Patching race seats (DIY) ideas...

I have a worn/torn area on one of my Sparco seats (near the elbow area where they always wear out). I know new covers can be bought. I know an upholstery shop can do a fix. But is there any good way to DIY fix it? I was thinking of just using a large SCCA patch I have sitting around which is one of those iron-on patches.

Can the seat material be heated like that without melting? Can I just use some patch material with some kind of glue (contact cement, upholstery adhesive, etc)?

Any suggestions welcome.

I use iron-on patches then sew around the border with a curved upholstery needle. It seems to last awhile.

I've never looked at a Sparco seat closely. Can the upholstery be easily removed? If so, I'd be sewing some vinyl patches on the high wear areas.

I used black duct tape. I'm pretty baller like that.

This thread is relevant to my interests.

I was thinking I might really splurge and go for the fun patterned duct tape. Just to change it up a bit.

DeadSkunk wrote: I've never looked at a Sparco seat closely. Can the upholstery be easily removed? If so, I'd be sewing some vinyl patches on the high wear areas.

Yes, they can be easily removed so this can be done "off the seat". Aside from my one tear, I also want to put some vinyl patches on a few areas pre-emptively - especially since the car will still have OEM seatbelts for road use, which will rub against a few areas when being used.

Thx Evan.

Also, I tried duct tape, but it was peeling off a few days later, even without me even using the seats. Didn't realize there was anything that stuff didn't stick well to lol.

In reply to irish44j:
Then it's a no brainer. Get some heavier thread at the sewing store and your choice of vinyl from the same, or hit a junk yard and grab some OEM upholstery material and have at it.Use a denim needle in the sewing machine and it's straight forward.

Just buy a new cover. Mine was maybe $80.00 from Kirkey.

I have a new cover sitting here at the moment. But for a rallycross car, I'd rather not just replace the whole cover over one tear, lol, seeing as the new cover will get beaten up, muddy, and torn just as fast in the same place

Patches never look right unless they're actually just patches that aren't trying at all to blend in. I liked using old SCCA patches…the more obscure, the better.

Yeah, definitely don't care about appearance or having them blend in. I have some old SCCA club racing patches someplace that I should dig out and see if they cover