Denny,
I also attempted to use covers from JC: an eight-piece (expensive) Suburban upholstery set and installation kits and clips from Jim Carter. I will use a professional upholsterer/installer on the two trucks I am now restoring (I'll provide the material, if necessary).
1. The JC upholstery fit fine without wrinkles, after I added additional layers of burlap and cotton. However, the burlap provided by JC does not provide as much support as the woven "matting" under the cotton on some of my original bottom cushions. The seats bottoms are now, literally, a pain in the *** (bottom).
2. The style/patten for the 4 seat bottoms did not match each other (I did not notice this until after they were installed). Someday, I'll get it done right (JC also did not have the correct-original 54/55 Chevrolet Suburban upholstery color combination, which I knew when I bought the sets).
It is no fun sitting on these seats for 200+ mile trips. I'll not make this mistake again.
I always learn something from your posts. Your use of the word "cior" (coir) caused me to look up a few words/terms:
burlap (synonym: hessian, outside the USA) is a coarse woven fabric usually made from jute or other vegetable fibers
Natural/vegetable fibers for matting or burlap:
sisal (an agave (think tequela) that yields a stiff fiber traditionally used in making twine, rope and also dartboard)
hemp (soft, durable fiber that is cultivated from plants of the Cannabis genus (think weed))
jute (vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads used to make rope and burlap bags)
coir (a coarse fiber extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a coconut)
How many people (or professional installers) do you think use those original "barrel" clips (we did, but it took a while to get used to them)?
