Cloth -> Leather Conversion
 

Hey everyone. I picked up some leather seats locally yesterday for around 400 bux, and cleaned them up and installed them in my 95 SVX-L Its amazing how much better the interior looks now. Soooo much more class. The wires for the power seat were pre-run... Gotta love Subaru! For some pics of the install go to http://www.harmonyinmotion.com/mikesjunk/ and check out all the pictures that are leather1.jpg ... leather2.jpg etc. Any questions? Let me know!

-Mike

Looks good! You can really see the difference between cloth and leather in your side by side pics. I recently did a bit of work with leather seats myself, but I had a much rougher road than you. I have a 92 LS-L, so I already had the leather, but the two front seats were pretty bad with the cracking and wear, as is the case with most of the ones I've seen around this area. Dayle at Motorsports Warehouse had a slightly used set of the original leather covering itself lying around and I got it for $200. Good deal, but a LOT of work! With no prior upholstery knowledge, I had to take the seats apart down to the frame, figure out how to detach the old leather (tiny metal clips that were a pain in the @$$ to remove and impossible to put back on), and then how to put it all back together. It was quite the process but a great learning experience and moment of bonding with my car :) :)

And the end result looked perfect! I need to post some pics of it all soon. You definitely got the great deal though!

One question, it looks like you have a big amp behind the back seat. Hard to tell in the picture how you have that rigged up, with the seat all apart and all. From that angle it almost looks like you have an extra board there or something. I have a couple of amps lying around that I was thinking of installing soon and looking for ideas...

Thanks!

The guys following another thread here might get a kick out of this...they're call hog rings, and no I'm not making that up. I even have a set of hog ring pliers in my tool box!:D

Yep, Hog Rings. I love that terminology. Did you buy your hog ring pliers for upholstery reasons, or, did you have them left over from working on the farm? :D

Reminds me of Terrell Runner, in the third grade. He brought this interesting contraption to school for show and tell. It looked like a pair of pliers, but, it had these six tines at right angles. You placed a rubber washer on the tines, pressed the handles of the pliers and they expanded the rubber washer. You then held the tines just below the scrotum of a young bull, released the handles on the pliers and it shot the rubber washer up around the top of the scrotum, choking off the poor guy's manhood. Yikes! The things you learn in a rural school in the third grade. O'course, it was a lot less messy than the way Grandpa did it. Ever seen a linoleum knife? EEEK!

I would like to do a leather to cloth conversion myself :D

The amp is mounted on the back of the box that my sub is in. the box just happened to be the exact height of the back of the trunk. Its a JL Powerwedge enclosure PERFECT fit in there.

-Mike

Hog Rings
 

Interesting... I definitely could've used a pair of those pliers! Needle nose worked okay for taking them off, and after puzzling over it for a while, I decided to use nylon zip ties to put it back together. Easier, faster, stronger (at least stronger than the old rusted rings were) and I didn't have to hunt down new hog rings or the pliers! :D

Re: Hog Rings
 

Now you've disappointed me. And here I thought, by virtue of your "handle," that you did it all with a Swiss Army Knife. :D

YIKES!
 

:eek: Yep, I've also seen those "De-bulling" pliers in action first hand. My buddy's dad had 10-15 beef cattle at any given time and they kept only one bull for studding purposes. So every spring we had to go out with him and sterilize all the young bulls. Took two of us to hold the poor guy down while his dad put on the rubber band. Definitely an OUCH!!

Swiss Army knife...
 

Sorry to disappoint, but if it makes you feel better, I did have to break out the duct tape to reinforce some of the seating foam that was starting to fall apart. :D

Re: Swiss Army knife...
 

Okay. Not a complete redemption, but, a step in the right direction. :D