Interior Make-Over in progress

[mhinchley]

Already changed out stereo, installed shift light, line lock, couple gages, MGW shifter, red door panel inserts, etc. Now onto new seat upholstery from TMI. Have special edition floor mats on the way. Oh yeah, MM 6 point roll bar is going in as well as local track told me they won't boot me from test & tune if I have that (vs full cage which I am not willing to do in a vert). More pics will come as it all comes to fruition. At the same time the rb is going in, I have to do the torque boxes, so probably gonna take 2 weeks or so to finish this up. Hey, I have a job & other crap to do.
(excuse the condition.......just finish a header/pro chamber install & am waiting on seals & dust boots for the front calipers to wrap that up)

The driver seat was worn a bit & I do not do well with suede. Leather is much easier to clean.

 

[jblood37]

What are you doing with the old skins? I'm interested in seeing the mm 6 point installed!

 

[mhinchley]

Ebay to see if anybody wants them. Passenger & rear are in pretty good shape. Driver has the typical wear & the main reason for the swap. If you wanna make an offer before they hit ebay, not a prob. Not looking to break the bank. Probably gonna do the roll bar, & torque boxes right after the seats are done....so coming soon.

 

[SVT_Troy]

Do the wrinkles come out over time or are you still working the covers in?

 

[jblood37]

Do the wrinkles come out over time or are you still working the covers in?

I was hoping to know the answer to this too, but didn't want the op to feel bad about the wrinkles.

 

[MassDSGsvt]

I'm also wondering about the wrinkles. And those 10th seats always look great on red.

 

[mhinchley]

Don't worry about offending me.......lol.....have thick skin. To each their own is the way I live.

The wrinkles usually work themselves out with some seat time and some temperature getting to them. Believe me, attaching them is a mofo especially the backs & you would not want them any tighter. They are stretched tight & will settle into the foam. Did the passenger today:

The seats are not bolted in btw.......just tossed in to keep the dogs from them. Also, the room they are in out of the car, is a bonus room, accessible only from the garage. Not sure what I am going to do with that room yet. I would not be doing this crap in the main house & nor would it be that messy....lol.

These are my fox body seats I did (car before the Cobra):

Here is the Mustang seats I reupholstered and reside in my Ranger FX4 cuz the standard seats sucked & I liked the way the mustang seats came out:

 

[MassDSGsvt]

Wow those fox seats look nice. I'm thinking about getting dark suede seats. Always worried about how they will come out. I know zero about re skinning seats haha

 

[mhinchley]

The fox seats in the car were the first that I ever did. Just need hog ring pliers & hog rings (very cheap) along with wire cutters & some sockets/wrenches. Taking the seats apart is very simple. Pay close attention to how they come apart and put back together the same way. There are plenty of tutorials & write ups online. If it is hot out........makes it much easier if you lay the skins out in the sun for a couple of hours which makes them more pliable & easier to stretch. Sucks cuz it is cold here at the moment and too afraid to lay them in front of my garage furnace, so I just man-handled them. If you do it and hit a snag, just shoot me a pm. Don't be intimidated........it is fairly simple once you tackle it. Just don't get in a hurry and be patient.

 

[weaselp1]

looks good op!

 

[whitedevil95]

Anniversary seats on a red vert FTW!

 

[TMIProducts]

Wow those covers are going to look great in that car - nice choice w/ the Anniversary Red!
And thanks for choosing TMI for ALL THREE of your rides! The fox seats look great!

Couple of question on the bucket you're showing installed in the Cobra above.
1) is it completely installed - or did you just slip it over to see how the colors would look?
2) if it is installed - did you get new foams as well, or are you using the original factory foams?
3) If that is the complete install and not just pulled over - did the listing channels on all sides of the insert get hog ringed down?

My suggestion would be to un-hogring the insert and make sure you're pulling down with a considerable amount of pressure as you start to add those first hog rings around the insert.
This will keep the seat upholstery from bunching up in the area's that are giving you trouble.
Another tip that is a HUGE 'secret' in getting seats to look like the ones i have posted below - is to use a steamer. During the install, and after the install.
The steam will heat the vinyl and cause it to expand, then when the steam dries and the vinyl/leather cools down - the upholstery will "shrink wrap' to the foam.
This trick can also be used on old seats to help them look more like new.
Upholstery steamers with the wands are the best - but not everyone is going to need one of these more than once in their life - so i recommend a regular garment steamer from Walmart or Target.
I picked mine up for $29.99 at target - .... (used it for one install .....annnnnd.... returned it shhh) just a thought.

