Seat covers - DIY or buy in?

[lizking26]

Hi,

We're restoring our T2 early bay & as my husband is doing all the mechanical things I've been left with the interior to sort out. We need to re-cover the 2 front seats (it's a walk-through so 2 separate seats) and the rear full-width bed.

We want to use vinyl & hubby thinks I can make them using my very basic Singer sewing machine - I am not convinced. I think the material will be too thick for the machine & although I'd be happy to knock up some slip seat covers, I'm not so sure about the 'proper' seats.

Has anyone done this? How easy/difficult was it or would we be better off just sucking it up and paying for them to be made by someone else?

Thanks for any advice!

Lizzie

 

[Dickie524]

I bought some pre-made ones off DB Car trim in Blackpool - £100 for the front seats, in vinyl, and fitted them myself which was tricky but good result overall.
There are loads of other suppliers but he is down to earth and offers decent stuff.

Depends how much of your time you think £100 is worth!! Plus the vinyl itself isn't a giveaway either, I reckon there could be £50's worth of material in there - so it might only effectively be ~£50-worth to get some made.

http://www.dbcartrim.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Happystamps]

Hi- Welcome

Funnily enough I'm in a similar position as your chap- my ms. Is making mine, but it's a bit of an odd situation, we can't use the original covers as I've modified the seat etc... So she's going on an upholstery course (her decision! I'm happy with rugs)

Anyway, I think the answer depends almost entirely on ability and type of sewing machine. If they're standard VW seats, you can buy TMI covers for them, get them delivered at work, unwrap 'em and tell him to fit them himself- then take all of the credit.

Alternatively, maybe call up a vehicle upholsterers and get hold of a couple of vinyl/leatherette swatches, fold 'em in three and try to sew them together.

Early bay seat covers- also some other stuff:

https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/bay-bus/interior/seats-parts-seat-covers-padding/?startRow=1&startPage=1&maxDisplayRows=15&dcCfcSortSelect=PopularitySort|asc&dcCfcBrandFilter=excluded&dcCfcOriginFilter=excluded&dcCfcPriceFilterLow=excluded&dcCfcPriceFilterHigh=excluded&searchText=&classicSearchText=&classicSearchType=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you take a pic of your front seats, we can point you to the right thing.

 

[KateLovesPurple]

If you want to do them yourself then your machine should cope well. If it helps, I have made new covers for the Recaro seats in my van re-using the vinyl, made new seat covers for the R&R bed and stitched up a vinyl headlining for my pop top using my mother-in-law's old '50s Jones machine without any real problems.

 

[Bobster]

Another recommendation for DB car trim. Got mine off eBay for just under £100 then he made me some door card covers too match. First time I've done seats but they came out pretty good ....

 

[71Dormobile]

I bought covers and then fitted them myself, save a bit on price. Would have thought that you would need an industrial machine to cope with thread and vinyl. Try shopping about for seat covers ours were made by Joanne
J&S Upholstery @ the trim shack

 

[thejinx]

I recovered my seats myself, there is a sticky on just Kampers website on how to do it. Very easy to be honest. Bought the covers pre made cut the old ones off and put new ones on following the online picture guide. Have a go

 

[Wingnut]

D B Trimmers are great. Dave is brilliant and will give honest advise on any ideas you have and is a wizard with a sowing machine. He did all mine and some extras, the quality is great and the price is very competitive

 

[chad]

^^^^^

WHS