Mark944na86

I got my leather seats repaired last week to ready them for a redye job (I used leatherique dye). They turned out nicely. There are lots of good write-ups both here and elsewhere on the 'net on how to do the redye itself, but one part of the job I wasn't looking forward to was the reassembly of the seats after I had taken the leather covers off for repair (basically, the seams were starting to separate in places and they needed restitching, so they had to come off.)

Taking off the bottom seat cover wasn't difficult, but taking out all those hog rings holding the seat cover to the frame got me thinking about how I was going to get it back together again once the covers had been restitched and redyed. I remembered reading someone mentioning they had used zip ties instead of hog rings, so I thought I'd give that a go before going out and buying the hog ring kit (pliers etc.) and doing it the standard way.

In short, the zip tie method works very well! I used two zip ties per wire (if you are wonderring what I'm referring to, there are three wires that run through each seat cover for attaching to the frame... these are what hold the crease in bolsters, etc. They sit in long cuts in the seat foam cushion under the leather cover.) I also used zips to tie the flap at the back to frame.

Anyway, a tip for anyone thinking about dismantling and reassembling seats. If you want to do the hog rings, fine. But if you don't want to, the zip ties work just fine, too!

In fact, I actually suspect they may have made the job easier than it would have been with the hog rings and pliers because you could get everything roughly positioned, and then tighten the zip ties in steps to get everything even and sitting nicely in their final position. Just speculating, because I've never tried doing the job with the hog rings. But certainly the zip tie method was pretty forgiving in allowing you to get everything into place...

Hope this helps someone else doing some DIY upholstery work.

Butters944

I'll sure consider it when recover my seats in the near future, thanks for the idea

mikesz

Good to know, Thanks!

Dino V

Great to know, thanks for sharing your experience with us.

odonnell

I know this thread is a couple years old, but does anyone have any tips on sport seat reupholstery? I know there are kits out there - I want to completely reskin them with brown leather. Zip ties sound great, but I'm still unsure of the overall difficulty, as I have no experience with reupholstery.

harveyf

I'll be glad to give you my perspective from a Jag Etype point of view. My website (under Jaguar E-Type/White 1967) has a pretty comprehensive article about the upholstery of this car. If, in the world of 944s, you can buy a kit with most of the major pieces pre-cut and pre-sewn, then I would say the job is fairly straight forward. Especially if you have access to an existing car for reference. You do have to be able to sniff contact cement fumes without going into a coma The tools required are pretty basic. A cheap spray gun to dispense the glue is helpful but the aerosol cans work fine, they are just more expensive.

If you really want to start from scratch then it becomes much more complex. I'm thinking as in you go out and buy the raw materials and sew your own parts and pieces. Not impossible, I did just this in high school on my Porsche 356. You most definitely need existing seat covers etc that you can carefully tear apart and use as patterns. World Upholstery and Trim is a good resource for materials etc. Actually, after re-visiting their site, I see they have pre-sewn items for the 944. That said, I have no direct experience with the quality of their stuff, so don't flame me if you've had a bad experience with them.

As was the case with the original poster, salvaging existing leather parts is always an option. Some of the products available to bring old leather back from the dead are quite remarkable.

So I would say go for it. It can be very satisfying when you get it right.

odonnell

Thanks for the info, I shot World Upholstery an email. I'm not looking to do it 100% from scratch, but rather a precut/prestitched kit. Like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Porsche-...7f8c50&vxp=mtr

I have an early car with a brown interior... I suppose chocolate would be the right color choice.

markoS2

Porsche seat recovering? My favorite subject!! I made these for a 911 guy in November. It's can can red leather.
Installing covers for the early sport seats is easier then the lates. The tops have 2 separate pieces and the bottoms have 3. Zip ties maybe useful on the late seats but not the early sport seat.
You can get a set of very cheap hog ring pliers with hog rings for about $10 on ebay, about $25 for a good pair with hog rings. The cheap ones will work, just not as well as the good ones. KD tools makes a great pair.
Lets see a pic of your seats when you get a chance.

odonnell

Those look really sharp!

Mine are early manual sport seats:



I'd like to get them redone in brown, preferably with tan stitching but I'm not picky. You definitely have no reservations telling a upholstery newbie to DIY it?

markoS2

No reservations at all. I think the early sport seats are the easiest porsche seat covers to install. The only problem you might have is how to attach the vinyl cover to the bottom of the center cushions. I use an outward clinch staple gun (the factory way), but you might not want to spring for that. It's about $40 and pretty much only useful for upholstery and HVAC work. You could use contact cement or hog rings. Maybe someone else could chime in on what they used.

odonnell

I'll probably use the adhesive, I'll have that on hand already. Thanks for all the info! I'll probably order the kit in a few weeks.

gregeast

Oh man, those are so sexy they make me feel kinda funny inside!

Dougs951S

I have a set of non-sport power seats I'd also like to recover and then sell. I also love zipties. Too much. This is perfect. I'll probably order a kit and have a crack at it. Michael, lets have an upholstery party.

markoS2

The new owner felt the same way.....

Dougs951

wow, I have those in my 951, in black, but damn those look good