Here are a few of the Cobra seats we've installed here at TMI - again, using the steam.

Let me know if you have any questions - type them up here or feel free to give me a ring at: 800-624-7960 Ext; 119

 

[mhinchley]

Foam was in good shape, car has under 60k miles. The fox & ranger seat foam each had over 100k miles on them. Here is what I noticed. The factory foam & upholstery has velcro running vertically down the seatback bolster seams BELOW the embroidered cobra horizontal seam. The TMI upholstery does not have the velcro, so it is not laying down in between the bolsters, but sticking up.......causing some wrinkles. I either need to hog ring the 2 vertical seams on each seat, or glue velcro to the upholstery so it seats itself & pulls itself taunt. We have a shark steamer (wife is a manager at BBB).

I am tied up for a few days with the toque box reinforcements. I have a sra & the cheapo control arm bushings are shot. In turn I have ordered QA1 adjustable control arms. In the mean time, I have to weld in the supports & get the 6 point roll bar installed before I move my attention back to the seats.

 

[Tango7]

I do have a question. I purchased the TMI 03 04 cobra seat skins and foam. I had them installed and the the bottoms do not pull in as much as the factory seats do and the door hits the seats. It is like the foam is too wide. Have you had this problem before.

 

[mhinchley]

I have not personally, cuz I never changed the foam. There is a bit of adjustment in the brackets to the seat bottom & the bracket to the floor board. You could make a little more adjustment by opening up the holes on the brackets to push the seats toward the tunnel more & away from the door. In the Ranger, I had to heavily modify the seat brackets to get them to bolt to the fox seats & into the truck properly, including doing some welding. I moved them back further than stock, so I hope a short person never buys it.....lol.

 

[TMIProducts]

I do have a question. I purchased the TMI 03 04 cobra seat skins and foam. I had them installed and the the bottoms do not pull in as much as the factory seats do and the door hits the seats. It is like the foam is too wide. Have you had this problem before.

Hey there - our foams are the same width as factory. However, I had a customer contact me a few months back with this issue - what we found out was the installation shop had pulled way to hard when tacking the upholstery to the bottom of the frame - this caused the foam bolsters to spread out by a considerable amount and then, hit his door panel. With out being there in person , it's hard to pinpoint what could be the issue on your seats - but loosening up the lower section worked for this guy.

To the OP - I just responded to your PM. Check your in box when you have a minute.

Thanks,

Waylon

 

[mhinchley]

DONE. New upholstery, carpet, 6 point swing out roll bar, MGW shifter, stereo system (all pioneer dvd), Raptor Dual Mode shift light, line lock. Did the torque box reinforcements while it was out & installed adjustable control arms & set pinion angle to -2.5%. Full length Mac & Pro Chamber too while it was up in the air. Just came out great. Very, very happy with it. Like a new car inside and amazingly fast. First ride out yesterday for 2014.

 

[Pantera1]

That looks AMAZING, I cannot wait until I can afford to redo my interior

 

[tuscani66]

Looks great!!

 

[JustaGT]

Wow those covers are going to look great in that car - nice choice w/ the Anniversary Red!
And thanks for choosing TMI for ALL THREE of your rides! The fox seats look great!

Couple of question on the bucket you're showing installed in the Cobra above.
1) is it completely installed - or did you just slip it over to see how the colors would look?
2) if it is installed - did you get new foams as well, or are you using the original factory foams?
3) If that is the complete install and not just pulled over - did the listing channels on all sides of the insert get hog ringed down?

My suggestion would be to un-hogring the insert and make sure you're pulling down with a considerable amount of pressure as you start to add those first hog rings around the insert.
This will keep the seat upholstery from bunching up in the area's that are giving you trouble.
Another tip that is a HUGE 'secret' in getting seats to look like the ones i have posted below - is to use a steamer. During the install, and after the install.
The steam will heat the vinyl and cause it to expand, then when the steam dries and the vinyl/leather cools down - the upholstery will "shrink wrap' to the foam.
This trick can also be used on old seats to help them look more like new.
Upholstery steamers with the wands are the best - but not everyone is going to need one of these more than once in their life - so i recommend a regular garment steamer from Walmart or Target.
I picked mine up for $29.99 at target - .... (used it for one install .....annnnnd.... returned it shhh) just a thought.

Here are a few of the Cobra seats we've installed here at TMI - again, using the steam.

Let me know if you have any questions - type them up here or feel free to give me a ring at: 800-624-7960 Ext; 119

Beat me to it