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Do I do it myself?

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Whitephrog

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Or let the upholstery guys do it? Got my new BE seat covers. New foam in on the way. I'll strip off the old covers and padding and give the seat frame, pan and back a good cleaning and fresh coat of paint. Should I do the installation of the seat covers myself or have the upholstery guys do it? Pros and Cons?
 
I say DIY -

you have the skill
then you can say, "I did it"

somewhere, someone said use drycleaning bags to slide the upholstery over the foam
 
Ray,

Be sure and order new webbing for the seat bottom. Really makes a difference in seat fit and comfort. Usually cheap to replace. The Lindsay Porter? name escapes me, on Spridget Restoration has a pretty good section on seat recovering and repair if I recall. And somewhere I seem to recall a video on BE Seat reupholstery. I had the covers off on Bugsy's 70+ era seats several times, not hard to do just make sure temps are warms.
 
Go for it, Ray - not a difficult task, and the "I did it myself" factor is priceless!

And, yep, the plastic bag trick is critical.

Mickey
 
Do you pull the plastic bag out afterward or leave it in?
 
RickB said:
Do you pull the plastic bag out afterward or leave it in?
Click to expand...

I don't think it really matters. The bags in my TR8's seats are there, and you can't notice them.

Cocomats.jpg
 
RickB said:
Do you pull the plastic bag out afterward or leave it in?
Click to expand...

I'd leave them then spills don't soak in - though I suppose breath-ability might matter
 
You only need them over the seat backs. Bottoms are not an issue.

Unless...

...never mind! :devilgrin:
 
Hmmm. Ya let me down Bro. An' here I thought you'd have said: "well, it depends..."
 
Not at all, Bro - jes' leavin' an openin' fer ya!
 
All kidding aside (yesh, right...)

So we are talking about the later seats backs being difficult right - I can't see early seat backs being difficult unless there's something I don't know about yet... (what are the chances?)
 
The difficult part is slipping the pre-stitched covers over the backs of the seats. The covers are meant to fit very snugly to the foam/frame, and as the later ones tend to be curved more than earlier, they probably are a bit harder to maneuver. The thin plastic bags (as in the ones from dry cleaners) make the job much easier.
 
DIY, It's not too hard. Good suggestions above.
 
I removed the old seat covers, padding and foam from one seat last night. Now I know where all that horse hair padding goes. I've had a set of NOS padding for some time. Just couldn't picture where each piece went. It's also very clear now where the padding adhesive was placed and where it wasn't.

https://tinyurl.com/ctt65g

No real surprises with the seat metal pieces. The frame and the back were both pristine. The seat bottom had a little heavier rust than I had hoped for but nothing that's a problem.
 
sounds great - your link doesn't work though
 
I recognize the two bottom pieces, but what are all the rest for?
 
The two larger lighter colored pieces go on the back of the seat back. The next two wrap both sides of the small curved area of the seat back where the back connects to the frame. The last two wrap around the front and sides of the seat base.
 
Are all of those new pieces you got with your recovering kit or what? I haven't taken my stuff out of the plastic bags yet but I don't think I have all that stuff. I definitely have all the "squab" stuff for the backs but "horsehair"???
 
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