Having had enough of engine and bodywork for a night, I decided to tackle upholstery last evening. I started by carefully disassembling Ringo’s driver seat. Off came the retaining clips,
screws, and plastic washers that then allowed me to separate the back from the bottom. Next I removed the two seat tracks and bumpers from the bottom. I took a couple pictures before commencing to cut all the hog rings that held the old cover onto the frame. Since I’ve done this same upholstery job on Heidi’s bucket seats a few years back, I knew what I was in for; and what I was in for would not be fun. Regardless, it wasn’t necessary to closely document the disassembly. With the frame free of vinyl, I dug out the roll of padding material and cut out new pieces for the center and the two bolster. Next I transferred the stiff wires that fit into the sleeves from the old to the new cover. Two wires were damaged, so I found wire that I’d bought for Heidi and cut and formed two new lengths and installed them in their sleeves.
After laying down the new padding over the center portion of the bottom, the first hog rings I installed attached the cover to the rear edge of the center portion. Then I carefully and frustratingly worked my way forward crimping hog rings attaching the side edges of the center portion to the frame wires nestled between the center foam pad and the side bolsters. The success rate for those rings is about 10%, so it took me about an hour to get the dozen rings properly installed.
With those finally in place, the rest of the job went easily. I placed the new padding over the bolsters and pulled the front, side, and back sections into place. Hog rings were crimped all the way around and the two holes for the pins that retain the back were punched. At that point I had used my quota of swear words, so it was time call it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment