New seat upolstery?

[sewlow]

Yep! Katzkin is actually not a bad deal for the price. But their profit margin is signifigantly greater due to their buying power. They buy hundreds of hides at a time. I'll bet that the same leather I use costs them $4.00/sq.ft. That & they have a CNC laser cutter that digitally scans the hide, figures out the best use of the leather when cutting it out, then lasers out the whole seat cover at once.
I have to cut each piece, one at a time.
Then they have close-to-minimum wage earners sewing them up. I can't compete with that!
But with Katzkin, you are limited to their colors & designs. I can do whatever the customer wants. And if it's a custom design, then it's just that. 'Custom'. I never repeat the same custom design twice. It becomes a one of a kind that you will never see anywhere else, ever.
If the job is to be as original, well, the best compliment that I ever had, was that the customer said that the finished job looked exactly as the original! He said that it looked like I had never worked on it, & that's the way it's supposed to be!

 

[kamokevin]

I used to be surprised by the price too, but lots of people spend $2000+ on something like a winch bumper, so I don't see why a reupholstered interior would be any different. Sometimes you gotta pay to play haha

 

[ChrisAU]

Mine are completely cloth, and all I want replaced is the lower half of the drivers seat (where your a$$ goes), and the arm rest covering on that seat.

 

[sewlow]

Chris, if you can't find original material, & you have buckets, I would suggest going to the wreckers & see if you can find a passenger seat cover or a complete bench cover in good condition. Then you could get a shop to use that, to sew either the whole face or whatever part that needs to be fixed into the driver's seat. Passenger seats, buckets or bench, last much longer than the driver's.
This can also be done for a bench seat, even if the cover you find has been trashed on the driver side. You just need enough of that factory material for the repair.
The same goes for the armrest. The driver side always dies before the passenger's does. If you can get factory material from the wreckers, make sure that there is enough to do the armrest, too.

 

[sewlow]

I used to be surprised by the price too, but lots of people spend $2000+ on something like a winch bumper, so I don't see why a reupholstered interior would be any different. Sometimes you gotta pay to play haha

I get this all the time. A guy comes to me and wants a complete leather interior in his '55 Chevy. Totally custom. The car is finished, but just with a shell of an interior, & some seat frames. How much? he says. (Like I know off the top of my head!) So, I spend more than a couple of hours with this guy. Choosing colors, textures, style, designs, etc. Seats, headliner, door panels, (which can take much longer than all the seats, combined.) carpets, console, kick panels, parcel shelf, visors, garnish mouldings. All inclusive.
Comes out to around $20,000! This includes the labor of 180-200 hours.
He FREAKS!
So, I ask him how much does he have into the BBC with the 8-71 blower.
$35,000.
I ask him how much for the body work & the ultra cool custom paint?
Another $30,000!
How much for the rest of the drivetrain. The fancy wheels. Another $20,000.
Well the interior is 1/3 of the vehicle! After spending all that on the rest of the vehicle, why cheap-out on that? If they want an interior that compliments the vehicle & all the rest of the mods, the time & effort, plus the experience that I bring to the job is not gonna come cheap. If he wants a $5,000 interior in his $100,000.00 dollar project, fine, there are lots of guys out there that'll do that, but he's getting what he pays for. Lots of shortcuts! And he won't be happy with it. I'll garauntee that!
Do it once, do it right!

 

[BHBurban]

It's amazing that people will spend 60-80k on parts to build a car or truck, but have heart failure at 8-10k of labor.

 

[CUSTOM06]

Sounds like me. lol

 

[sewlow]

If they get really bitchy, I'll hand 'em a pair of scissors. "Here, let's see what you can do!"
Got a good friend that's a fitter, fabricator, machinist, welder, millwright.
He used to bug me (usually after a couple of beers or 6!) about my labor rate. He'd say that he has got $50,000 in tools & machines, & charges $70/hr. out of his home shop. Whereas I've got $10,000 in machinery & tools & I charge $50/hr. How can I justify that?
Well, he wanted the interior of his '46 Chevy sedan delivery. I said sure, but I'll do a bit of a trade with you. I'll do your interior, you pay for materials, & while I'm doing that, there's a '62 T-Bird sitting there that needs an interior. You pull the seats out, mark 'em for layout, tear 'em down, cut 'em out, then lay out & cut out all the new material, so all I have to do is sew them up. I'll show you how to put the covers on. As I do one, you can be doing the other. He says, "sure!".
Three days later, 24 hours of work, & he finally finishes the job. I haven't started sewing any of it yet. He says,"Holy Crap! That's a bunch of work!"
I say, "Wake up call! What the 'F' do you think I do? Close my eyes & throw the materials at the vehicle, & the seats are covered?"
He never bugged me again about what I charge!

 

[ChrisAU]

Thats a great idea about salvaging material!

 

[1993GMCSierra]

Hi Sewlow,

The seat itself looks great, like new in fact. The only damaged spot is where the passenger sits down, on that "inner" cloth section that's a lighter color than the surround. It's about 2"x2", I left a bottle of peroxide on the seat (still sealed, mind you) and apparently some of it managed to leak out. The "webbing" that all the cloth strands are sewed to is still intact, just the cloth is gone. I guess I need to take a photo. I'd like to just replace that section, and refoam the seat.

Alternatively, another Garnet Red bench seat in mint shape would work as well.