Seat Difficulties

[NJCobra96]

Hello All,
I'm looking to get my Driver Seat recovered in my 96 (saddle color)....went to 2 upholstery shops yesterday, and was told the same thing...can't be done, due to it being a "molded seat". I was advised to get a new seat from a salvage yard...???....and those seats will be in better shape??? I have seen kits on CJ Pony Parts and LMR, but skeptical about the outcome of a DIY....and they come in complete sets. My other seats are in very good condition. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks and have a great holiday weekend!

 

[Tillerman77]

Check at NPD as well for kits.

 

[NJCobra96]

Thanks Tillerman....really trying to stay away from the kits....but in reality it may be impossible at this point....I'll check it out.

 

[98 svt]

The kits are not very hard to install. Did a GT foxbody interior before. Did new foam and fabric.

 

[NJCobra96]

What about doing it on these "molded" seats 98svt? Hate to spend hundreds of $$ and get hung up on the installation process...

 

[98 svt]

What about doing it on these "molded" seats 98svt? Hate to spend hundreds of $$ and get hung up on the installation process...

You mean the OEM sn95 seats?
Its no different. Remove all the c lips (or whatever they are called), slide off upholstery, remove old foam. Then the reverse.
Sliding the new upholstery on over the new foam can be a bit tough. Be patient. There's all kinds of vids on youtube too.

 

[NJCobra96]

Thanks....may be my only choice...it would be nice to only get the driver's side kit....others would be a waste of money.

 

[Revvv]

If an upholsterer cannot reupholster a molded seat, you need to find another person to do the job.

Sent from my SM-G930V using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[NJCobra96]

Was thinking the same thing when told this.....the only problem is an upholsterer in this area (Southern NJ) are far and few.....the search continues....

 

[Tillerman77]

You mean the OEM sn95 seats?
Its no different. Remove all the c lips (or whatever they are called), slide off upholstery, remove old foam. Then the reverse.
Sliding the new upholstery on over the new foam can be a bit tough. Be patient. There's all kinds of vids on youtube too.

Are you thinking of hog rings?

 

[Tillerman77]

One example video on the process.

 

[98 svt]

Are you thinking of hog rings?

Yes!

 

[NJCobra96]

Great video Tillerman....gives some insight on the process...thanks!

 

[Tabres]

The reason your upholsterer is telling you that it can't be recovered is because from 94-98, for whatever reason, the leather was glued to the foam. You have to replaced the foam at the same time, hence why you can't just chuck a new cover on.

TMI makes nice kits for refurbishing 94-98 seats. I would suggest looking into that.

 

[65x2]

The reason your upholsterer is telling you that it can't be recovered is because from 94-98, for whatever reason, the leather was glued to the foam. You have to replaced the foam at the same time, hence why you can't just chuck a new cover on.

TMI makes nice kits for refurbishing 94-98 seats. I would suggest looking into that.

How close to OE are these? My driver's seat is starting to show wear in my 98.

Ive been on the fence, either try TMI or find a nice set of recaros. I have them in my FoST and they've kinda grown on me. But prefer the OE look on the Cobra.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[scottydsntknow]

They are identical to stock seats, I did them in my 98. I'll have to jump on tapatalk here in a min and find pics on my phone. However... if you are not comfortable with tackling DIY like this or just don't want to spend $1k I'd go with the SVE seats that LMR sells.

As far as those upholsterers... they're dipshits. Even with the glued on leather they can get the old material off, add more foam in any spots that tore off and re-cover. They'd need to add new foam anyway to the existing stuff to make any re-cover fit properly... You don't want them doing your seats anyway if they are too stupid or lazy or incompetent to do that.

What I did was a full color change in my entire interior so I went with a full TMI vinyl GT kit. The vinyl is actually really nice believe it or not but if I was going to do it again I'd do leather and upgrade to Bullitt/Mach/Cobra style foams and covers.

I did my seats with 0 prior upholstery experience and got asked quite a few times what shop did them for me they came out so well. This is more TMI making a product so easy for a weekend car mechanic to tackle than me being super good or something. I did use all my 4 letter words and had pretty sore fingers/hands for a solid week.

 

[scottydsntknow]

Here we go. Note how for the rear seat you re-use the factory foam that is glued onto the stock upholstery. So if I can get it off with minimal foam damage and use it on new upholstery than any shop sure as hell can.

As far as the wrinkles... I did this in the summer and I just let the car sit out in the sun during the day and all those wrinkles went away pretty quick.

Sent from my Z978 using Tapatalk

 

[scottydsntknow]

Shit, I haven't looked at these pics in a long time... making me want to do it again for my 2000 but with Mach style covers and foams only because I live in Spain now and getting SVE seats shipped here might be dicey and I'd be screwed if MilAir damages them...

edit: Mother effer SVE stopped selling their seats. Probably because they were too good for too little money... figures. Well... Corbeau makes some pretty affordable ones for about $1k but at that price the TMI stuff looks better especially when you can make them look like 03 Cobra/Mach seats...

 

[scottydsntknow]

Final post before I wind up spamming the shit out of this thread. Sorry... I have not seen many ppl who have also actually done the TMI upholstery themselves.

What I would do is go with this kit

TMI Products 10004350: Stock Seat Upholstery 2003-04 Mustang Cobra Coupe | JEGS

Or if you just need fronts then get them here.

https://lmr.com/products/2003-Mustang-Seat-Upholstery

Regardless get the foams from LMR.

LMR gets you a 6% forum discount so ask a rep about it if you haven't already.

For these unisuede seats it actually does make more sense to get the vinyl because even the OEM seats are only leather on the seating surfaces anyway. If you are getting a Mach/Bullitt set it might make more sense for you to spring for leather.

 

[NJCobra96]

Great posts! Thanks gentlemen!..CJ Pony has vinyl front bucket kits for 340 bucks …..time to use some 4 letter words!