my vader seat reupholster thread

[Danny522]

Bought these vaders three years ago for $125 with intentions on redoing them along with the rest of my e36 325 interior. I graduated from Wyotech back in '07 for auto upholstery. I never got around to doing them and sold my bimmer two years ago to buy a WRX. I'm finally redoing them so i can sell them to clear room out of my garage. Going to be Leather/suede with red stitching. Figured i'd make this thread and update with my progress, working on them in my free time and hoping to have them done by the end of this weekend. If my thread is in the wrong place go ahead and move it, couldn't find a interior section.

So far i've marked them out and removed them from the foam. Now to cut them apart and make patterns then begin sewing.

how i purchased them:

seats marked out with alignment marks:

[Hazzard 328]

I'm curious to see how well this turns out so I subscribed to the thread.
When I bought my e36 the seats were pretty bad, both front seats had the bolsters worn badly with holes in both, I bought some upholstery leather very close to the color and replaced the bad sections. the back seat was worn badly so I dyed the whole interior and I would say over all it came out well and only cost me about $125.00 and a good bit of time to do.
I really want to see how your going to do this so I hope you include lots of pictures.
Good luck

[Stück]

If you're reupholstering them with the hope of selling them when you're done I'd suggest a OE style & color.

Unless you have a buyer lined up over at Pimp My Ride.

[Danny522]

Yeah xzibit had shown some interest. Someone will buy them and if not then I guess I'll save them for my next e36 lol. I've had two and I'm sure I'll eventually get another. How many recarro or sparco seats come in oe finish? I've got another full interior in the garage I'm going to do next(standard seats, rear seat, door panels) so if need be I could make a full matching interior to these.

[CblockM3]

BMW did make suede and leather Vader's BTW. Sounds like a sweet project, in to see the results!

[BimmerBreaker]

Yup

[Danny522]

These seats have listings on all the pleats to give it the tucked look so they have a lot of hog rings holding them down which make for very sore hands if you dont have good clippers lol. Got them all cut apart and steamed the old patterns to relax the material to make it easier to get the new patterns. Got to hurry and get the new patterns cut out before my munchkins wake up. They apparently think grabbing my patterns and tossing them on the floor is helpful, its not lol.

[Danny522]

I made some progress in the past few days. Got one headrest all sewn up just not installed onto the foam, all bolsters are sewn. Need to finish some french seams on all but two bolsters, went with black thread to keep a clean look. After i finish the french seams i'll sew the suede inserts in. These pics are all test fittings and are in no way secured that's why they're all wrinkled. The tan/beige parts are just foam.

[Danny522]

All done, just have to remove the old driver side cover and put the fresh one on. Wanted to do side by side pics before i did it.
IMG_2887.jpgIMG_2888.jpg

[PeterHall]

Any more tips? I bought a set of vaders for $100 too and want to do the same.

[Danny522]

These were one of the harder seats I've reupholstered, if you're not familiar with upholstery or have a good machine I wouldn't recommend trying to make new covers yourself. Materials tend to be expensive. But if you really feel comfortable doing it yourself and not worried about ruining materials then watch some YouTube videos. You can learn all the basics off there.

[notMpowered]

Once the leather tightens up in a few places those are going to look amazing. Very nice work. I'd be happy to have those in my car.

[adamnur]

Amazing job. They look perfect.

If your want good fitting covers check out autoberry. I got mine from there and they're very well cut. Just not nappa leather though...

[Danny522]

I haven't hit them with the steamer yet, once I do everything should be nice and tight. Just painted the driver seat base black so tomorrow I'll put the covers on the driver seat and steam both seats.