I just finished making a new cover for my EF7 rear seat back and took a few pictures of the process. Anyone interested in pictures and a quick write-up?

I'd also like to see what others have done with their rear seats (for those that have them).


Modified by Ihatedomestic at 6:12 PM 12/8/2006

 

HEY CAN U SEND ME THE PICS AND EXPLAIN TO ME HOW TO MAKE THE COVER FOR THE SEATS CUZ I NEED THEM BAD

 

Post it!

 

bump

 

are you serious? GET THAT **** UP!

 

Absolutely.

 

Alright, I'll give it a try...

First off, this is my first time attempting upholstry and have very limited sewing abilities, but still managed to pull off a pretty good result.
This was actually quite simple and required a bit of time to complete.
Now the pics...and the writeup.

This is how it started off...the only sore spot in the interior of my nearly mint EF7:


I removed the seat back, cut all of the hog rings and separated the seatback into it's 3 main pieces (frame, foam & cover):



As you can see the frame had a very light coating of suface rust, so I sand blasted it and sprayed it with some zinc chromate primer:



I then took the cover and removed all of the stitching that held the 2 end pieces on. The end pieces were still in good shape, so I decided to reuse them, which cut down on the complexity of the project:


Then I took an iron and flattened out all 3 pieces. All of the edges were folded over, so I flattened them out as well. I then traced the large middle section of material onto my new material, which was called sueded corduroy....or something like that ($6 worth from a local fabric store). The picture shows the first rough cut to size:


Now the fun part...and the part that I don't have any pictures of. Who wants to see pics of sewing anyway? What I basically did was pin the end pieces flush with the edges of the larger piece, and with the enitre seat back inside out, I used my mother's sewing maching set on the largest spacing and just followed the holes left in the end pieces from the old stitching. I sewed 2 "channels" into the top and bottom edges to run the metal round bar into. The bars are critical to holding the material tight and secure to the foam, so I didn't want to leave them out. It took a lot of pins and a lot of time sewing around 4 very tight bends, but it came out pretty damn good if I do say so. I pulled it over the assembled frame and foam, secured with wire ties instead of hog rings and bingo: one decorative back seat. Good thing the material is a bit stretchy, as it's a tight fit. If I had used faux suede, I don't think the cover would have fit back on.
The final product:






I plan on trying the seat bottom next...but will likely need some sort of upholstry adhesive to get the material to mould to the contours of the *** buckets
If you have any comments or questions, post'em up

 

That looks really good!

 

Thanks!

 

Very good work!

I've done a bunch of automotive upholstery work and find it funny that most guys seem to be afraid of sewing machines. They are not really all that hard to work.

After doing car stuff, I've got a lot more respect for my sister that can sew up clothing from basic patterns!!!!

Wes Vann

 

It's a nice! High Five!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wiZCo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's a nice! High Five!</TD></TR></TABLE>
Lol.

Awesome outcome on the seat man

 

Nice! Looks like OEM.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ihatedomestic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Alright, I'll give it a try...
First off, this is my first time attempting upholstry and have very limited sewing abilities, but still managed to pull off a pretty good result.
This was actually quite simple and required a bit of time to complete.
Now the pics...and the writeup.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Take pride in your work, you did damn good job. Someone has some girly sewing skilllzzzz.

 

Hey... the seat came out awesome, Colin. Good write up as well.

you should post up some pictures of your ride... everyone here would love it.

 

Thanks again for the compliments guys!

...and I did post pics of my cars, including my new one:
https://honda-tech.com/zero...75414
...about 1/2 way down the page, but you aren't allowed to add comments

 

Just finished making the cover for the seat bottom...more pics to be posted within the next day or 2.

 

Nice work!

 

You did a great job! You could make up some jigs and sell those things!

 

yeah post the pics wit some directions also so i can change the color of my rear seats.

bump for good lookn home done seats

 

nice seats now we just need the directions on the butt cushions so i can change my back seat color

 

So, here's the 2nd take...the seat bottom. This was a little different than the back. 1st, it's contoured to fit your ***, so the cover will have to be glued in place. This is the bottom. The only thing wrong with the cover is one cigarette burn. But grey vinyl is ugly, uncomfortable and doesn't match my seat back. I cut out the burnt area and filled it with a piece of scrap. I also cut out the 2 thick plastic rings for the seat belt buckles. Theses were glued onto the cover.



2nd the existing cover is currently glued to the foam and does not want to come off easily. So, I left it on.
I started by removing the side pieces....which again were in good shape so I reused them. The picture shows 1 side removed and the other side being pinned to the new fabric.



For the seat bottom I decided to try "Novelty Suede"...it's a little more expensive, looks similar to my " Sueded Corduroy" seat back, but does not stretch....and it looks pretty cool. The piece I bought was just over $6 again (it was on sale: 1/2 price) and I have tons of leftovers.
With the sides removed from the original seat bottom material, I simply measured the area of the seat bottom and cut out a new piece of material the same size.
I then matched the edge of the new fabric to the side pieces and pinned them together:





I then used my mother's sewing machine again to follow along the stitch marks left in the vinyl of the side pieces...sewing the seams on the inside (you have to turn it inside out). Once you're done, you close your eyes and turn it right side out...and hopefully when you open your eyes you'll see this:


...and loosely fit over the foam:



Tonight I'm going to glue the cover down and try to pull it all tight. I'll take more pics and post 'em later.

Oh, one thing, I am looking for 2 matching **** that screw into the seat back (for the latch releases) ....anyone have a set they care to donate??? (They could be from a Civic, Wag-o-van, Teg...)


Modified by Ihatedomestic at 11:36 AM 1/19/2007


Modified by Ihatedomestic at 11:40 AM 1/19/2007

 

It looks good man. Did you sew everything together yourself? I have been looking at making a pattern to recover the seats in my car when I go home to use my moms monsterous sewing machine.

 

Yep, sewed it myself. Grade 9 home-ec. class skills finally pay off...who would've thought I'd be using those skills almost 20 years later

 

damn they came out clean ........
hey how much fabric did u buy for the *** cushion and how much did u buy of the backing estamite of course?