Meissen's LeatherSeats.com Reupolstery Thread

[meissen]

Alright guys, the faithful that went to Superfest this year were able to get the first glimpse, so now I'll post the project pictures and finished pics. Unbelievably, I forgot to bring my camera to Superfest due to a mad rush out of the house (I was suppose to be there at 8am and woke up at 7:45am... it's like 20-30 minutes away).

Overall, the process to reupholster the 93-97 seats is REALLY easy. My dad started at 2pm to help me get it done. I got home at 4pm and we finished by 7.

A quick how-to for those who are thinking about doing a reupholster project:

1. Four bolts hold the seat in, unbolt the seat from the car and place on your workbench/worktable.
2. Remove the plastic side piece from the bottom of the chair, on the driver's side (for power seats) it holds the power seat controls. The passenger side is just a regular bezel. On both, they hide the two bolts that holds the back of the chair onto the bucket.
3. Once the plastic is removed, there's 3 total bolts that hold the back of the seat onto the bucket. Two on the side that faces out of the car where the recline handle is, and one on the side that faces the center console.
4. Once the top is separated from the bottom, it's time to start taking the cloth off. The top is pretty easy, there's a plastic clip that holds the front cloth to the back cloth. Once it's unclipped, the material just slides up the seat foam. There's three or four velcro strips on the front that holds the inside of the seat (where your back rests against) to the foam. The velcro is kinda sharp, so careful when putting your hand against it. It didn't scratch me at all, but it's just uncomfortable.
5. The bucket seat has four bolts that will hold the track on. Unbolt those, and then you'll see the 4 clips that hold the cloth onto the bucket (bottom) seat. Simply unclip, then peel the cloth off the seat.
6. Placing the leather back on is just the opposite, it's pretty self explanatory. Wrap the leather oonto the foam, massage it down, and then use hog rings for the bucket and zipper for the back piece. All in all, it's really easy and even easier with two people.

And now the pictures:

[MP81]

Wasn't there some special element to it too?

Looks good, by the way!

[meissen]

Yeah... the "Red Alert" embroidered on the top.

[Will]

I really wanted to look at your car today, but I was stuck in the judging lanes all day. Nice work on the seats! You'll have to give me some pointers for when I do mine.

[bmwmcars]

looks great.... where did you get the leather covers from?

[meissen]

LeatherSeats.com It was actually an e-bay auction from LeatherSeats... their ebay auctions are consistently cheaper than buying it from their site.

[GETGONE]

Looks MUCH better than the cheesy seat covers you did have. It looks better with the 97+ style centers vs the older style. Now you need to work on a nice fiberglass sub/amp enclosure to finish off the interior. That box looks really out of place sitting there.

[makwa]

Very nice.

Looking good Brian.

-Duane

[MORNINGSTAR2101]

well done, she looked great!

[bmwmcars]

LeatherSeats.com It was actually an e-bay auction from LeatherSeats... their ebay auctions are consistently cheaper than buying it from their site.

they look great! were they reasonable on price, including the custom stuff?

[JoeliusZ28]

huge improvement! Your seat covers were one of the only things that I really did not like about your car....well besides the 3.4

[02redz28]

Seats looked awesome at Superfest. They really match the interior of the car well.

[meissen]

Looks MUCH better than the cheesy seat covers you did have. It looks better with the 97+ style centers vs the older style. Now you need to work on a nice fiberglass sub/amp enclosure to finish off the interior. That box looks really out of place sitting there.

Haha, yeah, that's the next and final "big ticket" interior thing that I want to do. Fiberglass enclosure that would have the two subs, amp, and a fire extinguisher. The only reason I haven't done anything with it yet is because I'm still trying to figure out exactly how much room I want it to take up.

I'm thinking about buying replacement shifter bezel to get rid of the pieces that I wrapped in carbon fiber. I'm actually even thinking about having a company vacuum bag and do it right so their carbon fiber piece will look 100% professional compared to my self-done piece.

In any case, the interior has come a LOT closer to finally being finished.

[meissen]

they look great! were they reasonable on price, including the custom stuff?

It wasn't bad in my opinion. Price was $599 + $30 S&H. I added the custom "Red Alert" embroidery, so it was an additional $50 for digitizing the Camaro-esque font (it was the closest font to Camaro I could find) and then $25 per seat for the embroidering.

huge improvement! Your seat covers were one of the only things that I really did not like about your car....well besides the 3.4

But the thing to remember though is that those seat covers that I had (well... when they were new) were a huge improvement over the cloth grey seats.

[Boost Addict]

Looks very good.