Aftermarket seat covers

[rapieper@yahoo.com (Ron Pieper)]

--- Sciroccin <Sciroccin@softhome.net> wrote:
> Yes, absolutely.  This was the route I was looking at going until I
> got the
> estimate.  What kind of price would I be looking at?  Would I have to
> do
> both seats to match, or can they match up a clean factory seat?  Any
> and all
> info, and/or pics you have would be appreciated.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -=Rick

Rick:

First, I'm going ahead and posting your reply along with mine to the
list - it may help somebody.

<http://www.vwupholstery.com/frquality.html> is the link to the
manufacturer, <http://www.jbugs.com/> is the link to the best-priced
supplier I found.

I used their front and rear seat upholstery, and their door panels, on
my '93 Cabby.  

The TMI site tells you that they're superior to OEM...well, AFA what I
pulled from my Cabby, they're stretching it a bit.  Dunno whether the
Cabbies had heartier upholstery to make it more reliable to exposure,
but those Cabby seat covers were THICK and well done.  Thicker than the
replacement stuff, anyway.  FWIW, I used 100% vinyl, but they do offer
tweed fabric as well.

The instructions are mediocre, the cutting and sewing are excellent,
but be aware that on my Cabby, the corresponding sewn seams on the OEM
stuff were merely heat-welded on the TMI stuff, giving a cheaper
appearance.

Fit was OK, maybe better actually...in several places I had to layer
some padding on top of the factory buns, otherwise the upholstery would
have been loose (maybe the buns were worn and smooshed down a bit).  If
you do this, get thin matting from your local fabric shop and layer it
up to what you need.  If you use thick matting, the edges will be
apparent though the finished seat.

You'll have to take every last wire and support from your old seats and
transfer them to the new upholstery.  Not that bad, just an opportunity
to straighten them.  Instead of hog rings, I used top-grade tie-wraps
and thought it was a good move (still do, none have broken).  

You'll have to do a little cutting to fit headrest and seatback release
levers through, but no biggie.  (BTW, try to skip pulling the inserts
that hold the headrest legs.  Just pull the old upholstery off around
them, and make a hole in the new and work it around them again. 
Getting those thinks out will filet your hands and break the inserts.

Toughest part was stretching the seatback upholstery down over the row
of shark's teeth, which you bend over after you poke it through the
edge of the upholstery.  Tilt your seatback forward and look at the
bottom of the seatback (the part that touches the seat bottom, where
the front and rear upholstery meet).  The sheetmetal shark teeth that
you need to bend up to remove the old upholstery will take a few
opportunites to extract little pie-shaped wedges from your hands.

Where the factory upholstery used a wire around the seat bottom, TMI
uses a lousy piece of string.  Try to use it to fish some wire through.

Results:  pretty good, actually.  Using additional matting definitely
helped.  Tip:  some will tell you to use a hair dryer to warm and
stretch the vinyl, making it easier to slide on.  Screw that.  Use your
space heater (like mine, the torpedo kind).  Gets that beetch warm
right NOW, and you regulate your heat by moving to/from it.  Works a
charm (it's a variation on my
gas-grill-as-an-essential-tranny-rebuild-tool theme).  

Now what needs to be covered is whether they have a suitable fabric,
and if they mix vinyl and fabric (I don't know).  They do have velour,
you should weigh that against resale value and target market.

Soooo...conclusion:  do it, or don't?  I'd say go for it, it's not that
bad with the caveats as mentioned above.  It's not a waste of money,
but show-quality stuff would probably better than this.  It certainly
won't embarrass you, if you do a good job.

An alternative for a worn driver's seat is to use good upholstery and
buns from the passenger seat of matching set.  I managed this activity
at Daun's last year, and except for the hole on the inboard side where
the release lever isn't, it looks great.  

~$400 (maybe a little more) got me front and rear seats, headrest
covers, and all four door panels.

Note I'm not covering door panels unless requested.

HTH, 

=====
Cheapass Ron
"Victor" '87 16V Scirocco
"Teufelhasen" '93 Cabby <-For sale

If it ain't foggy, TURN OFF YOUR FOG LIGHTS.

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