[michael]

Ok someone out there can help... I just purchased a repo set of seat covers for the 69 Mach 1 interior. How difficult are they to put on. Would I be better to get a professional to do the job or can this be done by a novice given plenty of time?

Thanks

 

[aslan]

You can do it! I put on seat covers on a classic VW and they went on very easy. First put them in the sun or a clothes dryer for 20 minutes or so. Then put a garbage bag over the seats. Next pull the covers over the seats. The gb makes it slip over real easy. Once they are on, you have to tweak the cover somewhat. Then just rip out the gb! You might also want to invest in a set of hog ring pliers too. Good luck.
Stan

 

[Guest]

Its not the easiest task, but if you have a little patience and don't get in a hurry, you can do a job that you will be proud of. I purchased a complete set and got new foam for the buckets. I did set the covers out in the sun and they were NOT easy to stretch over the frames! It took alot of effort, I was just carefull not to let the seams lay on any edge that was too sharp until I got them over the frames. The buckets I did was on a 65 so I don't know the real difference. On the 65 you have to hog ring the listings in the center portion of the seat first, then pull the cover over the frame. A good set of hog ring pliers is a must, as is plenty of hog rings, and a good set of dikes. My first bucket, I had to cut off every other hog ring that I put on as I missed the wire on the back.....but I got better. My seats all look great and I can say I redid them myself...Thats always worth alot. I think a good set of hog rings pliers and ample hog rings should only cost you around 25.00 which is far less than the upholstery shop!! Take your time, I did the bench one night, one bucket the next and the last bucket the third night. Good Luck

Sanford

 

[Guest]

This is a link from a previous post. Gives a good step by step.

http://www.grapevine.net/~hostetter

 

[rickoshay]

You might want to do one seat at a time. That way you can use the other for reference. Patience is the key here. I found the hardest part of the job was getting the cover positioned perfectly, and then discovering (more than once) that I hadn't "reloaded" the pliers with a new hog ring/forums/images/icons/smile.gif. BTW, mine turned out great!

 

[goatholes]

Mikey, I am doing my 69 mach right now too. It looks a lot easier than it is, but you can do it. First off it was a pain to cut all the old hog rings from the old cover, and then to find a few of the small metal bars were rusted. Once I got the seats prepped, I didnt have any problem fitting the new cover on, the hardest part was pushing the metal support bars down hard enough to get the hog rings to catch them. My fingers get numb, and it is taking me much longer than I thought. What I have done looks good though, but I think I am going to run out of hog rings, ditto the above about a 50% (or less) success rate in getting the rings to find the metal bar/rod whatever....

 

[DaveK]

A little trick my dad and I figured out when installing new upholstery on my '67 cougar was to run a piece of stiff wire through the upholstery around the listing wire and push that through the foam. Then you can grab the wire and pull it tight so the frame so that you can hit the listing with the hog ring. It worked pretty good for us.

Good luck.