Recently I posted a thread asking if anyone has sent their seats out to ecklers, corvette america, etc. I saw there were views to my post but not replies. Assuming no one has used these services has everyone done them theirselves or used a local shop??

Ditto what Silver69 said. Had a couple of tips from my brother-in-law that made the job a little easier. I'll try to find the thread I posted them in and update this one.

Toughest part when I re-covered mine was the bar that mounts
behind your shoulders. Tough to get it into the correct
location for the bolt holes through the seat frame and still have it centered in the area for it on the cover.
I've seen others without it and I'm glad I went to the
trouble. When it's not there, it seems incomplete.

I did mine myself. The foam was in decent shape. I went to a local crafts shop and bought a roll of 1/2 inch upholstry foam and built up the cusshions cutting the foam to fit and applying it with spray adhesive. They came out great. It's a great trick to bring the seats back into shape and I've done several sets for friends. I live in Howell, right up the road from you. If you'd like to see how they came out, you're more than welcome to come by. If you do plan to do them yourself, I would be happy to give you a hand.

To get the covers mounted at Corvette America, it cost an additional $300 +. However, you can go thru a distributor like Willcox, and get the mounted leather/vinyl on new foam for about $675.00 plus shipping. Willcox sells the CA product.
I had a seam line up problem with new covers on new foam. The back cushion seams inside the 4" bolster, did not line up with the seat seam. I called Willcox, they had me send the seats back to CA. I received a phone call from CA, they overnighted a UPS shipping label, UPS was there that afternoon, picked up the seats.
Six business days later, I had a brand new set of cushions with matching seams.
As far as finished quality, I could not have done the job they did. If I would have taken covers to a local shop with the old foam, I do not think the cost would have been any less then what I paid, plus I have matching seams up and down. This may not make any difference to some folks, but I am a little picky on perfection. Do it right, or not at all.

I have foam and covers coming from an ebay auction. I'm planning on using a local shop in Doylestown PA. My buddy just had his interior redone in his IROC and it looks excellent. I'm haulin my seats to them.

--Eric

I had the seats in my '78 done by a local shop that's known as the best in the area. I've been dealing with them for 25+ years and have never been unhappy with their work. While my '78 was there they were also doing a complete interior on a rare Kaiser-Darrin sports car. I don't believe the owner of one of those rarities would trust it to some second rate shop.

I believe they used Legendary Auto Interiors for the leather for my seats.

Everyone says you really need to get new foam with the seat covers, as the foam compresses over time and allows the cover to wrinkle instead of being stretched tight. If you oeder new foam as well, I think Eckler's or Mid-America will install on the foam for free. Can't beat that. If you want to keep your old foam, I suggest installing yourself. I can only speak of the '78 Pace Car and 79 - 82 seats, but those are pretty easy to install new covers on...

Replacing the foam at the same time should be considered mandatory. I didn't mention doing that, but it was done with mine at the same time. Considering the age of our cars, the foam is likely disintegrating as well as being compressed from our big butts on it after all these years.

When I bought my '78, my sister and I flew out to Indianapolis to pick it up, my sister intending to share the driving home to Maryland. When she got in the car, she couldn't see over the dash...a combination of her being only 5'2" and the seats being compressed. After the seats were redone, she sits behind the wheel fine...as if I'll let her drive it now!

I redid the seats in mine this past summer. I had never done anything like this before and it came out very well. I took my time and also lots of before pictures so I could remember where the hog rings went. Make sure if you do this yourself you order the install kit...new hog rings,rods...etc. It took me about 3 nights to complete including new foam and seat covers. I'd post a picture, but I don't know how.