Ludwig Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Jamie,Been re-trimming my seats, and noticed inside the original seat cover is a piece of foam lumber support [see photo] which is absent from the new covers. It's easy enough to remove and affix to the new cover. If you don't have the old covers any thin piece of foam will suffice? Another problem is the new covers don't appear to be as plush as the originals around the front edge of the seat back? Maybe they'll bed-in a bit but they are definitely thinner.Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 Thanks for the heads up Alex.Waiting for some good weather to finish spraying the frame and runners etc.Just aswell I kept the old covers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Manged to get the seats painted with all this nice weather :)I also replaced the wood with 6mm ply cut to 180mm in length. Soaked it in boiling water it then bends easily into place and riveted using peel/bannana rivets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Plywood being held in place with mole grips whilst riveting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Hi All,Cut the rubberised horse hair material to shape and stuck to the seat back using contact spray adhesive.Manged to salvage the strips either side from the original material before glueing.Now to glue the cotton material on, not sure if its man enough??? :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 glued on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Some more progress made last night.Started by glueing the cotton material around the edges of the seat backs using spray contact adhesive.The material is hard to work with, i guess it just stops the edge of the seats rubbing through the covers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 The next stage was to remove the lumbar support foam out of the original squab covers and glue them inside the new covers, I used Evostik 528 contact adhesive for this , it worked quite well.The edge of the foam goes flush with bottom of the ribbed section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Its then time to slide the covers on, the instructions recommended glueing plastic onto the edges of the seat frame to help slide them on. I tried without this and had no problems at all.It takes a while to make sure the cover is pulled down evenly making sure its nice and straight.Starting with the left and right outer most padding i strated to tack the cover to the plywood using 6mm upholstery tacks, whilst doing this i kept the cover under tension by pulling it taught.The material in the centre gets doubled over before tacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 After this i turned the seat around and pulled the vinyl down and around the seat frame edge and installed as many clips as i could. Again this was done with someone pulling the covers to keep them taught.As mentioned previously the covers do not seem as padded as the orignals but certainly look better then before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Jamie,I've just done mine-fairly happy with the results, but had a hell of a job stretching the material (white piping) over the back edge of the seat-still doesn't sit perfectly. I did it in the blazing sun we have had over the last week, even used a heat gun to stretch the vinyl. I think the seats were a bit distorted (not that you can tell by just looking) as the covers weren't a perfect fit. Maybe I'm being too fussy?Have you done the seat bases yet? I ended up persevering with the hog ring pliers, they took a bit of getting used to, I still had to nip most of them up with pliers. I had trouble stretching the material over the back (top) of the seat base onto the wire basket, you can see the hog rings as you look down on the seats. I can't move the base any further back without it popping out of the front. Maybe it will bed in as I use the seats, again it may be down to distortion of the seat frames? I may have another go at the weekend, they are very comy and look much better now. I'll post some pictures when I get home.AlexPS Looking at your photos again, you will be able to get rid of that wrinkle with a bit more stretching of the cover around the back. I did the back first, then the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Hi Alex,No I haven't done the seat bases yet , going to do the second back tonight.Thanks for the tip regarding the wrinkle , will give it a go later on.Is it possible to do the hog rings with just normal pliers?Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 4457 wrote:Is it possible to do the hog rings with just normal pliers?JamieDon't see why not? Would be a bit fiddly and not as precise, but worth a go? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Here's mine completed-need to work on the driver's seat more to get the wrinkles out if possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Thanks for the pics Alex, your seats look great!managed to get that wrinkle almost out by pulling a bit more and re-clipping the back.Did you glue the cover to the foam cushion? Not sure whether to or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 1st base I glued lightly (vinyl adhesive spray) while in position, 2nd one did the proper way, ie turned flaps completely back (inside out) and lined up foam base onto cover, glued and turned flaps back into position. Funny thing is, I got better results with the 1st one as I was able to do a bit of repositioning before the glue set.Just go for it, as scary as the setting glue makes it!Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Hi All,Finally fionished the seats :)Applied some spray contact adhesive to the cushion and cover and glued them together making sure the cover was central.Used some pliers to attach 5 hog rings to the rear of the seat cover & basket doubling the material over whilst attaching.Then fitted the seat cushion to the frame and secured with clips.All in all im pleased with the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Seats fitted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Jamie,They look fab! How did you get the top[back] of the seat bases so snug onto the basket without stressing/stretching the stitching?It's almost as if the seat foams where too big on mine?Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Ah! I see, clips, , good way of doing it, rather than hog rings [like mine-see pic]. I copied my original seats, wonder if they used hog-rings to save money on clips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 Hi Alex,Thanks for your help on this , it took a while but got there in the end.And the runners are great 8)If anyone else is looking to recover some mk3/2 seats in the future this thread should help.In regards to the clips I just copied how the seats where before I took them apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamie31888 Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 4457 wrote:In regards to the clips I just copied how the seats where before I took them apart.There's the problem, then. I had one pair of seats plus a single left-hand one. The single one had a different basket and was fixed like yours [see first photo]. I recovered the matching pair, using one of them to copy from [2nd photo]. Although they were definitely from a Mk2, though the two models apparently used the same seats, maybe the production was changed at some point to incorporate smaller baskets and a different way of fixing them? Photo on next message shows the 2 basket types [as mentioned in an earlier message of mine].Now, where's my anorak????Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mc Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Ah yes, but whose are the comfiest. I've sat in Ludwigs on a longish run, and they were so comfy I forgot they had been re-done! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Photo of 2 different baskets.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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