FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Hi there;

Are there any members from Sydney who have recently repaired / overhauled their bench seat?

I'm looking to find an upholsterer who is genuinely interested in working on an old car. (and knows what they are doing as well)

Mine has large cracks in the vinyl across the drivers seat area - and the springs have sagged. I want the repairs to be as stock as possible.

Any suggestions ??

cheers and thanks ...
Jamie

 Hi
Try this guy he is located at Fairfied West

 Denniss Motor Triming
 Ask for John he has just repaired my wagon front
 seat and did a great job.

  Phone  96046504
  55 Maud Street Fairfield West.

  cheers  
  John :)
 

Thanks for the tip ...

I might give him a call. Can I also ask you:

Did he do anything with the seat springs (or just retrim) ?

Did you have the seat retrimmed to an original look?

What sort of dollars did he charge you?

thanks again ...
Jamie

Jamie the sagging seat springs are generally broken springs.
you can get spares from a donor seat ( best from the middle as there has been less wear.
Take your seat out and have a look at the bottom. The springs are held in place with  "PIG RINGS". These can be bought from an upholstery shop with a tool to squash the rings. Dunno what the tool is called maybe a PIG RING TOOL THINGMEBOB ;D. Some fencing conractors have the tool also ...for joining mesh fencing etc.
Fitting the springs is a faily simple job with the rings and tools

You can pick up the rings and tool at any reasonable hardware store.

I happen to know that the trimmer John suggested stripped all the springs from John's donor seat, so that he would have spares for the next early Holden customer that came along.

I've seen the job done on John's wagon, and it was very good.

However, depending on where you are, another recommended trimmer who has done work for a number of NSW Club members is Danny Mifsud of "A Stitch N Time" in Croydon Park.  I can certainly attest to being very happy with the job done on my car, which included stitching repairs, fixing of sagged springs and the like.  Danny's number is 9798 2702 / 0416 119 224

Hope that helps.

cheers
RET

cheers RET .... will definately give "A Stitch N Time" a call.

What can you suggest if the vinyl to be repaired is in a really bad state (eg creased, cracked, ripped etc)

Any ideas where I might be able to get some new trim to match the original stuff? (even a reproduction will do)?

thanks
Jamie

I was able to source a piece of original material that Danny used to repair the seat sides, which was the only damaged area I had to worry about.  He also used to to make some new piping for across the front of the seat where it was worn.

The large expanse across the back of the front seat is perfect for this, if you can get one in the same colour, because it's likely to be aged like the rest of the seat.  (In some ways this is even better than NOS material, which will almost certainly be a different colour for the same reason.)

If you can't get hold of one the same, any other of the lighter colour fabrics is a candidate for vinyl painting to match your existing seat.  Bear in mind that the original vinyl material was painted, and holds up remarkably well when done properly.  (I've had a console from a HK premier in my modified car for at least 10 years which I vinyl-sprayed dark blue over the original dark burgundy, and it's only now starting to show through in a few places.)  You couldn't expect the driver's seat to last like that though.  A trimmer can give you the best advice.  The company (can't think of their name OTTOMH, but they advertise in Unique Cars etc) that does those repro door trims for GTs and the like might be worth a call, too.

Hope all that is some help to you.

cheers
RET

Definately a big help - thanks Ret!

Dear Jamie,

I had the front bench seat of my FB done by Danny at Stitch n Time - it was torn on the drivers side and felt like you were sitting on the floor as the springs had gone.  I was very happy with the result - the total seat was resprung and I supplied the vinyl.  I'm in Sydney if you want to see the result.

Did you email the FB-EK club?  I had been meaning to respond but have been off sick for a while.  

Regards
Stewart

Gday Parisian62

Good to hear about 'A Stitch In Time' - will definately contact them .... seems as though they have a good rep.

Yeah - I have tried with the FB-EK club, but the board over there is not as active/large as this one.

cheers
Jamie