Installing New Sport Seat Skins! - E30

[Blackice]

Well after months of searching, I found a pair of sport seats in nice shape.

Over the next few months the seats were taken apart, Patterns were made and after a few practices runs the overall plan was set in motion. I can tell you, there are more fabric options then there is sand on the beach. Some factory, and some full on low rider. From tiger print, to some very impressive Mustang leather that was pressed with the mustang logo. Many leather feel products, as well cow it’s self. It sure was impressive to see all the options side by side. How many shades of Grey can there be? I am not sure but there are allot.

For me the selection was some what simplified by the fact that this car is a Daily driver and the rest of the indoor was done in black vinyl, add to this, the fact that this would be my first car interior, so I wanted to keep the costs in check.

The skins are mostly held on with hog rings and hooks, there are also 4 steel rods and a few staples. Plus 2 screws that hold on the back of the seat. It only takes about 1 hr to get the seats striped down to the frames. I will admit, removing the back from the bottom was a bit of a head scratcher. Broken down to its frame, the seats are very basic.

The Assembly of the seats back in to one piece was time consuming, pulling and tweaking. but that is what it takes to get everything in the right place and secure. Well, here they are ! Go easy on me, this is my first seat

[kowalski]

wow, nice work.

[Mr. Red]

wow! that looks really really good. How much time did you put in in total, and what were the costs like overall? are you doing both seats?

[carter]

Perforated leather makes a ton of sense. Great job!

[Initial D.oug]

Cool, did you sew the pieces yourself? I did the knee bolster, seat pad and seat back in Vinyl for my e21. Vary labour intensive. Looks good!

[Spencer]

Well done. That seat looks great.

[Blackice]

Thanks for the kind words, The plan is to do the whole interior. I have already made the skins for the passenger seat here are some of the bits.


The skins were cut and made at my sail loft. All of the sewing done by one of staff, His name is Bruno, Without his sewing skills this project would have looked much different.
Here is a close up of one of the seats

[Blackice]

How many hours ? Well that one is a bit hard to say. There was a lot of time spent on the bolsters. The shape the stitch pattern, how to make them look smooth. I think we made 4 or 5 sets of bolsters before we were really happy with everything. After the details were ironed out I would guess that the skins took about 10-12 hrs to make.

Then the job of getting them back on the frames and putting the seats back together. I would guess that took about 6 hrs. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to do the next seat. The nice part of this project is that we now have patterns for the sport seat and comfort seat, as well the rear seats for both the coupe and sedan.

Material cost are all over the board, and there are many options.
The Vinyls in the 15-20 dollars per yard and the leather feel is about 75 -100 / yard. OEM in the 75 - 150 / yard and the Leather I think was 500 a hide. There is not a lot of material in the seats. I think there is about 1.5 yards of material if you do all the pieces from the same material. But I wanted the perforated middle section to match my rear seats.

[Blackice]

Originally Posted by Blackice How many hours ? Well that one is a bit hard to say. There was a lot of time spent on the bolsters. The shape the stitch pattern, how to make them look smooth. I think we made 4 or 5 sets of bolsters before we were really happy with everything. After the details were ironed out I would guess that the skins took about 10-12 hrs to make. Then the job of getting them back on the frames and putting the seats back togther. I would guess that took about 6 hrs. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to do the next seat. The nice part of this project is that we now have patterns for the sport seat and comfort seat, as well the rear seats for both the coupe and sedan. Material cost are all over the board, and there are many options. The Vinynals in the 15-20 dollars per yard and the leather feel is about 75 -100 / yard. OEM in the 75 - 150 / yard and the Leather I think was 500 a hide. There is not a lot of material in the seats. I think there is about 1.5 yards of materail if you do all the peices from the same materail. But I wanted the perferated middle section to match my rear seats.

I did n't want to send that yet. No Edit ....... GRRRRRRRR

[CrazyCanuck]

Originally Posted by Blackice Material cost are all over the board, and there are many options. The Vinynals in the 15-20 dollars per yard and the leather feel is about 75 -100 / yard. OEM in the 75 - 150 / yard and the Leather I think was 500 a hide. There is not a lot of material in the seats. I think there is about 1.5 yards of materail if you do all the peices from the same materail. But I wanted the perferated middle section to match my rear seats.

You forgot the most expensive part, a sewing machine that can sew the material.

[Weeman83]

That's classy!

Does anyone know where I might be able to buy 1 yard (or less) of E30 OEM or OEM replica fabric? My outer bolster on my seat is starting to thin out, not through yet, but it looks inevitable. With the rest of the seat being mint, I would rather just replace only the fabric covering the bolster section to maintain original look. Recovering the whole set would force me to ditch the flannel pattern which I love so much. This is the pattern:

Any expertise comments on the viability of this approach?

Blackice, are your outer bolsters the same pattern as mine? I wouldn't mind paying you for your (probably good) passenger side inner bolster as a replacement for my driver side outer bolster...

[applecran]

They look really great!

[Blackice]

Originally Posted by Weeman83 That's classy! Does anyone know where I might be able to buy 1 yard (or less) of E30 OEM or OEM replica fabric? My outer bolster on my seat is starting to thin out, not through yet, but it looks inevitable. With the rest of the seat being mint, I would rather just replace only the fabric covering the bolster section to maintain original look. Recovering the whole set would force me to ditch the flannel pattern which I love so much. This is the pattern: Any expertise comments on the viability of this approach? Blackice, are your outer bolsters the same pattern as mine? I wouldn't mind paying you for your (probably good) passenger side inner bolster as a replacement for my driver side outer bolster...

Hard to see the colour of your bolsters in the photo, Check out this OEM fabric swatch on Rv3 board http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=104955 Which one is yours ? Let me know and I will see if I can find it for you.

[Weeman83]

Originally Posted by Blackice Hard to see the colour of your bolsters in the photo, Check out this OEM fabric swatch on Rv3 board http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=104955 Which one is yours ? Let me know and I will see if I can find it for you.

Good resource!

I believe I need the plain color half of 1990's 0380 or 0270 Silber...

[Weeman83]

Originally Posted by Weeman83 Good resource! I believe I need the plain color half of 1990's 0380 or 0270 Silber...

Even if I can get a small 1/4 sq. ft. scrap for now, so in the event that it does tear...I can just glue that patch on and run it ghetto-fabulous style until enough of the right cloth comes up for a rewrap job. What do you think?