Seat restoration

Started the seat restoration on April 20, 2008 - or there abouts. It started to get a little warmer so it's a great time for reupholstering.

First the beginning pictures of the buckets and the teardown. The seats are in very good shape for being as old as they are - even though they look pretty worn out, the cushions are not too bad. They do have that 'wonderful' musty / moldy smell though...

Start of the tear down... carefully removing the lower side and back panels, then cutting off the attaching hog rings (noting where the seats were attached along the way) and pulling back the old seat covers.

One set of lower side and rear panel removed. In great shape, we'll get the paint off using "Easy Off" oven cleaner then repaint them later. The fake chrome trim is another story - althought it came off in one piece it was very bittle and was tossed since I can easily order new seat chrome.

After the tear down was complete - I was left with a very clean, minimally rusty bucket seat frame. Frame are in GREAT shape and no broken springs to repair.

Starting the build up of the bucket seats with a double layer of burlap. Now add the new seat foam. Turn the cover inside out and attach the inner listing wire seam through the slots in the seat foam and attach to the seat springs. Just loosely get them in place so they can be move around a bit and adjusted.

Place the seat in the sun for about 10-15 minutes, it'll make the upholstery much more pliable. I add a small strip of heavy plastic (like the kind you put down for landscaping) which helps slip the cover over the foam when you pull the cover over the front and sides.

Here's the recovered seats, almost complete. I still need to adjust them here and there, let them sit in the sun for a little while and work out the remaining wrinkles, then completely hog ring them in. Then they'll be ready to re-install.

I also cleaned up the lower side and back panels. They are made of metal and can be cleaned up with "Easy Off" oven spray. Spray off the panels first, then set them in the sun and spray the "Easy Off" on them. Wait about 15 minutes and spray off - repeat until the paint is removed. You can use a small wire brush to help this along. BTW: Use a respirator and eye and hand protection when spraying "Easy Off" - especially outside where the wind can change direction.

I used SEM paint products to match the two-tone fawn of the seat covers...

Had some quality weekend time to get started on the rear seats.  They had already been stripped previously, with the buckets seats above, and I continued from there

With the seats stripped, I started building them back up with burlap over the springs, then added the foam padding and started attaching the seat covers.  Back seats are much easier than any front or buckets seats that I've done - the reason is they are open and exposed on more areas that the front seats are.  This allows easier access to those areas.

Start ringing the seat cover down, then let it sit in the sun for a bit before ringing it completely.  The black garbage bags allow the cover to slip over the foam padding.  Once in place the bag can be removed and hog ringing can resume. Complete the hog-ringing and it's completed...  Well, the bottom rear seat is done - looking good as new.

Issues with the upper back seat of the 66 Chevelle....

Issue # 1). See the pictures below...  The rear seat doesn't seem to have the tabs to fit into the rear seat/trunk divider.  The picts have a "yellow" circle where I think the attaching tab should be. Normally, the seat back frame slides over some hooks to keep it in place - I'm definately missing something here...

 Thanks to some responses from my buddies at www.chevelles.com/forums - I found that the back seat hooks had been ground off (LOVELY......)  See the picture below (red circles) where they were.  Now I need to pict up some replacements or fab something up to hold the rear backseat in place...

Thanks to the help of the guys on www.chevelles.com, I was able to fab a few rear seat hooks based on the pictures they posted.  Here they are...  I made 4 of them (just in case I messed up on one) I used the cardboard pattern in the picture to the right - one is still flat and the other is bent. The 4 on the left (actually 3 of them) are ready to get welded in place.

Issue #2). See the upper rear seat cover.  I've tried to get this on both ways, which is supposed to be TOP and which is supposed to be BOTTOM???