Seat Covers

[BMCGC]

Im going to order seat covers today.

I have saddle leather.

I do not like leather in a convertible. Its way to hot down here, its after mid September and we are still hitting 95-100 degree days.

Im going to go with cloth.

A few questions:

Who makes the best quality, best vendor, are new foams required? Factory foam or does the seatcovers require foams from the same manufacturer? My current foams seem to be in good shape, the covers still fit tight with no wrinkles. The leather has deteriorated due to the sun beyond saving. Im also going from power to manual on the driver seat.

Im sure some of you prefer leather and prefer the power seat, but its my car and Im doing it my way.

 

[BW96Cobra]

I used Leatherseats.com in my 350Z years ago and 2014 GT. In cars the old covers came off (after cutting hog rings) and the new ones slid right on and got hog ringed down. Time consuming, but a pretty easy job. When it comes time to replace another I would go to them again. The smell was worth it alone.

 

[Goose17]

Look at TMI Interiors. I bought a new set of leather skins and door panels for my 89 from them. They do great work.

 

[scottydsntknow]

94-98 you need new foams since the fabric is glued to them and will tear the foam off when you remove them.

I did TMI seat covers in my 98. If I had to do it again I'd probably go look at swapping in some cloth S197 seats even if they don't quite match. Being a 94-98 you have a two-tone interior with black accents so why not try to find some really good black S197 seats and go?

If not, the TMI stuff does work well and an average mechanic can do the install on them. Mine looked factory when I was done, but the TMI foams are a lot firmer than the OEM ones, you will sit up higher in the seat because of this and it is a pretty hard seat compared to what you are used to.

Price it all out before you buy anything, you will very likely spend half of what the TMI seats would cost you on a set of S197 seats and rear seats for SN95 cars are a dime a dozen in mint condition, even from a vert.

Below are the TMI vinyl seat covers plus their new foams. I did not have any prior experience with upholstery before attempting it but I am a mechanic so that probably helped.

 

[BMCGC]

Scotty, those look really nice. I have been keeping an eye out for S197 seats, so far its a no-go.

Ive spent the day finishing up a couple projects that have been 1/2 done for a month. Hope to get the new carpet in tomorrow.

 

[scottydsntknow]

That carpet in the pic is the basic ACC carpet as well lol. It was... just ok. If needed to do new carpet I'd try to find a clean OEM takeout and then just go ham with atomic cleaning products, maybe take it to a laundromat and then put it in a garbage bag full of wal mart fabric dye and shake it up which works well. The ACC carpet didn't quite fit right and a few creases never came out no matter how much I steamed it. But it was close and 99% of ppl would never notice.

 

[BMCGC]

My usual MOD is to pull a JY carpet, hit it with shout and pressure wash it. If the color is off, stuff it in a trash can and use the WM dye with water from the hot water heater. Good as new.

 

[scottydsntknow]

Yep, nothing fits as well as OEM, it's not even close... And you can get a whole used carpet stuffed into a way smaller box to ship than ppl think too... Its just getting over 20+ year old carpet with what's had god knows what spilled/dropped on it in that time period. Kinda like old seats... why I recovered those instead of trying to find SN95 seats. Didn't want some foam that's been farted in for 20 years but thats a little different lol.

 

[BMCGC]

Lots of low mileage cars in the JY that were wrecked, see them all the time. Saw an 03 V6 vert with a smashed front end and mint gray leather interior a couple weeks ago. While I was pulling the radio bezel a couple guys showed up and asked what I was taking. I told them just the bezel. A friend told them about the car and they were going to take the entire interior. I didnt need the bezel, just figured I would grab it for $6 so I let them have it. Had it been tan or black I would have taken everything, including the top.