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reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:51 pm
by ps2375
Like the title says, I redid a couple of seat my father bought back around 1978. The car was sitting for almost 20yrs and part of that time with a broken dr's door window in Tucson sun. I think the car had some cover, but not sure how much. Some of the fabric would crumble just by looking at it. And after getting some estimates from a few local upholstery shops, I decided I had to do them myself as there was no way to do the seats and still get the car back on the road. I found the fabric on ebay and proceeded to buy 10 yards, which turned out to be more than twice as much as I needed, but I've decided to do the door panels with it too (and I should STILL have some left over). Thankfully the foam underneath the fabric is in very good condition. And with the sage advice of my sister-in-law and her Husqvarna sewing machine, I was able to accomplish this. I spent more time taking the fabric off of one seat and taking the seams out to make patterns and tracing them onto and cutting the fabric than the actual sewing. Although I did have to tear out some seams as assembly of the multi panels for the seat back took a bit of figuring.

Before pics:
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And a finished passenger seat(wish it was the driver's side as the car is running right now).

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Re: reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:14 pm
by ps2375
And finally in the car. Now to figure out the door panels.

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Re: reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:20 pm
by doc
Pimp seats - a great start!

doc

Re: reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:55 pm
by ps2375
Thanks, not really a "start" as they have been in the car since about 1978.

Re: reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:16 am
by Piledriver
Home depot sells 1/8" Masonite (they call it tempered hardboard), which is very like the factory door panel core material but quite water resistant. Cuts easy with a jigsaw. ~$9 for a 4'x8' sheet.

Hoping to make up some new panels fo the squareback this weekend, assuming I can find the jigsaw...

Re: reupholstered a pair of late 70's Recaro seats

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:26 am
by ps2375
Piledriver wrote:Home depot sells 1/8" Masonite (they call it tempered hardboard), which is very like the factory door panel core material but quite water resistant. Cuts easy with a jigsaw. ~$9 for a 4'x8' sheet.
Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of the same stuff, but not knowing what they called it. Took a quick look around once, but didn't look too closely. I will be doing that sooner than later, I hope.