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Spitfire Re-covering Spitfire seats

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Jerseygirl

Jerseygirl

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Well, what was a tiny little wear patch on my passenger seat when I bought my Spit last month, has now turned into a huge hole. The foam under the fabric is disintegrating as well. And this is after getting in and out of that seat only a few times while working on my stereo. Looks like I'm going to be dealing with this now rather than later, as I had hoped. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I know most of the usual suspects carry reproductions of the original beige/houndstooth seats that I've got, as well as the foam. My question is, having never done any kind of automotive reupholstering before, is this a DIY type of project?

I know the new seat covers will be a tight fit, but is it just a matter of having the patience to fit them over the new foam or is there more to it than that? Any special tools needed?

Thanks in advance.
 
Paul Tegler has a pretty good article about recovering his Spitfire seats on his excellent website (www.teglerizer.com). I would suggest having a look at that. I also have a couple of documents (from TRF and Victoria British, I think) showing interior installation - I think they deal with TR6 seats, but I would imagine they are fairly similar. I'd be happy to e-mail them to you if that would help, or I think the VB one is free if you call and ask for it.

Hope that helps
Alistair
 
For the cost of buying all the kits and doing it yourself, you could likely buy aftermarket seats from Corbeau or Cobra and have new seats. That's what I've been considering, but just can't pull the trigger.

Also a good upholstery shop may can do it cheaper from scratch, but I'm not confident you will find one in Jersey. I friend on mine had an old Pontiac Sunbird that needed new seats. The shop he took it to wanted a goodly amount to do the work, which included carpets too, but one of the workers told him he would do it on the side for less. The work looked good, but not something you would put in a Spitfire.
 
Thanks. I've gotten a couple emails suggesting that an upholstery shop might actually be able to do the seats for the same or only slightly more than the cost of buying all the parts myself. Given the labor rates in Jersey I find that hard to believe but it's worth looking into before I make my final decision. We shall see.
 
Robyn;

Reupholstrying the seats is very much a DYI job. I did my Spitfire's seats last spring; easy job. It took a couple of days only because I painted the frames. I bit the bullet and bought the foam and black houndstooth upholstry. I couldn't get foam and covers made cheaper locally. I have a How-To booklet from Vitoria British. I can copy sections of it and send it to you if you like.
 
I'm thinking I'm going to be in a similar situation. I highly doubt with the labor rates around here that I'll be able to find an upholsterer to do the job for close to the cost of materials if I do it myself. But I am at least going to look into it.

How is the quality of the houndstooth fabric? Does it appear to be more durable than the original or is it basically the same fabric as the OEM seats?
 
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