Source for upholstery

In reference to the "comfy seat" thread: it looks like finding seats that are tan cloth severely limits my options.

Where does one go to find new upholstery for car seats?  I'm not talking about seat covers, nor custom upholstery shops that make them from scratch, I mean - peel off the OEM fabric and put new, pre-sewn upholstery on it.

I found 1A, but they do more common stuff, and Katzkin but they only do leather for common vehicles and don't sell to the public.  You have to have them installed by a certified dealer.

If you look around, you can find Katzkin dealers that will sell without installation. I also know they'll do common vehicles like an NSX, because I sent them a set of first generation NSX seat covers to use as their pattern years ago, then installed the result myself. I an neither certified nor a professional, but hog ring pliers aren't all that difficult to use.

Have you tried your vehicle manufacturer?

If you have a weird car, you'll probably have to accept that you'll have to go the custom(ish) route. 

I am about to order from these folks

https://interior-innovations.com/

If your seats are from one of the 18 cars they sell kits for, they might be right what you need.

https://www.lseat.com/

Put their covers on the ZAV.

In reply to Trent :

Ooohhh! My seats are from one of those 18 cars.  Nice.

I'm not sure what the seats are yet.  Looking for good seats (volvo, wrx, maybe something else) to adapt into my 94 Fordzda Branger and I need tan cloth.  If I narrow it down by those criteria, I'm looking at a very small pool of options.  Not to mention, if I just limit myself to salvageable upholstered seats, that further limits the choices.

I want to be able to find whatever seats I want and be able to buy the "jackets" for them.

I gotta think someone makes replacement covers for almost anything.  I can sew, and could make a pattern from the old ones, but I'm not that good, nor do I want to necessarily take the time.

In reply to Curtis73 :

Did you see the recent F250 interior thread?  Was one of the sponsored stories from the staff?  They had some fairly high quality tan seat covers.  May not be what you are looking for, but it might be.

Have you tried your vehicle manufacturer?

 

Not sure what it is yet, and I also assume that would be the 5x price route, and also only come in whatever colors/patterns were available from the factory.  For instance, if I end up using Volvo XC90 seats, new upholstery is likely $1200 and my choices are gray leather or black leather.

If I take that route, (dealer parts counter) I have to buy seats that were originally offered in tan cloth... which means I could likely find them in a junkyard anyway.

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Curtis73 :

Did you see the recent F250 interior thread?  Was one of the sponsored stories from the staff?  They had some fairly high quality tan seat covers.  May not be what you are looking for, but it might be.

I did see that, but (no offense to the lovely staff) I don't like them.  Don't get me wrong, they have a purpose, and that F250 was a perfect application for them, but I'm not going for utility.  I would rather fix holes in upholstery with duct tape than use seat covers.  Seat covers always look like seat covers.  It doesn't matter how nicely they fit, they can't approximate "real" upholstery.

did I mention I don't like seat covers? 

https://www.theseatshop.com/

These guys sell on Amazon as well.  

Seems to be the real stuff.  You'll have to shop via Ranger paterns

Dr. Hess said:

https://www.lseat.com/

 

Put their covers on the ZAV.

Those are dang sexy, but they only do leather or pleather.  For this application I want cloth.

In reply to Curtis73 :

Fair enough. 

John Welsh said:

https://www.theseatshop.com/

These guys sell on Amazon as well

Just SUV/Truck, and just leather.

Curtis73 said:

John Welsh said:

https://www.theseatshop.com/

These guys sell on Amazon as well

Just SUV/Truck, and just leather.

Ranger:   https://www.theseatshop.com/2004-ford-ranger-xl/

J.C. Whitney used to sell custom fit seat upholstery for a lot of things that would be cut and sewn to order. I'm running a set of Mexican blanket style seat covers in my Dart from them. It looks like they still do offer seat covers made to fit, although I'm not sure it's the same line.

these guys have been in business for 70 years and have lots of patterns , 

They did supply JC Whitney back in the 70s

http://www.acmeautoheadlining.com/seatupholstery.html

In reply to John Welsh :

I'm fairly sure he's not planning on putting ranger seats back into the truck, which is the purpose of the comfy seat thread.

Keith Tanner said:

If you have a weird car, you'll probably have to accept that you'll have to go the custom(ish) route. 

Any idea what the custom(ish) approach should cost?  The driver's seat leather on my FD could use a little work and AFAICT there's nothing off-the-shelf available.  I've been thinking about calling some local shops, but I don't have any idea what's reasonable on this.

In reply to codrus :

LSeat.com has been known to use your seat cover as a pattern and make one of their sets from it.  I don't think they even charge extra for it.

codrus said:

Keith Tanner said:

If you have a weird car, you'll probably have to accept that you'll have to go the custom(ish) route. 

Any idea what the custom(ish) approach should cost?  The driver's seat leather on my FD could use a little work and AFAICT there's nothing off-the-shelf available.  I've been thinking about calling some local shops, but I don't have any idea what's reasonable on this.

 

 

I used a dodge truck extended cab rear seat as a "couch" in a boat so I had it re covered with white vinyl.  Cost me darn near $800 for a big, flat piece of white vinyl with the simplest of stitching.  I don't want to even think about what a WRX or BMW bucket seat would cost.

Dr. Hess said:

In reply to codrus :

LSeat.com has been known to use your seat cover as a pattern and make one of their sets from it.  I don't think they even charge extra for it.

That's good to know, but, again... all leather.  I want cloth.

It just fascinates me... There are 30 companies who make spark plugs, 20 who make gaskets, and 15 that make body parts for nearly any vehicle on the planet, and these days often times spark plugs, gaskets, and body parts by far outlive seat upholstery.

I know how I'm going to make my millions.  I'll start a seat upholstery business.  Seems to be a massive void.

You saw the link for Acme, right?

Spark plugs are a bad example as they're standardized. Own a 1st gen CRX for a while, you'll learn that there are not as many companies making parts for unusual old cars as you might think. 
 

Codrus, I'd hit up Katskin first. 

I did see the link for Acme, thanks.  They look possible, but they have a very limited supply in the seats I'm looking for.  Lots of classic stuff, heavy on the American, but possible.  Browsing their site, most of the stuff is 40s-early 90s... which is fine, if I want to limit my seat selection to a 90s Chevy or Mazda, but they don't have any of the covers for the Volvo/Impreza/VW I'm leaning toward.

TL;DR, if I limit my seat purchase to just the seats they offer, I can't get what I really want and it limits things to a very narrow range.

Got an email back from Lseats, still waiting for Katzkin.  Both of those do leather only, but I asked if they would consider doing cloth.

Dr. Hess said:

https://www.lseat.com/

 

Put their covers on the ZAV.

I just used L seat covers for my E36 M3. The local upholstery shop was pretty impressed with them after the fact. He was extremely hesitant when we first started and he was like "Lseat, wth is that?" I'm also impressed.