I've got new seat covers for my 67 convertible, bench seat, and thinking about attempting to recover them myself, as well as replace the carpet myself to save some money. Anybody else do this? I was thinking of buying the plyers and hog rings and making a go of it.

This is a pretty easy task. Lay the new covers out in the sun to get them warm and the wrikles out. Remove the old covers by cutting the hog rings and lay them aside for future reference. You will need to remove the listing wires from the old covers and slide them into flaps in the new covers. Turn the new cover inside out and place on the seat to find center. Then go at it.

See the thread at the top of the page on seat covers. A lot of great info.

piece of cake.never did it befor and did front and rear in 1/2 day.like said above pic a sunny day and let the covers cook for awhile.take your time and you will be happy with the results
eric:beers:

Hmm, I may just tackle this myself also, ran out of money to have the upholstery guy put the foam and covers on.

Id be interested in seeing some results, hesitant to do this myself.

same here. if there was a set by step pictured instruction post on here, i would do my own...

It's relatively self explanatory. Do one seat at a time, have the other seat nearby to reference or shoot photos if doing a bench seat before removal of old cover. I've done about 10 sets now, and can have the rears done in 1/2 an hour and each bucket in an 1 1/2. Use the sun as your friend as was already mentioned. ANYBODY can do it.

Doing seat covers is really really easy. I used to do it for a living. Its really easy, if its not sunny outside, just use a hairdryer to heat it up some. It makes it alot more stretchy, and easier to install. Dont be afraid of it, its tru that ANYONE can do it. Good luck!

Wheres a good place to get the pliers and rings, is there a pn or specific type(s)?

I read in a few posts in another thread here that the best foam to use is from American Cushion Industries sold at NPD. Any confirmation on that?

Try this company. I received my tools and hogrings in 2 days.
www.diyupholsterysupply.com

Take lots of pictures before you start and during disassembly.

Do not throw away any of the old upholstery until the job is done. You can use the old stuff to learn where the folds go and where the hog rings go. The original seats wil have a wire placed in the edges of the seat bottom upholstery to spread the load of the hog rings; re-use it if you can. Get the known brands of upholstery ,like PUI and Distinctive. Some of the ebay sellers have some stuff that will not get the job done--I have used all of the above. I got my hog ring stuff from Year One, but there must be many other places.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will make a go of it. I will probably save myself about $600 by recovering the seats and carpet myself. My seats are in suprisingly good shape, so I don't think I will need to replace the foam underneath. I wouldn't think it would be too hard, I'm not that concerned with show quality, but I want it to look good.

http://www.mrstitch.com/MalibuSScars.htm

I was going to try to do it myself and in the end I was glad I decided to let a pro do it. I used PUI covers and after the rear back was installed and left to sit in the sun the seems popped. PUI was good about sending me another set. I bought foams from Ausley's. The first 2 sets did not fit. The third time was the charm. Ausley's was really good about getting me the right set. Some of the springs where broken and required welding.

If you are in the San Francisco area I highly recomend Mr. Stitch!

I've recovered seats before, and they turned out OK. But i agree that some things are better off left to the pro's. That $400 or less you'll spend in having them done by a pro is well worth it to me for a mint, crisp professionally done installation.

the thing to remember is, these seat covers are mass produced, and small flaws in proper fitting that a pro can work around, could make you spend hours of frustration that may very well end up with a damaged seat cover.

My appolsterer said my covers were so tricky, he ended up using cotton balls for the final fit, and said he had to redo them several times before he got them right.

You have to put a lot of faith in the covers being perfect enough for an amatuer to do them and make them come out right.

I leave seat covers, and headliners for the pros as marginal results just aren't good enough.

A marginal seat cover installation with improper fit will cost you more than $400 in devaluation of the car.

I just bought all new interior from Legendary Auto Interior and also seen this nice guide to installing it yourself. Pretty detailed w/ pics.

https://www.legendaryautointeriors.com/webmodules/pages/Detail.aspx?PageID=9

It's a "pride of doing it yourself" thing and learning something along the way in my opinion.

If someone asks you where you got that done, it's ALWAYS nicer to be able to say "I did it myself!" Isn't that the point of having these cars ?

I have done this a few times myself. Three hints - go to a upholstery shop and buy a bag of hog rings from him. He will charge you maybe $5 - 10 for a hundred or so as opposed to the 25 for $10 from the "Chevelle" places. Go to Harbor Frieght and get two hog ring pliers - one straight and one angled and have your wife/girlfriend sit on the seat when you try to fasten the hog rings.

At Thanksgiving your family will love you because you will be able to open pistashios and walnuts with your fingers ! (you'll get this later !)

Tom has it right - It is not so much about saving money as learning and improving your old car skill set.
I put mine on after research on the web and used my digital camera to take pics along the way as I took the original rings off. There are at least on bucket seats, a sewn-in "fin" that is pulled back toward the back of the seat frame thru slots in the foam. It creates the depth of the seat by rolling the center seams in. I found that using long 'baling wire' cut into long U shaped pieces and run thru the wire form on the 'fin' made it easy to put the cover in place then pull the 'fins' back toward the frame to pull the seat-cover into shape.
I'm still amazed at the incredible amount of work that is involved in making a seat. They are amazing - complex, yet durable they must have cost quite a bit to make considering all the hand labor.
When you are done, you will feel quite proud of your new ability and it will really make a difference to your "office"
GO for IT!!

Dan
PS - I bought Legendary seatcovers and door panels for mine - top quality and very sharp looking.
see my blog here on T/C for the results.

Hi guys, I am kinda new, but thought some of you may like a post I put up on my home turf of TransAmCountry.com I love Chevelles, and am even trying to aquire one, but my specialty is Trans Ams. Here is a link to a pic and step by step seat cover install.. the subject is a Cuda and I referr to the F bodys but the basic install is the same. http://transamcountry.com/community/index.php?topic=1441.0

Hi guys, I am kinda new, but thought some of you may like a post I put up on my home turf of TransAmCountry.com I love Chevelles, and am even trying to aquire one, but my specialty is Trans Ams. Here is a link to a pic and step by step seat cover install.. the subject is a Cuda and I referr to the F bodys but the basic install is the same. http://transamcountry.com/community/index.php?topic=1441.0

Thanks Michael. :thumbsup: