The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Seat repair help

I have a small tear on the passenger side of my seat, and I need to know the best method of repairing it, please. As shown, it fits inside a 5/16 lock washer. It's pretty close to the original 1946 Chevy 1/2 ton truck seats in orange (reminds me of pumpkin). There's sooo many tapes and glues available online, but I was looking for a recommendation.

Also, what do you use to clean your faux leather seats? Mine have sat in our garage for almost four years, and I don't know what their life was like before that. LoL They're not filthy, just some stains/discoloration that I'd like to clean. TIA!

Years ago I bought a vinyl repair kit. It had a bunch of different colors that you could mix together and a heating iron with some "texture" paper. I used it on some boat seats, but the results were not all that great. I didn't get the color matched well, and you could tell from the texture where the patch was. I think there was some backer material in the kit also.
Those kits are still available. I would do a color match test somewhere not visible. LINK

Gorilla duct tape under the tear orta do it. That stuff is STICKY.

52Carl, I ALMOST pulled the trigger on that yesterday, but I wanted to ask opinions first. Thank you!

As a school bus mechanic for 34 years, I have repaired many vinyl seats. For the best do it your self repair, pull the cover off and work from the back side. The kit like mentioned above should work. Use very little liquid vinyl at a time, besure its cured before adding more, slowly keep building it up and keep going wider each time. For that little tear, 1/2 to 3/4" patch will be plenty. Use a low heat heat gun, in a hurry we use a torch, but then its only a bus seat. Lay the cover out on a heavy steel plate, heat the material and flatten the tear back out pressing down with a another piece of flat steel. The steel pulls the heat away preserving the texture and material. No tape will stay in place, in the heat of the summer and you setting on it, it will get sticky and migrate through even from the back side.

You could take it to a Doctor Vinyl if you have one close, but I would still ask for it to be repaired from the back side. If the color doesn't match, its only a in the tears that will show.

I bought what sounds like the same vinyl repair kit Kevin mentioned in the early 1980s and it worked very well for me. The material lasts a long time, also. Mixing for color is important...really important. In your case a lighter or darker color might not show too much due to the size of the spot. I don't remember backing material in my kit but the vinyl stuff bonded and lasted for about 3 years (before I sold the car). I used it to repair a tear in the seat of a Datsun 510.

I can attest to that. Duct tape is fine for a TEMPORARY repair, but eventually it will start to peel off. They make a number of varieties of duct tape, even cold weather stuff, and they all eventually give up, either drying up and leaving a hard residue after the fabric backing falls off, or turning into a gooey mess.

Thank you all for the information. I truly appreciate it. Looks like the kit wins. =)

I've used the vinyl repair kit a long time ago and it works. Definitely having a flat backing will make it easier and give better results.

It already has a hole it it so you can't make it any worse.

The key is to have a hard backing material you can press against. Foam deforms to easy.

The "Permatex" kit was perfect. I got the one with the heat tool, and I'm really glad that I did!

The picture with the arrow is the color I got when I mixed their recipe ("brown, a small amount of yellow, and a very small arount of white"). As you can see, it's much too dark. I Googled, and ended up adding little bits of red and blue to their "orange". I think it matched pretty well! Also, I used the least amount of pattern as my "grain paper". It was chef's kiss!

Thank you again for the advice! I always second-guess myself, and I'd hate to mess up my seat. Your wisdom is much appreciated!