Cost to reupholster front bucket seats?

[sewlow]

When i went thru Trim an Upholstery we were taught how to price our work. Every excersise in this we never came out with a price for a interior job of QUALITY less than $5k. People see that dollar sign and don't see the skill or time or patience it takes. I have a huge appreciation for it and know now that if i take it to someone like Sewlow and he says its going to be $6k and take 3 weeks i understand. Things like GAS MONKEY garage have people jaded that they can go to a "reputable" trim shop and have seats recovered in leather with quality work for 1200 bucks in 2 days. That is not real life.

Y'know, out of all the shows on building vehicles, I've yet to see one where they cover a build of a complete interior.
Not just bits & pieces of the job. A fully complete interior.
From the designing of the style, the theme, allowances for customer requirements & the various random noodlings on paper &/or bar-napkins, then onto the lay-out, fabrication & then the install from start to finish.
The 'seats' ('as if' that's all that's involved!) just kinda go away & then show up, 45 minutes later, all done up, nice & pretty.
A lot of my customers are quite surprised when I tell that there's a lot more work in a set of door panels than a set of seats.
More than 2x as much.
I've spent hours & hours with a customer working out everything when building custom interiors for their rides.
From the seating position in relation to the S/wheel, pedals, & controls, to what kinda sound system is being installed & how that can be hidden as much as possible, before the materials, the fabrics, leather & carpets in whatever colors are even chosen.

And gauranteed, there'll be changes along the way, because even if the console is a spectacular one-of-a-kind piece, if the seat has to be slid all the forward in order to open the console lid, well then, the design is wrong.
The real trick is to pull all that off, have everything fit & still have the interior be 'correct'. Organic. Like it was born there. It has to be right, to fit in & suit the rest of the vehicle's overall look.
Us upholstery guys are expected to hit it outa the park everytime. But because so many don't realize the amount of manual labor involved, & the knowledge required, people are shocked by some of the costs.
I just ask them what the cost of the body & paint was. How much invested in the drivetrain?
Well the interior is 1/3 of the build.
If they don't get it after that, or if they get really bitchy, I hand 'em a pair of scissors.
Only one person's ever taken me up on that. And it took him 24hr.s over 3 days to tear apart, cut down, lay-out & cut out 2 buckets & a back seat for a '62 T-Bird.
A guy with 4 trades under his belt.
He never bitched about my prices again.
But...I was amazed. With his background, (fitter/fabricator/millwright/machinist/welder), he nailed it.
He can work for me anytime!
But he doesn't want to! Lol!

 

[laidbackbigun]

I loved doing trim work. It was something i actually had a knack for. I just don't have a place, money, or time to buy another Juki. Yes i said Juki. The course at Wyotech opened my eyes to a lot of things that make a interior personal and like you said organic like it belongs there. I completely want to do my Sonoma in a bordello type interior, red leather with black buttons on diamonds and huge tuck and roll or tubes everywhere. Go to a big car show and see how many "custom" rides have doors closed and windows rolled up because a.)they got shoddy upholstery work or b.) they aren't happy with how their big ideas turned out. hell i was at the Pittsburgh autoshow the year i was in trim and there was the boyd coddington zephyr in all its glory sitting there. i walked up and immediately saw the flaws, not in the paint, not in the wheel choice, or under the hood but at the missed stitches in the seats, the improper fitting door panels and the lack of flow to the interior. then i saw the Impaler. that interior with its sheetmetal and leather and all the choices made in it flowed with the car. pay the good money for interior work and keep the art form alive.

 

[east302]

5. Have any of you used www.theseatshop.com before? They seem like a reputable company but like anything aftermarket, I'm worried about fitment.

I bought their bottom seat cushion when I recovered the leather seats in my 1998. It was a perfect fit and made a world of difference.

Note that those cushions are meant for leather equipped seats...the factory covers were attached with Velcro and are easily removed. Cloth seats had the fabric glued to the foam, making removal more difficult from what I've heard.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sewlow]

Cloth seats had the fabric glued to the foam, making removal more difficult from what I've heard.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Use steam to release the glue.
An el cheapo for clothes (Some say for drapery) is around $75.00.
I've seen them @ Wal-Mart for under $50.00.
When you're finished with it, give it to the wife. She'll never use an iron again!
Or, get a kettle boiling & push the bottom of the foam right onto the spout so that the steam rises up & through the foam.
The kettle is a slow process though.
With the steamer, you can use the wand to get right up into where the cover is glued to the foam.
The glue will soften up enough to be able to seperate those cloth covers from the cushions.

You must be registered for see images

 

[Curt]

Update time! Just got the seats back from the shop and I absolutely love them. It took about ~10 business days to get them reupholstered, 3 of the days were because the guy who upholstered them forgot to add the "pleats/ruffles" in the top section of the seats. So he had to take off the top cover and add the ruffles. But man was it worth the wait. I haven't had the time to throw them in the truck yet, but I will ASAP tomorrow. For anyone interested in how much this costed, it was $1400 for both front seats wrapped in Katzkin leather.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach