C6VETTE4FUN

My driver seat finally got a small tear from getting in and out of the
car..I was pissed!! This is the spot where all the seats wear down as you get in the car.(hard metal side). Well what is a solution? A new seat
is proberly to costly, is there a way to fix this? have a new side stitched
in? any ideas??

bandit_99

Sounds like your seat bolster. The fix is pretty easy, and not too costly. I don't know if you have sport seats or not, but I did this fix in about an hour. You can order the replacement seat back "leather" and foam from GM parts direct. The foam replacment and seat back replacement + shipping was about $130. The part number will depend on what color your seats, and if its sport or regular. I can send you a link to the replacement instrucs. I looked at them, but the process is fairly intuitive.

It will cost you more for somebody to replace the leather or do a custom stitch job. It was so easy to do it myself, I'd recommend you go this route.

:cool:
Dave


[Modified by bandit_99, 8:20 PM 7/25/2002]

HBJ

Ken King at VetteEssentials has excellent instructions and photos posted on his website on removing the seats from the car and replacing the leather panels.

C6VETTE4FUN

Great !!! thanks for the reply! checking sight now and calling dealer..
I tell ya, i almost broke a rip getting in the vette a few months ago in
a tight parking spot!

Chris

HBJ

You might want to talk to Ken about replacing the torn panel and some others with color. I'm thinking about getting the seat pouches and maybe a couple of color strips to accent my seats. Will probably wait until winer now, though.

HBJ

ncvetteman

Chevy had a lot problems with that and "fixed" it on later C5s by changing the material on the side bolsters to vinyl. I think it was in either 99 or 00 they made the change. In some cases, GM has authorized replacement even on cars out of warranty b/c it was such a known problem. I would go to dealer and call GM customer service to try get a "free" replacement.

bandit_99

He's right. Mine's a 99 which had the problem. There is a TSB issued on this, but they only seem to honor it if your car is covered under the original 3X36K. You can try begging at the dealer, but since you have a 97, they will probably tell you to take a hike (like they told me). It is worth a try though!

The replacement seat back has a re-inforced felt lining to also prevent the wearing. The problem is the bolster frame is rather sharp. After getting in and out dozens of times, the wear and tear will actually cause the boster frame to cut through the foam, and then the leather.

Somebody recommended I add some plastic coping over the bolster edge to dull down the edge. I recommend that you do the same if you try this yourself. It will prevent you from having to do fix this in the future.

Here is the link for install instrucs.:
http://temp.corvetteforum.net/c5/ste...r_removal.html