'85 and down front seats: what to do

[rearwheelpeel]

Yeah thats the stuff. They didn't have that many options when I ordered mine. They said they can do back seats as well.

 

[spock345]

It looks like you can order any of the colors shown and they'll make them for you.

Upholstery front seat 240 78-85 low back

N.B! Please choose fabric and vinyl before adding this article to the cart All of our interiors ...

vp-autoparts.com

Well that is new since I last checked VP. Awesome. Definitely going into the "nice to have but not essential" list.

 

[dl242gt]

Looks like VP copied the diagonal DL seat pattern very well. Looks great. Good luck with the Lseat covers. Looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[Murploid1]

All of this talk of refreshing interiors energized me...I ordered seat foam and grid guards from wagonmeister (Dave is great to work with) and have been in talks with LSEAT for the last two days - unfortunately the are my bottle neck at the moment.

Josh - Did you send your seat skins in? They are telling me that they do not have patterns for my car. Sounds like you received skins for a pre 1986 car. If they have created not sure why they cannot for me. I did mention that I was aware of someone else requesting early seats but that was ignored.

Frustrating...

 

[spock345]

All of this talk of refreshing interiors energized me...I ordered seat foam and grid guards from wagonmeister (Dave is great to work with) and have been in talks with LSEAT for the last two days - unfortunately the are my bottle neck at the moment.

Josh - Did you send your seat skins in? They are telling me that they do not have patterns for my car. Sounds like you received skins for a pre 1986 car. If they have created not sure why they cannot for me. I did mention that I was aware of someone else requesting early seats but that was ignored.

Frustrating...

Those grids are wonderfully easy to install compared to the OEM style. Just those alone made rebuilding the seats in my wagon a whole lot easier. I'm actually tempted to try using those and some springs in my Amazon seats to replace the elastic webbing.

 

[Radtap]

I was on a time crunch and couldn't get wagonmeister's grid in time for my passenger seat so I cut down a piece of wire shelving, even that's an improvement over the original grid. When installing the new grids I cut up some old jeans and put a couple layers between the foam and grid to prevent the grid from cutting into the foam.

 

[spock345]

I was on a time crunch and couldn't get wagonmeister's grid in time for my passenger seat so I cut down a piece of wire shelving, even that's an improvement over the original grid. When installing the new grids I cut up some old jeans and put a couple layers between the foam and grid to prevent the grid from cutting into the foam.

I use canvas drop cloths for that. Super cheap and work well at resisting abrasion.

 

[joshkeady]

All of this talk of refreshing interiors energized me...I ordered seat foam and grid guards from wagonmeister (Dave is great to work with) and have been in talks with LSEAT for the last two days - unfortunately the are my bottle neck at the moment.

Josh - Did you send your seat skins in? They are telling me that they do not have patterns for my car. Sounds like you received skins for a pre 1986 car. If they have created not sure why they cannot for me. I did mention that I was aware of someone else requesting early seats but that was ignored.

Frustrating...

Murploid DM'd me and this is what I replied:

Hi- sorry it took so long to get back to you. I saw your post right as I was getting ready to go on vacation.

I don't know what is up with that. I emailed them and asked and they specifically said that they do have those patterns and if I put the request in the "order details" box on the order page (i.e. "I need the patterns for a 1985 and earlier 240"), they would make them up for me.

That's what I did- I also sent a follow up email to check on the status of the order and again included a "Just a reminder, I need the '85 and earlier upholstery, not the later model that you list on your website" message and they didn't say anything about it.

I have not pulled the covers out of the shipping bag yet, only opened it to inspect the quality of material / stitching / color (which looked great). It is entirely possible that they ignored all of my requests and sent the later model material and if that's the case, I'll just buy later model seats to match. But it also seems possible that they are too busy to accommodate another "off menu" order right now. Who knows. I will make every effort to pull one of my seat covers off this week and compare it to what I received and write back.

I was on a time crunch and couldn't get wagonmeister's grid in time for my passenger seat so I cut down a piece of wire shelving, even that's an improvement over the original grid. When installing the new grids I cut up some old jeans and put a couple layers between the foam and grid to prevent the grid from cutting into the foam.

