Stitching question

[Dash01]

Considering purchase of a Bimmer, but the front seats are coming unstitched in several places, perhaps due to degradations from sunlight. The leather itself is OK and not torn, so could presumably be re-stitched by hand using the same old holes.

1. How hard is it to remove the leather seat covers from the seats?

2. How have others dealt with similar stitching problems?

[632 Regal]

they are seat covers and if familiar to any trim shops they are easily restitched.

[gale]

Considering purchase of a Bimmer, but the front seats are coming unstitched in several places, perhaps due to degradations from sunlight. The leather itself is OK and not torn, so could presumably be re-stitched by hand using the same old holes.

1. How hard is it to remove the leather seat covers from the seats?

2. How have others dealt with similar stitching problems?


Mine's doing the same thing -- been procrastinating taking them off to re-stitch. I did that once to an old T-Bird seat cover and it turned out ok. The important thing is to get the stitching even and not too tight. Get it 1 hole off you have to start over. I used 2 needles at once from both sides of the seam. I bought waxed thread from a Tandy leather shop.

Getting the cover off the seat will be a bit of a chore but is manageable, scroll down to the last part of this link:

http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_32.htm

There are cords which go thru the cushion and tie to the bottom of the seat frame which will have to be untied to remove the cover and re-tied when you put it back on. If I recall, there are also some stiff wires sewn into the cover that fasten to the seat frame with hog rings. You will have to work the cover back on and smooth it out to get the wrinkles out of it and to get it on straight. Overall, the job is no fun at all and best left to a professional upholstry outfit and they aren't all that expensive.

[KurtM]

stitching tightened on drivers seat. Found an upholsterer who charged $35 for one seam. Seats were out of car and apart. Said he removed cover to fix. Did a good job.

Kurt
95 525ia

[RobPatt]

Do research to find more info until you're a bit confident.
General process:
remove back support portion of seat.
remove seat bottom from car
remove seat bottom cushion and leather cover from frame
remove cusion from leather.
repair leather
put back together.

Simple tools can do... there are some kind of ring clips, but you can manage to remove and reinstall them w/some needlenose plyers...

comes to time vs. money really.

[gale]

Just got an e-mail that we're doing our monthly tech session at an upholstery shop next week:

http://www.bearnutupholstery.com/

I'll post any tips that they might have.