seat repair

[ogre]

I have a nice pair of highback bucket seats for my Challenger. The vinyl is in nice condition but it looked like it had tears in it on a seam. Closer examination shows the vinyl is ok, the stitching broke and pulled out at some point, The holes for the stitching look intact. If the cover was removed it might be easy to restitch the affected area and then reinstall.

Anybody ever try that or is it a lost cause and I should just use vinyl repair tape until I can get new covers?

Thanks

[R/T's 4 R/P]

Yes, you can remove the cover and resew the needed area.

[tparker]

It depends. I would think it is repairable. There are some videos on youtube that show how to repair car seat seams without taking the seat covers off. I tried it on my motorcycle seat. It worked, but wasn't perfect. Maybe getting some "practice" seats at a pick n pull or something might be worthwhile. The other approach is to take the cover off. This might be better. Although I haven't done this, I redid my seats completely and if I recall correctly you can easily access the seams and restitch it assuming the vinyl is in perfect shape. I would probably try and hand stitch it using the same holes. But depending on costs, I would try an upholstry shop first because I have found stitching to be a bit of an art.

Unfortunatly I forget how the seatbacks (I assume that is what you are doing) go back together and how hard it was. THe bottoms required some muscle to stretch for new vinyl. I bought a hog nose pliers and rings from EastWood for pretty cheap, maybe $20 or so. Again there are some basic vids on youtube that show the basic idea.

[pschlosser]

Once the covers are removed, repairing them is EASY.  And you have lots of control over how hard you pull on the stitches in an effort to minimize damage to the original seat.

Sewing while the cover is still installed?  not easy.  In fact, if your aim is to repair without damage, it's HARD to do with them installed (in most cases)

I don't know the extent of the damage on your seats.  But if it's paramount you don't tear the seat while attempting to sew it installed, I vote removing the cover.  I know it's a pain, but it's worth the result.