$750 - $1000 for original seat?

[BobRitts]

I know I'm probably the *only* one out there with a torn bench seat, so bear with me...

I stopped by the local auto upholstery place to price a rebuilt seat (new fabric, rebuild the foam). They quoted $470 for the whole shebang, labor & parts, to take my old cracked seat and rebuild it with new material (same pattern, new vinyl and cloth). Not so bad, given how much I dislike working with upholstery!

They also said they could maybe find the ORIGINAL material, as in, been sitting in a dark warehouse for 38 years since the truck was new. In fact they did, but it's pricey, $750 to repair the driver's side half, and $1000 to rebuild the whole seat with new (but old) fabric. The samples I saw from that vintage were exact, not just similar... I was really impressed. It also seemed very fresh for being old - which I think is the difference between sitting in a hot sunny car and sitting in a dark cool warehouse for 38 years. All of their "old" stuff was still supple. (Supple... strange word...)

Does anyone carry exact reproductions anymore? Is this a rare deal to find the real material, or could I pick up an LMC catalog and find the exact same thing? Should I jump on this deal because it's the last bit of original material on earth?

Thanks!

- BobRitts

[FRENCHBLUE72]

http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

Bet these guys have what your looking for..

[lpaine]

I think a repro seat cover is o.k., unless you're really fussy and want genuine G.M. parts. I don't think you would ever tell the difference between the 2 seat covers. You'll definitely save $ with repro, obviously.

[72Levi]

I bought mine from Tim Christian (a vendor and board member) he sent me the actual seat covers for my Blazer and they were right on the money. The complete set, front and rears, were not even close to that price. $1k sounds a bit pricey to me unless you are building a perfect show only truck.

[lks dcvn]

Save your money - check with SMS for the fabric or find a board vender who sells the covers and do it yourself.

I had a local guy quote me $450 to do my bench seat...I found a repop cover on the for sale board and did it myself for $100 in about 2 hours (including removing/installing the seat)

[mclairmo]

No disrespect intended but $1,000 for a bench seat sounds crazy to me. I paid $1,500 for my whole truck and it was rust free, runs great and came with an original speed warning/tach dash, nice 6 lug ralleys and a bench seat with no tears or damage. I can do a lot with $1,000. I would buy a $100 repro cover and do it yourself. I might understand spending $1,000 on buddy buckets, but that's even pushing it for me.

[bestchevyfan]

For that amount you should get the truck too. Later,buddy

[big_al_71]

Save your money and go with the repro.....

[Sinister]

If I was gonna drop that much on a seat, I'd at least want it to be leather.

[mr48chev]

Prices vary a lot in different parts of the country and from trimmer to trimmer with a lot of factors figured in.

450 doesn't sound that far out of line for a really nice job and good material on the seat but the 1000 sounds a bit stiff to me. Unless I just flat wanted a 100 point show truck I think I would go with quality covers from one of the vendors who you can get decent feedback on and then either install the covers yourself or have a shop do it for you. If you hunt a bit you can probably find new preshaped foam for the seats to go with the covers.

[bigdon-70blazer]

I was looking for the plain jane material for a while when I found the exact stuff from SMS auto fabrics in Oregon I think. It was exact and 70 dollars a yard. I bet it is exactly what you want. What I did was send them a pic and got thru to the right one. You may have to call several times to have them e-mail you the right pic of what you want, but it is possible. And they probably have it. I bought mine direct from them and gave it to the uphosterer and saved that markup...