The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 54 3100 bench seat clips

I am trying to replace the original bench seat cover on the 54 3100, but the original clips are not holding the new covers on without popping off. I have tried to open and close the clips to get the right tension. either they wont go on or they wont hold properly. I have also tried hog rings and they just rip the material. I am at a loss here and not looking forward to taking to a shop to help.
any suggestions?

Classic sells the barrel clips...but IMHO, they are the worst thing to secure your cover. Hog rings will work better. If you are tearing the material, you are probably stretching the cover too much- it's not supposed to be on there very tight...

Go here and watch the 3 videos on padding a seat spring and upholstering a seat spring: How to recover your bench seat the right way...

They also sell a padding kit that is superior to what the other vendors are selling

First, I agree with Dave

Regarding the barrel clips, the rounded side goes down over the material, and clips down into the groove.

They cannot easily be removed without ripping the material.

I will give the hog rings another go and update. Thanks for the replies.

Mountain Man, I apologize- the video links I sent you are fine for general info and padding the seat, but the use of hog rings in the cover aren't really covered in his videos because he's recovering a seat with a wooden bottom and he is using staples... There are better videos on You Tube for removing a truck bench seat, such as: Recovering a truck bench seat. I'd do a search and find one that is using a cover like the one that you have.

One thing I realized after watching every video I could and then covering a couple of seats was that not all cover kits are made the same.... some really are better than others. I have no idea who makes the better cover. Everyone also seems to have their own method for covering the spring, as well- so the upholstery guys seem to be using whatever method works for them.

So far, I haven't been very happy with any of the off the shelf covers that I have purchased for our trucks. I hope your installation goes well!

Thanks Dave, the seat kit I got was from Brothers. They are sized for the seat frames, but there is a lot of extra material on the bottom and there is nothing for the hog rings to attach to other than piercing the vinyl and wrapping around the seat frame. I was pulling the material just enough to get the wrinkles out and keep it straight and the hog rings would just rip through the material. it seems like there should be a wire or something on the vinyl for the rings to hold to.

What year is your truck? (Edit- it's a '54 I see)

Some trucks have a wire that feeds into the edge of the vinyl...I don't know which years though...I know that my '50 doesn't have it.

I just finished doing my bottom seat spring and it doesn't look all the great... the LMC "kit" is not a very good fit for my spring, as the front corners aren't sewn in the right shape- they require additional cotton padding and then they stick out from the rest of the front of the seat. The hog rings really don't have much to hold on to and they are visible all the way around- I think it looks unsightly. The LMC covers were cut very short, so there was no way to try to attach the vinyl to a seat spring instead of the spring frame.

They included the "U" clips, but those clips are for a later model Chevy- my '63 GMC used those and they fit okay, but the '50 frame is too thick to use them. I would like to know where we could get the original clips that go on the inside edge of the frame- those held extremely well and I had a heck of a time getting them all out. I imagine there would be a special tool to use them as well...

Obviously I'm not doing this right.... I might try gluing the cover while I stuff it into the inside slot on the frame edge. There is no way that the hog rings are supposed to show...

Here are the clips that were originally used in 1954.

I chose not to use the clips on one set of upholstery in my 1954 Suburban. I hired an upholsterer to sew a heavy lip/edge around the attachment perimeter, and then install the covers. The hog rings are out of the way, and the edge is not going to rip/tear.

The original clips cannot be easily removed, and the material almost always gets torn when removing the clips. I have never seen someone post information about a tool for installing/removing those clips. Installing the clips by-hand (pressing in with a screwdriver) was tedious and difficult, and a two-person job.

The truck was all original when I got it. The clips were on the seat frame holding the wrap. The hog rings were only used on the corners to hold the extra material together under the seat. The seat material was a lot thinner than the replacement which is why I am probably having trouble with the clips.

Here are the pictures of my original seat with clips before I took the cover off.
http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/mountainman222/library/?view=recent&page=1

Thanks for posting that Tim.

I missed your post the first time around regarding the barrel clips attaching to the inside groove... it is the only place they are going to fit, I see that now. There are plenty of places on the back seat spring to use hog rings and not have them show, but not on the bottom seat unless you have extra material and do what your upholsterer did.

I did my back spring first and it was a breeze. I had no idea the bottom was going to be so different....I was obviously trying to use the barrel clips the wrong way. On my '63 I clipped them right onto the edge of the frame, but they weren't as secure as I wanted. On my '50, when I did get one inside groove, it popped off. The last cover that someone put on my '50 was glued and then jammed inside the frame groove without clips. I guess you have to get creative with these.

Mountain Man, I don't know much about vinyl, but my kit was sold as a "padded vinyl" and there is no pad sewn or glued to it, other than the white fabric layer on the inside, which must be what they are referring to.

My new cover is also thicker than the cover that I removed. It's more "spongy" than the old cover. I'm going to pull my hog rings out of the bottom cover and try the clips again, but this time with some upholstery glue between the vinyl and the frame...

Okay, so after wrestling with the clips for 30 minutes, I abandoned the idea of using them. Here's what I did instead- I went down to the hardware store and bought a pack of "Decker's hump Hill's Pig Rings" (copper coated hog rings), and double hog ringed everything- I used one hog ring as an anchor to the spring, then hog ringed the doubled-over vinyl seat cover into the anchor hog ring. See pics. Worked great. Doing it this way, I had enough fabric to double it over when I put the ring through.

doing it this way probably does't make much sense at first glance, but the size and orientation of the of the spring plate holes made it really difficult to get a hog ring into them while stretching the fabric at the same time- this made doing that a little easier. And I used a LOT of hog rings...

Using an anchor hog ring system {Edit- I added the wrong link- fixed now}

Excellent! Thanks Dave, I will give that a shot next week when I get back from my camping trip. Will update with progress.
-Eric

I think that I would rather adjust an ill-fitting door on a freshly painted truck than re-do another seat.

I don't think those pics show original seat covers. The corners wouldn't have been bunched up like that. I think yours were recovered at some point.
Here is a photo of the underside of my seat bottom, not very close shot but if you look closely you can see the corners seamed and gathered evenly and with the barrel clips running around the frame corners. I'm thinking that GM had special pliers to attach the barrel clips, as I can see they would be a PITA to put on by hand. I haven't messed with my seats yet.

I agree with Kevin.

The hog rings were not original equipment. And the appearance of the corners is odd.

When did you buy the truck?

Amen - with respect to doing it with those clips.

I did get good with removing the olds clip (but, ripping the old seat covers during removal).

I also want to add that the bench seat cover I have came from LMC. I don't think the fit is very good, as the front corners on the cover are not rounded, which creates a bit of an empty sag at each front corner that has to be stuffed and then the front of the seat is not flat. I posted pics above- if you don't like the fit that you see in the pics, then I would advise looking elsewhere for a cover kit...

If my seat cover fit like this, I would be a happy man (and so would my dog): Original style seat cover

I got the maroon cover from Jim Carter and it is a very nice fit.

Good to know- thanks Carl.

I also have a 54 bench seat and the covers are held in with V shaped clips that press into a rectangular groove under the seat. Only reason I know is I found the original fabric upholstery under some black vinyl.

The clips are hard to see if you're not looking for them.