Chevy Interior Reupholstery - Savin' Money & Sittin' Pretty

Pick up a can of heavy-duty spray adhesive and apply liberally on the material covering the springs as well as the bottom of the new seat foam after you've test-fit it. It's important to have about 1/2-inch seat base overhang (front/sides) so the metal frame doesn't poke through the upholstery once it's on tight. The glue will help keep the foam in place (there will be a little bit of wrestling later on).

Fresh from sunbathing and with the upholstery turned inside-out, I grabbed the bottom piece and lined up the front corners in the horizontal to vertical seam with the foam as best I could and folded the sides down. This could take a few times to get it right and is easier with an extra set of hands.

With the upholstery basically on, but not pulled tight, I threaded 16-gauge home electrical wire through a sewn channel running along each bottom edge. This will help the material not rip once it is stretched and the hog rings are attached. Pick your favorite color or whatever the neighbor has lying around.

Since the top and bottom upholstery has pleats that need to line up, we need to make sure the upholstery is centered on the seat frame. A measuring tape and some chalk will do to make your marks. On the bottom, I began the aforementioned wrestling to get some hog rings started at the center of the front and back and a couple for the sides. The main thing to look for is how level the horizontal seam is in the front and how the front corners look compared to each other. It took me two or three tries.

The seat back proved to be a bit easier since there isn't so much foam to compress. To hold the foam centered on the seat frame, I used hog rings which went into the foam's hard felt backing.

Rudy showed me a trick for the corners since the back is pulled over the frame instead of folding its edges. Cut a plastic shopping bag in half vertically and put one side over the corner of the foam since it's real grabby.

Once the upholstery is pulled over the top of the seat frame, use a few hog rings to evenly attach the back of the upholstery to the horizontal rods in the framework. Try and make your hog rings symmetrical so they pull even side-to-side.

Moving to the front of the seat back, I again measured for the center of the frame and the upholstery and secured it with a hog ring. This should line up the pleats in the seat back with the seat bottom.

Before getting too far with any more hog rings, you'll probably have to massage the foam and upholstery both inside and out to get it all to lay and look right. If you rush this stuff, it'll look like it when you're done. If you are having trouble stretching things, you can always put it back out in the sun for a while, let it soften, and try again.

Once I was happy with how the upholstery had flattened, out I started adding more hog rings. My hands were getting a bit tired after squeezing what seemed like a bazillion hog rings; guess I'll have better hand shake to go along with my new upholstery!

On the seat bottom, Rudy grabbed his pliers and spun 'em around in the seat back frame mounting holes before trying to mate the two back together. This left perfectly-cut circles.

Whew, it worked. This was a bit more than I had anticipated labor-wise, but the seat looked nice in the end. All the pleats lined up, too!