The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Seat upholstery 1951

I have a new to me Chevy 4400 that needs the seats done. The bottom portion is about okay but the back is about half exposed springs with some kind of bs vinyl stretched over the rest of it. There is no stuffing or whatever else was used there present - just the remaining vinyl stretched over springs. I looked at the tech tips feature on this site and it basically is about taking your seat to an upholstery shop and I would like to do this myself. So what was there? Burlap, horsehair and cotton batting? I've searched youtube and haven't found anything that answers my questions yet. I would buy a new set of OEM type vinyl covers from one of the parts suppliers but I'm not seeing much more than that and hog rings from them. Where do you source the rest of it? . Anybody here have any experience in this?

Jim Carter sells an upholstery install kit that includes the burlap, padding, and clips for under $50. They also sell OEM style upholstery covers. I have those on hand, but haven't installed them yet.

Kevin,

Here are a few threads with discussion on upholstery kits/parts and the "barrel" clips (also follow links in those threads).

Note carefully the need for one more layer of material (that Jim Carter omits).

https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1232638/seat-disassembly.html
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1229050/54-3100-bench-seat-clips.html

The "barrel" clips are a royal pain to remove, and to install.

Thanks very much for the replies! I had not looked at the Jim Carter stuff yet, just LMC and Classic. I will do some more shopping and check out the other threads posted.

Jim Carters maroon is pretty close to the original maroon. The grain looks right. The only difference is that the original had black in the creases. Let Jim Carter's get dirty and it will spot on like the original.

I just finished my seat with a kit from JC. It's a high-quality upholstery fabric hand-made in the KC Metro area. The kit I purchased required the use of the barrel clips for the fabric. I was able to use hog rings on the burlap and short nap carpet. The horse hair layer of my seat was in excellent condition. So I was able to re-use that and one thick layer of cotton batting.

I posted this in another Stovebolt.com forum, earlier today:

"My last upholsterer sewed an extension strip to the edges of JCs covers. He was then able to use hog rings.

I have used the barrel clips on one set of Suburban seats (about 15 years ago)."

I was in the same spot just this Spring on my 1950 4100 2300 mile fire truck. Had a great original seat, but the mouse stench had destroyed it. I thought about new repo original covers, but an original style seat cover would have still looked, and feel like a school bus seat. So I decided to have it stepped up a notch and have it done with a pleated 2-tone red/black with foam. I love it so much more, and though not cheap it was $650, and done in a week. Probably would have been close to $500 with an OE cover anyway. They had to stop halfway home and by a can of Fabrez for their car, because of the smell with the old seat.