upholster a seat

I have read all the articles on the web that I could find about upholstery. They always seem to take the seat to an accomplished upholstery shop and then take pics as they do the work. This is great, but some of the little tricks they know are lost in translation since they do it on a daily basis and don't remember the rest of us don't know these things. One article I found had a professional using steam to help manipulate the vinyl. I am sure that works great but this is supposed to be a DIY project and who has a steam setup? So here is a step by step from a non-professional who learned by trial and error. Hopefully this shows a few things that the other articles have missed and it helps encourage to give it a try yourself.

Step 1: Get the seats out of the car with 4 nuts from the underside of the car that hold the seat tracks in place. Once the seat is out slide the seat track in order to reveal the 4 philips screws holding the track to the frame. Most likely the tracks need a little work to make them work smooth again which I will address in a seperate article.




Step2: Take off all the trim, vinyl, and foam. Everything is held together with hog rings and with some persuasion with pliers it can all be removed. Be patient, it takes a while to get it all off. Dont get overexcited and break something that you might need later. Once it is cleaned up inspect it to make sure the frame and springs are not damaged.




Step 3: In my case the frame and springs were solid. This is the seat back so it has the lever to fold the seat forward for rear access. This was not working and I could not fold the seat forward. I traced the problem to the link rod that had fallen out. Simply slipping this back into place and putting a collar onto it had everything back into working order. I used a wheel collar which is commonly found at hobby shops. I put a red circle around the link rod that had fallen out of place for clarity.




Here is the vinyl that i am using as seen from the backside. I am using the sport seat foam and vinyl from TMI which I have found to be of excellent quality. They don't seem to stock anything and make everything to order. So plan ahead and order it weeks before you really need it. You can see the pocket for the listing wire. The listing wire is a coat hanger style wire that slips into pockets in the vinyl to help hold it in place. It will become more clear as we move along. In my case I re-used the wire from the original seat cover, but a coat hanger would work just as well if you mangled the original.





Above is a picture of the tools of the trade. The hog ring pliers and a couple hog rings. Hog rings are just a loop of hard wire and the pliers help to bend it into shape once they are in place.

Step 4: The foam has a wire in it that matches the shape of the listing wire in the vinyl. Before you start stretching the vinyl you need to use hog rings to connect the listing wire section to the wire in the foam. This helps to give a defined shape to the cushion so don't skip this step! You can see I have pulled back the vinyl so I can see the listing wire and run the hog ring through the wire in the foam and the listing wire. Once you have all of the hog rings in place you are ready to start streeeetching vinyl. It takes about 10 rings total.

Step 5: Your vinyl should now be firmly attached to the foam. Take this and place it squarely over the frame. It is CRITICAL that you get it and keep it square in relation to the frame. Start at the top corners and stretch the vinyl over. Once you do this you likely got the foam out of place in relation to the frame. Spend the time to get this squared back up or it will look lopsided when you are done. For me this is always one of the hardest parts and takes a lot of muscle to get it back into place. A lot of pulling and slapping the vinyl are the best ways to get this done.

Step 6: Time to start pulling the vinyl into place and getting putting on some hog rings on. Its important that you don't just start pulling the vinyl till its tight and secure it in place. This is sure to give a tight looking seat but it will be all out of alignment. Ask me how I know this......Check all around the seat and make sure the piping and seams are all even. If not get it straight before you start putting on hog rings. I start at the top middle and pull this good and tight. then fold over the edge about 1/2" and put the hog rig through both layers. If don't fold it over your likely to just pull through when you stretch it.

Shows the vinyl being folded over so you have more meat to stretch it.

Step 7: After the top is secured I move to the bottom and get that stretched. All the while making sure the seams are staying even. Then move on to the sides. If at any point you dont like what you see just remove some hog rings and reposition things.

Here is the finished driver side back. I am happy with the results and you can see how much thicker the side bolsters are than original. That is what I really love about these TMI sport seats. They look original and use the factory frame but give a LOT more support than the original. I have been very happy with the product and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone.