fourkilos

Before you even start to think about doing this, ask yourself the following questions:

- Are you willing to spend about 5 hours a day, for 3 weeks?
- Do you have the guts to destroy your current stock seat upholstery in exchange for something that YOU will piece together?
- Do you want a kick *** vinyl interior for about 75$?

If you answered yes to all the questions, then read on!

Things You Need:
Vynil, Thread, Sewing Machine, Guts, and most important - Patience.

I`m not claiming to be an upholstery expert or a sewing expert. I started this project knowing absolutely nothing about sewing. But I had the
desire, so I learned the darn thing. I wasted a lot of vinyl, but it turned out to be worth it.

You can buy the vinyl at any fabric store. I went to Joanne Fabrics (coz it was the closest to my house). You would probably find better colors if you went to a specialty upholstery store (But I dont know of one anywhere), so I was stuck with what they had available. They had white, tan, black, red, green, blue, orange - but no yellow which sucks coz that`s what I originally wanted). Anyway, I went with the tan and white combo (8 yards @ 7.99$/yard - dont forget to buy the thread). My car`s exterior was Paradise Blue Green Stock, so I wanted a color scheme that would match it, and that would not go out of style.

The first thing I did was disassemble the top part of the back seat. When I had it outside of the car, I removed the stock cloth. This is a big pain in the butt because I had to remove about 40 of those ring staples - most of them are in the middle of the seats where those deep seams are at.

After removing the cloth completely, I used a blade, and disassembled every piece that made up the entire cloth cover. I did this by cutting out the stitches that attach the whole seat cover together. Oh by the way, unless you have a polaroid type brain that remembers things in detail, I suggest you take pictures, and mark the cloth with reminders (of which part goes where) before you take the seat cover pieces apart. I ended up with 19 pieces for that top back seat. With the pieces removed, use it as a pattern to trace out the shape onto the vinyl. after tracing all the pieces, cut it out! This whole process alone took me about 3 hours - because the cloth was folding everytime I was trying to trace it.

After cutting all the pieces, It`s time to sew.. At first I thought it would suck, but later on it wasn`t that hard. If you dont feel like dealing with the sewing machine, maybe this is a good time to get your mom or a real good friend involved - since there`s no turning back at this point. With the sewing machine all threaded and ready, line up the adjoining pices of vinyl, and start sewing!. Here is where those pictures will come in. Try to put them together in the same way that the original was. After joining several parts, line it up to the actual back seat to make sure it`s lined up properly,, and then continue putting them together. When you get to the curves, dont worry. Just line up the pieces together, and make sure the edges of the two pieces you are sewing are aligned when you sew them together. It will curve itself because of the nature of the cut (SO CUT THOSE PATTERNS RIGHT!) Dont forget to sew those plastic tensioners, that will cling the vinyl and the seat together. When youve, finished sewing, Clamp the vinyl to the seat. If you know where to get those circle staples, good for you. If not just reuse them like I did. Use a long nose and pliers to position and tighten those small circle staples. Given that you tore the seat apart, you should be a ble to figure out how to put it back togeter.

Do the same process for every seat (Back seat bottom, front passenger top+bottom+headrest, front driver side top+bottom+headrest) I`m now down to the last headrest, and I realize that I need to do some adjusting on the front passenger seat.

Three weeks later, the seats look great! Well, if you are a professional Upholstery expert, you will see some imperfections, but it`s still very presentable. I think of it as buying something from TJ-Maxx, where there are some imperfecions. In any case, It`s still better looking that stock.

If you want to try this, do it at your own risk. Remember that once you unstich the cloth, there`s no turning back. I did this because I was cheap, and part crazy.....

Watch out for part two, where i`ll share with you guys how I did the doorpanels and dashboard. Good luck!

-- About the Door Panels, we have actually tried this, and some of our cars already have the panels covered with vinyl. I will wait till we master it before sharing with you the details. Right now, we are having problems with getting the vinyl to stick where there are deep curves

Duckor

wow those look sweet, and a very nice DIY

could we get closer pictures of the seats? like how the seams look and what not?

fourkilos

i found this DIY ...so don't give me credit .. just give me credit for posting it

Redsands

I remember that DIY from a really long time ago!
Nice job finding it,
Redsands

petOr

nice DIY...

SWEETRIDE

That looks tight!!! Anyone have bigger or closer pictures? I would like to see more. I wish I had lots of time to do that but I don't like the idea of if I don't like it, not just being able to through the old ones right back in!

WhiteRabbit

i was getting ready for some uglyness coming at the bottom pics, but they did a nice job, whoever did it! VERY well done!

ill stick with fabric tho =/