My wife and I just finished recovering both seats in our '68 2L. She fabricated
a pattern from the old seat covers (after getting them off), bought the
material, and pieced together both the upper and lower covers. She reused the
wire pieces that fit around the bottom, that the welded, metal tabs bend over
to secure the fabric to the frame. We found a roll of replacement webbing to
replace the stretched out pieces of the old. Some were in good shape and only
needed a little shortening. Using the existing webbing fasteners was quite a
challenge as you have to un-bend the heavy wire, remove the sandwich pieces,
then punch holes in the new webbing, force the heavy wire back into the same
holes in the sandwich pieces and bend them over to secure them. This is after
judging how short to make them to compensate for sag. You then have to stretch
them out to fit into the frame mounting holes. We reused the foam bottom and
top, which saved us from having to purchase and shape some to match.
After getting the webbing taken care of, we struggled to fit the formed covers
back over the edges of the frame, and to get the metal tabs stuck through the
fabric and folded back over the wire pieces sown into the fabric. The tighter
you make it stretch, the smoother the fabric looks. One thing we didn't do was
to glue the seat bottom to the foam, which doesn't make the fabric follow the
contour of the seat as much. Maybe after years of sitting it will become more
form fitting. Overall we were pretty pleased with the effort and since my wife
and I don't always work well together, there were no arguments or differences
of opinion that were project induced. (at least that we remember!)
All told, we have probably have about 4 hours per each seat in constructing the
replacement covers, 2 hours per seat in removing them from the car and taking
them apart, and then 2 hours per seat installing the new covers. Total
investment in material and webbing (reusing all fasteners) was about $50. Total
time about 16 hours spread over several days. Buying a cover kit would cut the
job in half, which we would probably have done if my wife hadn't had previous
sewing and upholstery experience.
Steve Hill
'68 Datsun Sports 2000
Gilbert, AZ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike" <datsun_sports@hotmail.com>
To: "Datsun Forum" <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 6:24 PM
Subject: seats
> hi all,
>
> had a nice surprise today. the previous owner showed up at my house with
> some parts he found to include the original mirror and a set of seat covers.
> the covers look new but not stock. at least they are not like the ones on
> the seats now (they need to be replaced.) so I wanted to ask how hard it is
> to do them yourself. I have no experience in it so I am wondering if I
> should take to someone here in las vegas.
>
> mike
>
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