Amber Gramps

First let me thank one of my Rennlist idols rusnak for the seats. Must have been a year ago he offered me a set of Recaro SE seats that were just sitting around collecting dust. Well, last Saturday I drove north two hours and he drove south for two hours meeting up for lunch just north of the Grapevine.

The seats, well, are ruff, but the frame and foam are perfect. I'm guessing they are from the early '90's, but will soon look like they are from the 1970's.

My idea for them is to wrap them is black leather with perhaps center panel inserts with some sort of patern. Setting the panels out on my checkerboard floor tells me I'm going to need upwards of 25 sq ft per seat. It's not gonna be cheap. Tandy has extremely nice partial hides at $7.00/sq ft making this a $300-400 project. Not bad. The grain is a perfect match for the MOMO Prototipo.

Anyway, turned the covers into a pattern ready and waiting for the next step. The black lines are alignment bullets.

What I really want to do is put vent studs in the lower portion of the seats. Basic Pr0n like featured in Singer:



And yes, guys I do my own sewing. Had a machine since I was a wee teenager. Grandma Kennedy passed on more than her good looks.

psychoideas

G'day Doug,
I really love this idea and can't wait to see your work.
I too have a few machines but it's been a while since I've sewn.
I have a Juki twin needle, needle feed, and a Consew walking foot. I have a couple of older ones as well.
Please update often with your progress.

Ed Hughes

This is gonna be cool to watch!

Amber Gramps

Frank, you dog.... I'm stuck using a Singer with a walking foot.

Fortunately there is no single pass double stitching 'required' for what I'm doing. Would be nice to have a nice bold stitch showing, but I'm gonna stick to black on black. The only place it's gonna get hairy is on the bolsters.

I do have a lady friend that wants to help, but she will just take over the job, do it right the first time, and who wants that?

Reiver

Very nice conversion that I'll keep track of.
I have a similar set in black cloth, very comfortable and look right in an early '80's car.

dougs968

Nice. I too am interested in watching the project.

Doug

Amber Gramps

Found the grommets I will be using. They are a very close match. Best part is that Elayne doesn't seem to be opposed to them. Tried setting them is my leftover suede from the doors and shifter boot. They are perfect.

For some reason I can't get the pictures of the foam to download off my droid. Behind the grommets are two different foam thicknesses. I think I'm going to back the leather bottom and back with the 1/2" green foam and everything else in the 1/8" cloth backed foam.

Chomping at the bit.

Amber Gramps

Finally got the pictures of the backside.

rusnak

Oh my God!

DB, you are fast!! I love what you're doing with the seats.

For the record, I have no idea what you're talking about re: stitching, sewing, grommets, etc. My only experience is seeing the ez punch thingy commercial on late night TV.

I'm glad that the seats found the right owner!

Amber Gramps

Don't worry rusnak, I'm been known to slow down. I just had a sunny warm day yesterday and went for it. If I could get my hands on leather today, ya, I'd be up all night gettin' busy.

Now THIS is awesome. The raised panels with large grommets is going to happen if I have anything to do with it.

Ed Hughes

Doug, the Ford GT seats also had a grommet look, similar to your pic above, although I think they were almost like "cup holders". Try googling some pics, just for reference.

911 Crazy

911 Crazy

Hey Doug, lunch was fun...........or was it?

Amber Gramps

Saw that. Looked more like silver dollars spilled around. Love it.

Tim, I know.... Things keep getting away from me with work and this stupid missing fingernail. Should have picked you up and taken you with me, but I figured dealing with your father's passing was more important than listening to my ramblings on a road trip.

....and I just can't get the 'automatic' tension set on the machine.

Amber Gramps

I think to get the grommet panels to puff out like in the picture above I'll have to get even denser foam and cut it into strips. I was hoping to simply sew the foam to the leather. That doesn't give the look I want. Then I was hoping to sandwich foam between two layers of leather and basically stitch in the puffs. Again a fail. It looks like I'm actually going to have to make ribs and pockets and two layers of leather. It's gonna be awesome.