I was also going to use some denim for this purpose though I like spock345's idea of using canvas drop cloth, which I use for tons of things around the house and shop. (An aside: I see that spock345 is from Livermore which is where I got my car.)

Sorry I can't be more helpful at the moment. Like I said to Murploid, I'll make every effort to pull the back cover off of one my seats and compare it to the upholstery that was sent (though as I think that through, it seems like there's a high probability that my upholstery will disintegrate in the removal process... )

 

[joshkeady]

I finally removed the passenger seat and the seat-back upholstery today for comparison with what I got from Lseat.

After some comparison, I have to say: what they sent me looks nearly identical in dimensions to what was on my car. I'm attaching some photos (might go without saying, but light colored fabric with holes punched out = original vinyl, dark colored foam without holes = new leather). It's tricky to photograph both next to each other without catching weird angles but yeah... they are really close.

Why they told you they can't sell anything for your car is a mystery. My first thought was maybe when the shop got the order they told the customer support people to quit telling folks they can order "off menu" and they just made my set because they said they would. My wife also thought maybe you just got a different customer rep than I did and they didn't know what the other person did. I notice they have a 1-800 number at the top of their site. Maybe you can just call them and sweet talk them a little?

I was pleased by the overall condition of my passenger seat- only one wire missing from the bottom grid and everything intact in the back. I'm tempted to reuse the original foam but I think I will just suck it up and get the new stuff. Let me know if you have more questions.

 

[Jack]

VP sells 3 different seat back foams, '75-'85, '86-June '90, and June '90-'93.

https://vp-autoparts.com/en/artiklar/seat-foam-front-back-240-75-84-excl-262c.html

https://vp-autoparts.com/en/artiklar/padding-front-back-240-1986-june-1990.html

https://vp-autoparts.com/en/artiklar/seat-foam-240-front-back-june-1990-93.html

but does https://vp-autoparts.com/en/artiklar/seat-foam-front-back-240-75-84-excl-262c.html foam work with 75-77 seat covers? since the early years covers were different

 

[hiperfauto]

There were 3 different seat back foams for the early cars (not including the 2 different ones for 264TE). One for 'striped cloth', one for 'not striped cloth' and one for GL's and non of them are available so you don't really have a choice.

 

[Murploid1]

I finally removed the passenger seat and the seat-back upholstery today for comparison with what I got from Lseat.

After some comparison, I have to say: what they sent me looks nearly identical in dimensions to what was on my car. I'm attaching some photos (might go without saying, but light colored fabric with holes punched out = original vinyl, dark colored foam without holes = new leather). It's tricky to photograph both next to each other without catching weird angles but yeah... they are really close.

Why they told you they can't sell anything for your car is a mystery. My first thought was maybe when the shop got the order they told the customer support people to quit telling folks they can order "off menu" and they just made my set because they said they would. My wife also thought maybe you just got a different customer rep than I did and they didn't know what the other person did. I notice they have a 1-800 number at the top of their site. Maybe you can just call them and sweet talk them a little?

I was pleased by the overall condition of my passenger seat- only one wire missing from the bottom grid and everything intact in the back. I'm tempted to reuse the original foam but I think I will just suck it up and get the new stuff. Let me know if you have more questions.

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Thanks doing the comparison Josh! Appreciate the info!

 

[white855T]

I finally removed the passenger seat and the seat-back upholstery today for comparison with what I got from Lseat.

After some comparison, I have to say: what they sent me looks nearly identical in dimensions to what was on my car. I'm attaching some photos (might go without saying, but light colored fabric with holes punched out = original vinyl, dark colored foam without holes = new leather). It's tricky to photograph both next to each other without catching weird angles but yeah... they are really close.

Why they told you they can't sell anything for your car is a mystery. My first thought was maybe when the shop got the order they told the customer support people to quit telling folks they can order "off menu" and they just made my set because they said they would. My wife also thought maybe you just got a different customer rep than I did and they didn't know what the other person did. I notice they have a 1-800 number at the top of their site. Maybe you can just call them and sweet talk them a little?

I was pleased by the overall condition of my passenger seat- only one wire missing from the bottom grid and everything intact in the back. I'm tempted to reuse the original foam but I think I will just suck it up and get the new stuff. Let me know if you have more questions.

View attachment 21591
View attachment 21592

Definitely a match.