The bench seats.
The originals were replaced in the mid 1970's with a set of three brand new benches from a 1970 Suburban. They were purchased by my Dad out of the local news paper, the seats were take outs from a Suburban being converted to an ambulance. They even had the factory plastic covers on them when my Dad got them, and they stayed on the seats for years. Over time, these seats wore out. They were used in the new seat cover project below.
The back benches I tried to copy 67-68 with the side bolt accessible for the seat belt, the front bench you will notice that the side bolt is covered like the 70-72 covers. I decided to do that, since it looked better. (There are things that I take a different approach on than staying 100% OE, but they are usually very minor like this decision on the seat cover).
This project was the last big ticket project I had on this whole project.
Quick and dirty here...
OE materials per seat: 500.00 x 3 (Purchased from SMS
www.smsautofabrics.com).
Labor to stitch up materials to match OE pattern per seat: 500.00 x 3 (Local shop).
New memory foam, replacement springs for front seat: 400.00 (Local shop sourced the foam, since he got it cheaper than I could. The replacement springs came out of other parts benches I had).
It was a hard pill to swallow, but I needed to get them done right.
(This by the way, was the reason I needed to sell the 1970 K10 I had).
I do not agree with any of the vendors who say they make a correct 67-68 cover, so I did my research and had them made the way they did them in 67-68. Now, just like most of my expensive projects on the Suburban, there will be a vendor who will start reproducing these for a lot less money I'm sure. I've gotten use to it, since Suburban's are slow to get on the vendor repop lists.
The seat project isn't even done, since I need to buy all new seat belts for all 3 rows.
I plan to go with a shoulder harness set for the front, and laps for the back 2 rows.
The belts I have picked out, are color matched aqua green metallic with chrome buckles.
The old belts, they are just getting old. So being a safety item, I want to get all new.