Lakeside49

I wanted to contribute something of potential interest to fellow cloth seat owners. None of our core C3 parts suppliers sells OE fabric seats - notta-one, especially for an `82. I called each of them and they said they do not sell enough cloth replacements to justify investing in the large batts of material, and explained the original fabric was lost to the ages. With that, at first, I disassembled and dry-cleaned the covers which worked well, but the covers were faded and the dyes on the market didn't impress me because you had to heat up the solution which would damage the 32-year old slatted foam inserts. The spray-on dyes were also a compromise, wearing off eventually as reported by others. I thought about converting to leather which looks nice especially when new, but I really wanted to keep it all original. Plus, my wife prefers the more breathable, softer and totally quiet cloth, especially for long drives, so cloth it had to be. No towels or risk of 1st degree burns on hot days. Happy wife, happy life.

It took a good bit of investigative work, but I finally tracked down the exact 1982 OE fabric from SMS Fabric Company in Oregon. Doug is the owner. And Al Knoch did a fantastic job of sewing the material, with new foam, into brand new seats. It cost $3-4 hundred more than equivalent leather replacements even before the optional cross flags embroidery, but what do you think? Let me know if this interests or enlightens anyone else pondering their options with original cloth seats.

Dave

qwank

Those look great!
My '81 is an original cloth seat car, but they were replaced with vinyl covers by a PO. I'm not sure i i'd ever go back to cloth though, i'll probably get real leather next time, or maybe leather with alcantara inserts

80Baby

Your seats look fantastic and in my opinion worth the extra money it costs. Al Knoch is one amazing guy.

loyalist

Wow, I think cloth is a great option. I wish it was available when i replaced my seat covers

alconk

My 82 came with leather and looks great but have always prefered cloth. I think they wear and feel better. They look great!

diehrd

When in 82 did they make a 3 seat version

Lakeside49

Much appreciated feedback. I know we're in a leather-oriented sports car era for some (not all) valid reasons boiling down to personal and spouse preference. I was surprised how hard it was to pursue a quality cloth seat restoration option through our core C3 supplier partners. I mean, after all this is a Corvette and while cloth seats were a relatively low percentage of the builds, they had some nice looking/feeling fabrics that seem to have handled the test of time pretty well, they weren't any lower cost as an OE option, and they still numbered well into the thousands of units despite the comparatively lower take-rates. I would also be glad to answer any questions here or via a PM - God knows I get enough thoughtful insights from the good folks in this forum.

Dave

alconk

I bought a 88 years ago and one of the reasons why is that it had cloth and to this day I have never seen another one in a C4.

alconk

I've never seen in person a C3 with cloth either but only in photos so I would imagine that is a rare option.

Lakeside49

Sort of. For instance, at www.VetteFacts.com, it shows that they produced 20,113 1978 C3's with cloth - perhaps the first year of cloth seats - and 1793 with cloth in the record low, recession era C3 production year of 1982 - so, somewhere in between there were many thousands of C3's with the `no-discount' OE cloth seat option. Again, not a debate - the leather seats win hands down based on sheer take-rate. A lot to be said for that, But, that said, comfortable cloth seats, with their own unique advantages, are quietly out there and have a rightful place in this wonderful C3 car hobby.

DV

Priya

I would much prefer cloth seats over leather - your's look great!

I don't think I can afford them now, how much in total did the cloth replacements cost you?

briankeery

Only 517 interiors out of over 53,000 cars built in 1979......so in my case, pretty rare.

doorgunner

I think he said several hundred dollars more than quality leather because the cloth is so difficult to find.

Priya

So, how much is the quality leather?

Lakeside49

Sure - the original fabric was $650 and the sewing/new foam installation was $600 The embroidered cross-flags were $150 for both seats and shipping was $80. I got a break on shipping when Al Knoch ran a holiday promo. Ask for Melissa at Al Knoch who coordinated the whole thing, except for the material which they shipped the 6 yards of genuine 1982 fabric directly to Al Knoch. Btw, if you do this, Al Knoch will automatically upgrade the seat foam which is denser than the OE. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Priya

The seats on the right look sort of silver/grey and the one on the left looks beige - is the fabric you got silver/grey?

Lakeside49

The seat on the left is one of the original silver gray seats. I did not realize that it had lost it's original grey tones until the new ones arrived with the OE fabric based on other's comparisons online. In fact, the old ones are in superb shape as you can see from the two photos that I'm attaching from last August. The original owners were meticulous, but turns out you can't stop mother sunshine's handiwork. I am going to treat the new seats (and, the new carpet) with some sort of UV protection/stain protection. If anyone has any proven ideas there, let me know.

Btw, on the topic of carpet, after a lot of additional investigative work, I found that Stock Interiors sells an "ultra plush" carpet which is the same weight as the original carpet that came in the vehicle. It is 40% denser and the pile is probably 20-25% higher than the standard "100 points" carpet that ACC supplies. It was about a $116 premium vs. the standard carpet, but I'm really trying to restore this thing back to the full `82 experience; and, the carpet samples that I received from our core C3 suppliers - who I still do a lot of business with I'll quickly add - fell short, every one of them except this option. The lady at Stock Interiors explained that they had sold almost 200 sets of the standard carpet and only 26 sets of the ultra plush. So, either the word is not out about the upgrade option or the additional cost is a turn-off. I'll include a photo - the standard carpet is on the left and the Ultra Plush is on the right. Both swatches are silver.
Not sure if all this stuff helps others, but am hoping so as I spent some quality time/$ on figuring it out.
Dave

AGVI

Yeah, I've contacted SMS and they had the cloth for my '80 seats, but I decided to go with C5 seats. Cloth doesn't look too hot in my Vette.

Lakeside49

Yes - but, not quite as rare as you might think from a percentage standpoint. Your dark green cloth interior was still 21% of the 2,426 green 1979 C3's. And, since there were only 907 dark green leather interiors, your cloth interior represented 36% of all dark green interiors. So, you're spot on, there are not very many dark green interiors on the road compared to Oyster, Blue and Beige which each easily broke 2000 apiece, but over a third of customers/dealers who ordered a dark green interior apparently did decide on the cloth option.

http://vettefacts.com/C3/1979.aspx

Redwing01

Those look awesome, congrats!
Very cool look.