Great day here at the Reggie’s Motorworks Ranch. Stephanie, our resident photographer, got handy with the lens and snapped some photos of our soon-to-be-parted 2002, alongside the Baur. Truthfully it’s not a ranch at all, but when working with old cowhide, we like to use our imagination.
Our passenger seat turned out very well, no assembly required. The driver’s seat on the other hand, will be our guinea pig for today’s writeup, as we are piecing it together from several different seats.
Here is a summary of what exactly it is we are doing:
- Remove upholstery from passenger seat frame
- Install heating elements to center section of seats
- Piece together driver seat from dyed seat parts
- Install on to working driver seat frame
If you’ve not spent a lot of time doing reupholstery, it might seem a bit intimidating to start. Really all you need is the proper tools, and a mite of determination. We stopped by the local Tractor Supply to pick up some hog rings, and the proper pliers to manipulate them. We’re getting closer and closer to our ranchhand dreams every day…
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here… first comes disassembly. We have to remove the bolsters from each seat frame. For this we simply cut the hog rings in the back, like before. Pull the leather off of the foam, and the foam slides off the frame. Then we transfer it to the other frame. If you have a choice of donor seat parts, you’ll want to choose the best foam. We put a little spray adhesive on the frame, under the foam to keep it snug.
Time to slide on that dyed hide. This is going to take a little extra care, since we are switching frames. We will be cutting holes in the leather for each of the seat controls, keeping in mind that the bolster will be tightened once attached to the frame. To attach the leather to the frame, we slide the outside to the prongs on the frame, then bend them down. We used a hammer for this part. Now might be a good time to take out some frustration… but not too much. Don’t want to damage the recently replenished leather!
BEFORE
All photos courtesy of Stewart Imagery
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