The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors original AD seats

Didn't see an original seat thread in the first 4 pages of posts so hopefully not beating a dead horse here. In the back of my mind im thinking deluxe cabs got maroon seats and standard cabs got brown...is that correct? I'm redoing Shelley's seats, she's a standard truck but her seats came from a parts truck back in the 1980's. Don't recall if it was a deluxe cab. Gotta tell ya, I'm in love with the black cherry remnants I found while stripping them down. Shown below on top of the brown from Classic Parts, 28-452. The grain was all wrong on Classic's maroon covers but these brown grain are a little closer to original. Good price and seem to be good quality as well--thicker than the covers that have worked well for me since 1986 (except the piping is starting to come off and high time to replace).

When I got my running 54-3100 in Clayton, Ga in 1977 it had the original seat material. A close friend of mine in the auto upholstery business who was a master restorer. He purchase the exact seat material for both my 42 and 54. It is an almost no grain dark brown Naugahide. I can send you a patch ( I hope), if you like. Or I can send you a picture, it is very smooth grain. Doc

Here are two remnants from my 1953 truck original seat along with a picture of what is claimed to be an original 1950 seat in a truck. All three samples are a maroon color with obvious grain pattern. Some originals covers were no doubt brown. I have never heard that maroon color was deluxe cab only or that brown was standard cab so cannot verify that.

My preference is for the grained maroon color. It looks great with every AD color and would especially compliment your dark green truck.

Thanks for the great replies. No need to send a seat sample Doc, but please post a picture if you can, would like to see it and it'll add to the knowledge of this already awesome forum. Wonder if those light color threads in Rdslesstaken picture were darker when new and appear lighter now due to fading? Wouldn't matter to me, looks great either way.

Tried installing the new Classicparts seat cover and gotta walk back the quality comments I made earlier, in case someone is interested in buying some. They seem rugged and look good but beware there's NOT ENOUGH vinyl to tuck under the seat frame for proper hog-ring use. Even with zero padding, I doubt there'd be more than an inch of vinyl overhang to wrap under the seat frame. I'm not an upholstery guy but common sense says you really need to at least double the vinyl over whatever it is you're hog ringing it to so it doesn't rip out. And you can't hog ring it to the front bottom edge of the frame because then they'd be visible (and ugly)...sides also.

All is not lost though because my wife is INCREDIBLE and was able to sew remnants of my old covers all the way around the new seat cover skirt to give the required extra vinyl. With a little $69 Brother sewing machine! I was shocked! Picture below.

In case anyone's thinking I got the seat base cover and back covers mixed up, I measured them, compared to the seat frames, and there's no mistake. Only buy the Classic parts cover if you're prepared to do the extra bit of work to make them right.

If you want options for material, you could contact Uniroyal (naugahyde.com) and look at their catalog. This is tough stuff and made in the USA. They'll point you toward a supplier/distributor. Find what you want (Burkshire style in the color burgundy is nice), remove your old cover, take it apart for a pattern and sew away. Be certain to get the proper needle for heavy vinyl or leather. Once you get the seat cover in place, turn your seat upside down and compress evenly. Then using C clips attach to the frame (these weren't attached with hog rings, and that's why the cover you got seemed too short).

Scooter, my '51 had the original seats when I decided to redo them, a DIY project. I don't know if it has a custom cab but it is a 5 window. The colour was brown. A few threads you might find helpful are;

here

then this one here,

and lastly here.

Jon, this seems like the least expensive way to recover seats. At the same time, I have to wonder if this is a do-it-yourself project that is likely to fail.

Has anyone else tried sewing and installing their own seat cover and how did it turn out? Would you do it again yourself or pay an upholstery shop?

I did mine years ago still like new used heavy duty material was hard pushing the needle .Some say a old treadle sewing machine works but did mine by hand and I would do it again .the only issue I need to fix is the drivers side needs a little more padding as it feels a little lopsided when sitting but that is not from making the cover but from the weight always being on that side so would be a good idea to change some springs from the middle to the drivers side or add extra padding .

Here is a pic showing part of the seat by the way was done in about 1989 used material that would be used for snow machine seat

Stove, anyone can learn to run a sewing machine. It is all a matter of brainpower and desire. Here's what I consider a really well-written article: http://www.secondchancegarage.com/how-to/upholstery-2-1.cfm

In pickups you generally see either French seams or Flat seams. Occasionally you'll see a beaded seam, but not as often. But yes...to answer your question it is the least expensive way by far. Plus you'll have matching vinyl for use on door panels, headliner, etc. And yes...if you don't study and practice it can go wrong. If your wife sews she can help keep you out of trouble. Four really important things: don't buy vinyl that is too thick or too thin. There is a happy medium. Two, get the right thread. This is really important. You must have UV rated upholstery thread (interior/exterior). Three, get a new needle made for that type of thread. Four, practice on small pieces of the vinyl you'll be using until you get the feel for what you're doing. Personally I like the French seam with long straight stitches for pickup work. Oh, one other thing: vinyl can start dragging on what is known as the "foot" of the sewing machine. If you can get a non-stick foot, this will help, but if your machine is really old (like mine) you'll have to put something slick on the bottom of the foot to keep this from happening. If the vinyl drags, it will cause the length of the stitch to shorten and this will look bad.