The seats in my newly acquired 1986 corvette were original, and while not terrible, definitely could use replacement. Since this car is my daily driver, I decided to make seat comfort a priority, and ordered new leather seats already mounted on foam. I also ordered new carpet at the same time(credit card in hand, Corvettes part store on the phone - it's worse than being a drunk in a liqour store!)
Here, you can see that the seats and carpet match pretty well.
The new seats have the same metallic finish that the originals had.
I unbolted the drivers seat and brought it in the house to get started.
As I removed the old cushions I was pleased to fine that our resident princess approved of the new seats.
This shot shows the new seats and the old seats(fur-ther inspection in progress).
When I inspected the seat shell, I found that the springs had completely rusted out.
Installing the bottom cushion is quite easy, as you just drop it in place and flip the retaining wire over the two tabs in the front of the shell.
However, the lack of support was troublesome, we'll fix that in a minute.
The seat back, unlike the seat bottom, is a serious pain.
This tool was my salvation for the installation.
I bought this tool at the local Harbor Freight store for $2.49, it was well worth it.
There are 4 clips like this in the seat back. Two of them are in the headrest area, and the other two are in the lower back area.
They all face the middle of the seat.The cushion has coresponding rods that snap into the clips.
The good part is that the cushion will drop right into the shell and fit quite nicely.
The bad part is that the rods will be on top of the clips and not in them.
To get the rods in the clips you have to roll the cushion over so you can see what you are doing.
However, the act of rolling the cushion pulls the rod away from the clip, and so the more you can see what you are doing, the farther you are from doing it.
This shot shows how I used the tool. I used the "V" in the tip to "grab" the rod. I had the seat on it's side and I pushed the rod down below the level of the clip.
Then with my other hand I pulled the cushion up toward me while using the tool to make sure the rod went into the clip.
Significant force (i.e. A LOT!) was required on the first clip, but as I got my technique down it became easier.
Inorder to keep the foan from falling through the hole were the springs used to be, I put an 11"X12.5" piece of plywood over the hole.
It fits quite well, and I am confident that my body weight will keep it from ratteling while driving.
This is the finished product!
One down, one to go!