Cloth Seat Upholstery

[DPEsquire]

The seats on my ‘68 Catalina are in remarkably good shape. They are vinyl, with cloth inserts. The vinyl parts are pristine, but the cloth inserts are baked and torn along the top of the seat backs.

Is it possible to get material to replace the cloth inserts, and rebuild the seat covers?

[Last Indian]

35 minutes ago, DPEsquire said:

The seats on my ‘68 Catalina are in remarkably good shape. They are vinyl, with cloth inserts. The vinyl parts are pristine, but the cloth inserts are baked and torn along the top of the seat backs.

Is it possible to get material to replace the cloth inserts, and rebuild the seat covers?

In short, yes. You can probably find something close, but your best bet would be a car upholstery shop obviously! A regular upholstery shop may be able to help as well. It appears to be a basic nylon cord fabric. So the width of the cord & color will be what you need to match. Doubtful that you will be able to match it close enough to match your front seats though. Your biggest issue will be restitching the new panels to the old Naugahyde. It may look good, but it may be dry rotted at the seams, you won’t know until you take it off the seat. If it’s not I would advise hand stitching the panels! I have done this kind of work before & what happens if you use a sewing machine is it literally acts like a pair of scissors. Because even if you can get the stitch spacing right you will never hit the same needle holes repeatedly. This in turn causes more holes to be pierced along the same line, which in Naugahyde is bad news! Notice when you take the seat cover off the seat that the stitch sequence is about a 1/4” of an inch apart. This is because of what I mentioned.

[DPEsquire]

Thanks!

I definitely would want a pro to do the work. Wasn’t sure whether there was any chance of finding a source for the replacement material. Never heard the term “nylon cord,” so wouldn’t even have known what to ask for. The gift of your knowledge is much appreciated.

[Last Indian]

20 hours ago, DPEsquire said:

Thanks!

I definitely would want a pro to do the work. Wasn’t sure whether there was any chance of finding a source for the replacement material. Never heard the term “nylon cord,” so wouldn’t even have known what to ask for. The gift of your knowledge is much appreciated.

What I mean by a nylon cord is, its like a corduroy, but made from nylon, which makes it more durable. 
If you are trying to only replace the fabric panels due to cost, I understand that. If you are doing it to try & match the rest of the interior that will be hard. I doubt that they make any replace fabric that would match in color. So I guess the question what is your goal? Restoration, resto rod, custom, just fix it?

[Frosty]

If you are looking to replace your upholstery, you could look at Ames Engineering for possible replacement material...

https://www.amesperf.com/parts/search-results/?catalog=FS&year=1968&term=interior

 

[DPEsquire]

I see that Ames (and others) list vinyl replacement seat covers (without the fabric inserts), and I may end up going that route. I’m just so impressed that the original vinyl parts of the seats look almost new, I hate to let the original covers go. But, I understand that it is unlikely I’ll find fabric that matches the original inserts. I foresee many hours in my future searching the internet before I give in. 😊

[DPEsquire]

I’ve got the back seat out - fabricating a new package tray. You can see what I mean about the condition of the seats. The fact they look this good after 45 years is amazing.

[Last Indian]

15 minutes ago, DPEsquire said:

I’ve got the back seat out - fabricating a new package tray. You can see what I mean about the condition of the seats. The fact they look this good after 45 years is amazing.

Daniel, can’t blame you, I hate Naugahyde! Hot, makes you sweat, etc. I would rather have cloth under my butt too! Below is an example of a polyester blend corduroy, not the right color just an example! But you might be able find something close. Your other consideration is to buy enough & do the front seats to match. Which might actually be wise. If the backs are that bad how far behind are the fronts? If you did that you could do more of a contrast.
https://www.joann.com/red-stretch-corduroy-fabric/19475565.html

[DPEsquire]

I didn’t post a pic of the front seat, but you’re right, it looks just like the back seat - damaged across the top of the seat, but otherwise, looks like it’s new.