CraigH

Picked up the frames and started preparing for paint as well as other seat parts.

CraigH

Had time to do the seat bottoms this morning.

Placed foam on frame, attached using hog rings.

Then role the covers on.















Lots of sunlight helps them go on easier and stretch into place with the bottom clips.

SB64

Nice job, the frames and hardware look great and you did a great job on the padding and covers. Was this the first time you ever did this?
r

CraigH

First time have ever tried covering seats. Just followed the videos and kept adjusting till I was happy.

Lots of firsts with the Vette, never had a classic car before, I am fairly handy but never done anything like the amount of restoration etc that I have with this car.

Thoroughly enjoyed it all and its been a great learning experience.

As you can probably tell i am fairly **** about detail so I often do things a few times before i am totally happy.

The vette project has kept me sane and given me some sanity from my day job.

Don't know what i will do if I ever finish it :-)

SB64

CraigH what video and where did you get it. I might want to try that myself. Also you covered your seats in leather or not??? Oh one more thing where did you get all the supplies, tools and material, foam etc.
thanks
r

CraigH

rvzio

The videos are on the Corvette America site by year.

Here are the ones i used for 70-75

http://www.corvetteamerica.com/video/70_75scInstall/

I went for full leather seats not leather with synthetic sides. I believe originally it would have come with just leather faces but I wanted it all leather.

The only tools i needed were the hog ring pliers and the tool to pull the clips through the holes in the foam and clip them over the wiggly cross bars.

Seats, tools etc all came from Ernie at Wilcox Corvette.

CraigH

Refinished some of the other seat trim and the door second hand door handles I got.

Turned out my vette had 2 right hand handles.

SB64

Thanks for the info will contact Wilcox for stuff and the video was great.
r

BLUE1972

Excellent seat work, handles look fantastic..

Still working under the car, removed the rear universal to pull the drive shaft for the 5 speed and found this rear differential bushing.

I can't understand going through the effort of replacing the bushing and using heater hose? The bushing is $17.oo w/the hardware.

I'm also setting up a gauge that's electric, using a 76 gauge (white letters), transferring the 71 face (green - from a swap meet broken $5), Will use a 75 sending unit. Need to use 1/16 rivets to apply the face.
Tested it with today with compressed air today and it reads right on.

Again you car looks fantastic.

CraigH

Thanks Blue1972

yes its amazing someone would bother pulling it apart to just poke some heater his in where the bush should be, but you see things like that all the time.

Glad to hear your having some wins though.

BLUE1972

Thanks, it's been a crazy and strange endeavor finding things BUBBA and his first cousin twice removed would not try.

For the gauge rivets I found some on both the train and model car sites. At $3 to $4 per bag I ordered them and will let you know how they look. Rivets are !/16" diameter, round face. These match the originals. One I ordered is actually threaded 2-56 for nuts.

briankeery

Nice clean work Craig as always, hope you've had a good summer......and that you're taking good care of my Monaro.

CraigH

Been a little quiet for a while as I had some problems with the seat backs.

The seat bases went so easy but....

1) I did not realise that full leather covers don't stretch quite the same as the standard leather sets that use vinyl for the sides.

2) I did not leave the covers in the sun long enough.

3) I was busy with other things at work and home and rushed.

End result was while rolling the set back cover over the top (as per CA videos) I ripped the cover in the middle where the seat release button is.



So in disgust I gave up for a while, concentrated on our bathroom reno etc etc

CraigH

Jay at Corvette America was very helpful and was going to arrange a custom order for one replacement back cover but in the end a Willcox sale let me buy a new leather set and have it shipped to Australia.

I went with a full set as i wanted both backs to match perfectly colour and was concerned that my original set from 2010 may be slightly different from the 2015 sets.

This time I was gun shy and decided to use a trimmer for the backs then reassemble them.

CraigH

Fitted up all the seat bottoms hardware.

CraigH

Here are the finished seat back frames before they went to the trimmer.

CraigH

Picked up seat backs from Trimmer yesterday and he did a great job, will start the reassembly soon.



I still need to colour match the seat belt trim piece.

nwav8tor

Looks marvelous! I'm sooo far from that stage that it isn't even on the radar...

Paul

SB64

You and me both, but it is a great job. I can't wait until we are at that point.
r

BLUE1972

the car looks better than new

great job