worth a try anyway. It was very common in the '70's to put in 3" diamond tuck or other types of modified interiors in cars for the "custom" or "low-rider" crowd.

 

[mr. b]

check legendary auto interiors they have A100 seat covers

 

[Bruzilla]

Here's the deal with seats. You can pretty much stick any seat that will physically fit into any car. All you need to do is adapt the seat tracks, and this can be done by cutting off the old studs and welding on bolts of the same size as the studs in locations that meet up with the floor holes of the car.

Also, pretty much all Mopar car bucket seats from 1970-1980 used the same frame, and the only real differences are in the seat foam and overs. For example, if you have a 70 car and don't want to pay $$$ for a set of rebuildable 70 seats, you can spend $ on a pair of 78 seats and put 70 foam and covers on them and voila!

If you use seats that require an upholstery shop to make covers, expect to spend $1,000+ for them. I suggest finding a set of raggedy 76-80 F body seats and putting your favorite 70-74 covers on them. That's cost you way less than half if you recover them yourself, and that's dang easy to do.

 

[pwDave]

Bru, thanks man, that is valuble info and will help to open other doors. Dave.

 

[Billccm]

I think you should try to research upholstery shops first. Some shops can make patterns from your old seats and yes, the cost could be high, but it might be lower than you think. Really good upholstery shops might even repair whats really bad and leave the rest for a very low price. Slightly off topic; a coworker with an old 911 wanted to get the front buckets recovered and new foam. Three upholstery shops quoted $1800 to $2000 (leather seating surface with vinyl everywhere else). I sent the guy to my 'mom and pop' upholstery shop and both seats, with 100% leather, and foam build up was $1000.

After researching many shops in my area (to convert my 2012 Mustang to leather); I discovered there are three types of upholstery shops:
1) Recover only guys: they buy covers and swap. Nothing else. There is not a sewing machine in sight. Ironically, they had the highest price.
2) Super duper premium guys: they buy the finest hides on the planet, do quality work, and for what you get the price is reasonable.
3) Mom and Pop: they do anything you want in the price range you want to pay. They make repairs, foam build up, custom stuff, and have at least two sewing machines humming 10 hours a day. These guys were the most reasonable priced.

 

[pwDave]

I think you should try to research upholstery shops first. Some shops can make patterns from your old seats and yes, the cost could be high, but it might be lower than you think. Really good upholstery shops might even repair whats really bad and leave the rest for a very low price. Slightly off topic; a coworker with an old 911 wanted to get the front buckets recovered and new foam. Three upholstery shops quoted $1800 to $2000 (leather seating surface with vinyl everywhere else). I sent the guy to my 'mom and pop' upholstery shop and both seats, with 100% leather, and foam build up was $1000.

After researching many shops in my area (to convert my 2012 Mustang to leather); I discovered there are three types of upholstery shops:
1) Recover only guys: they buy covers and swap. Nothing else. There is not a sewing machine in sight. Ironically, they had the highest price.
2) Super duper premium guys: they buy the finest hides on the planet, do quality work, and for what you get the price is reasonable.
3) Mom and Pop: they do anything you want in the price range you want to pay. They make repairs, foam build up, custom stuff, and have at least two sewing machines humming 10 hours a day. These guys were the most reasonable priced.

Bill, it would seem you have a handle on whats going on, my seats out of a 65 a100 van have no holes worn thru anywhere, the padding in the seat seems to be still good, firm and all, I am looking local for someone to build a new set. I found the matieral in a pizza shop being used as table clothes, is a very nice black tooled leather pattern, and the good part is, I can get it at hobby lobby!! now for someone that can sew! Dave.