They are finishing up a sizable job for me. When I spoke with them a couple of weeks back they let me know they had stopped taking new orders until they complete their current backlog, and that they were working on their new website.

I believe it was Rob Budd who explained something similar to me. We are used to seeing our 26+ years old upholstery which has shrunk, hardened, and tightened over time, and perceive the best of those as being "as good as factory". The brochures and old magazine reviews are the best examples of what the factory produced out the door, keeping in mind the various factory options such as the one Rob pointed out.

 

My biggest pet peeve on seats that have been reupholstered is when the pads get over stuffed. The pads should look flat, almost thin, with relatively sharp edges.

Here is a pic from a 1985 C&D article vs. a car with clearly reupholstered seats that has over stuffed pads. I feel like I see a lot more seats that look like the latter rather than the former when folks are getting them redone.

 

Anyone know a good vendor in the midwest area other than Classic9?

 

The car in the picture appears to have the Draped Leather option (option code M980). All cars with this option code have wrinkles in both the center cushions and the outer bolsters - if you compare the seats to another car of the same year without M980, there won't be wrinkles on the outer bolsters, so I bet the wrinkling was intentional rather than a factory flaw.

 

@GT6ixer Nate is right - recovered is puffy. The reason is that aftermarket covers aren't the same construction as the OEM Recaro seats. The originals have a steel rod under the valley between each pad and that wire is fastened to the frame with hog rings. 3rd parties that I've seen omit the rod and therefore can't match the distinct valley. The seats puff out as a result.

It is what it is. If you want to reconstruct the Porsche/Recaro seat you will need a highly skilled and motivated trimmer and custom covers for $$$$$$. The nice but puffy ones from GAHH are $1-2K.

I will have my recovered seats installed and my first butt-in-seat ride tomorrow. It looks much better and I expect it to feel very comfortable compared to the old. But it is puffy.

BTW - any good trimmer can put aftermarket seat covers on. Not sure if Classic 9 does their own design but I'm pretty sure most do not.

 

But can't a local seat guy reuse the rods in the original seats, secure them in the same fashion and therefore preserve the original look?

 

That would be great I agree. Just for full disclosure, I am not a pro trimmer - more of an interior hobbyist - and only know a little bit about this. But I think the aftermarket covers have a less robust stiffener sewn in, meaning they don't have the sleeve to slide the rod into that the originals had.

 

I can't speak for/or as a 'local seat guy', but about 6-7 years ago I removed the original black 'standard leather' seat leather from my '94 GTS seats and installed a champagne color supple leather set from a friends car. I removed ALL the metal rods etc. from the OE set and re-installed them in the champagne upholstery. I used plastic zip/wire ties instead of hog rings to tie all the metal rods down to the seat springs below the foam, in the exact same places the OE hog rings were used. When done, it looked OE in terms of puffiness and fit.

Gary

 

It seems to me that some time ago, years maybe, a Rennlister posted some photos of his own seat recovering effort and showed those rods and how they were used. Does anyone recall that thread? I'd like to grab the photos and show them to a "local seat guy" and see if he can reproduce the effect if I have to forgo Classic 9. I got a guote from the local guy that was on a par with Classic 9's prices then (the website now indicates the prices are going up).

Anybody remember it?

 

I've replaced the rods between the pillows with some SS tig welding rod as an easy never-rusts solution. Not on 928 seats yet, but it's an easy option when you're wrestling with getting them just right. I have the loose/raff/draped leather set option in my '89, and wonder if there are two rods between the pillows to keep the width consistent.

I'm not sure my hands are strong enough any more to hold the pieces in place and use my fourth and fifth hands to set the hog rings and pinch them. Meanwhile, guys who make industrial insulating blankets for hot pipes have a really slick pee new medic hog-ring tool. They load a magazine with a stick of rings and it's then a one-handed set-trigger-next-please operation. I do like Gary's tie-wraps option too, even if it's just to get the pieces lined up and tensioned prior to setting the rings.

 

I recently did business with Classic 9 in April-May 2021. Ordered several pieces that required stitching and some did not. I thought they were very responsive and they communicated in a timely matter when I emailed questions. I will continue to purchase from them. Happy camper!

 

Spent some time with my upholstry shop, and WU wanted 5-6 weeks, but we found Silverknit Champagne in stock in LA, and we'll trim to fit ourselves...be here in 2 days.

Also re-covering the front seats to do the job completely this time as well, and might do the rear seat area and panels that I had not yet re-covered too.

 

On older 928 seats. The listing rod pockets were made from a really thin white cloth that disintegrates with time allowing the rods to break free on the front to back listing rods. The center "standing seams" are glued to the seat cushion which is a week point as well. Classic 9 has improved the listing rod pockets by continuing the leather all the way down into the pocket. This area staying intact reduces the stress on the glued seams which is a real improvement.

A better solution would be to incorporate pockets into new covers to hold the individual pillows on the seat bottom.

Again, not sure how much of this carries over to the newer style seats.

 

Started yesterday, and C9 is still offline.

 

They are back online when I checked at 4pm eastern time. Massive price increase on what I need so I will have to look elsewhere for my seat cover replacements