seat repairing - anyone tried it?

I've just bought a nice cheap set of red gti seats for my mk1 project - they are well faded but that just looks cool.. There are no rips but the stitching where that holds material of bolster to the striped stuff has come undone - and i'm not confident with my sewing technique enough to give it a go!

has anyone tried to repair there mk1 drivers seat?? and how did they get on?

Are there any companies that repair the seats? Would imaginre they are very expensive??
There must be some repair service cause a lot of people seem to have spanking new looking seats!

thanks, rowan.

i run a textile factory and so have a few sewingmachines at my fingertips, they're easy enough to use i'd just run around it with one.

have a couple of practice goes first tho (if you are going to do it yourself)

Anyone reproducing the gti cloth?  I think they'd make a killing… seriously it's probably a big market if you expand to a few classic cars!!!

Mine was the same-just whipped the cover off, pin it back where it needs to be, and borrowed my neighbours sewing machine-just went over original stitching a few times! Stronger than original now!

does anyone have a sample of original cloth?

what patterns are you looking for?

i MAY be able to sort something out!

When I lived in Cambridge, my mate with a combi had his seats remade by a guy who did this for a living. He did amazing jobs, and with a small tear in my seat, I wondered how he would patch it up (the tear had frayed a lot). He managed to nick some material from between the two back seats and matched it perfectly, so the only giveaway was an extra seam. There is no way in the world I could have got it to look that neat. It was only about a tenner to get done too. Oh, and he fixed up my broken heated seat after finding it was just a loose wire. You could give it a go, but if you don't want to risk screwing it up, I'd just find someone who does it for a living.

I work with sewing machines all day (Tarpaulin Manufacturer) and last year bought a second hand  Black/Silver rear seats, just to use the material for my worn drivers seat. I removed the bolsters from my drivers seat, then unstitched the material and used as template to lay it on top of the rear seat material and make new bolster covers from the virtually unused rear seat material…………all came out good, though haven't used them yet, as I want to save them till I really need to use them.  The hardest problem for me, is the amount of clips holding the bolsters/foam to the seat frame .

Spudfingers said

Anyone reproducing the gti cloth?  I think they'd make a killing… seriously it's probably a big market if you expand to a few classic cars!!!

I thought this aswell mate, so i emailed the company that made the orriginal material for vw, benoke or something i think they were called.

They basically said that for them to remake an old cloth design they would need a minimum order quantity, which was something like 10000 euros worth.

So i sort of left it at that    

Kenno said

Spudfingers said

Anyone reproducing the gti cloth?  I think they'd make a killing… seriously it's probably a big market if you expand to a few classic cars!!!

I thought this aswell mate, so i emailed the company that made the orriginal material for vw, benoke or something i think they were called.

They basically said that for them to remake an old cloth design they would need a minimum order quantity, which was something like 10000 euros worth.

So i sort of left it at that    

now i know i can get it a lot lot cheaper than that. just need to know the material

Kenno said

I thought this aswell mate, so i emailed the company that made the orriginal material for vw, benoke or something i think they were called.

They basically said that for them to remake an old cloth design they would need a minimum order quantity, which was something like 10000 euros worth.

So i sort of left it at that    

LMAO  :lmao:  :lmao: … I'd walk away from that too

whatalotafun said

now i know i can get it a lot lot cheaper than that. just need to know the material

Maybe it'd be something we could get from one of our breakers here?

What are you thinking Dean?  Can your company make them bud?

i can't make them, although i do have all of the right gear to doit myself.

but i do have the right suppliers who could make the material

''I removed the bolsters from my drivers seat, then unstitched the material and used as template to lay it on top of the rear seat material and make new bolster covers from the virtually unused rear seat material…………''

do i just get a knife and unpick the thread holding the drivers bolster on??
pretty scary - really dont want to mess up my seats but would love nw looking black bolster material on all seats :mrgreen:
can you explain a little more for me please?? :?

I did a whole interior including pipng and its not so bad if you can use a sewing machine.
Tbh the worst part was stripping the original seats to get a template and then covering washing line  to make piping.

If you can get the seat cover off the frame the pieces seperate quite easily with a stanley blade and some tweezers.

If you pin this bit to the new material and draw a stencil - all that is left is to cut out, put in the stitch lines and re-attach to original cover.

Hope this helps  :dontknow:

jai said

covering washing line  to make piping.

i have the binding machines that do this for you.

or i can overlock thr non piped areas.


like you say, the stencil is the hard part,

Wasnt lucky enough to locate the binding machine cos the  hubby wanted it done in a weekend   The results were really good tho, i just had to perfect the art of getting the stitching and material tight around the washing line (without breaking needle).

I have labelled and kept the stencil tho just incase the car needs another make over  

gotta see what i can do about the material first, anyone got some old gti material?

I repaired a drivers seat by removing all the material from the frame and replacing it with a passenger seat material.

The worst bit there is getting the headrest mounts out which sink through the material into the metal work as they are barbed and awkward to get at.

I found the best way was to get some mains earth cable (5amp) and keep twisting the bare copper wire around the clip with a pair of long nosed pliers until all four barbs were touching each other, the headrest mountings then drop out quite easily. You can pop them back still with the wire on and then just snip the wire.

I stripped a passenger seat the same and had a trimmer remove the rear vinyl part of the drivers seat and attach it to front of the passenger seat as the handle which lets rear passengers in is opposite handed obviously.

The trimmer charged me a tenner for his trouble!

Just take plenty of pictures as there are a lot of clips and springs inside once you start stripping.

Yomp said

The worst bit there is getting the headrest mounts out which sink through the material into the metal work as they are barbed and awkward to get at.

I found the best way was to get some mains earth cable (5amp) and keep twisting the bare copper wire around the clip with a pair of long nosed pliers until all four barbs were touching each other, the headrest mountings then drop out quite easily. You can pop them back still with the wire on and then just snip the wire.

11-12mm socket also does the job nicely  :wink:

jai said

Wasnt lucky enough to locate the binding machine cos the  hubby wanted it done in a weekend   The results were really good tho, i just had to perfect the art of getting the stitching and material tight around the washing line (without breaking needle).

I have labelled and kept the stencil tho just incase the car needs another make over  

oi they need doing again your cat has scratched the passenger seat to death