1978 308 GTS Seat Renewal

I've owned my 308 about a year now, and I've decided to have my front seats re-done. When I bought the car, the door panels and seats were re-dyed. While that looked nice initially, the dye is cracking and wearing pretty badly. So - I've decided to bite the bullet and have them redone. Plus - I went and looked at Mark Darragh's (owner of Sphere Motorsports) 78 308 GTS after he had his seats done, and they are stunning.

Mark's seats were done by Michael Angelo's Auto Trim here in Houston. I went over and talked to Richard today (very nice guy), and got a quote. I think I will pull my seats out this weekend, and contemplate my next step.

To be continued....

 

Jez -

Looks fantastic.

On the "how it was done" - I know a partial answer there. Richard had the Gahh catalog when I was talking to him. I think he orders the kit from Gahh, and then does all the work.

I'm going to talk to one more place and see how they do it before I commit.

 

I got to the last bolt - passenger side, right front. Cross threaded. Could not break it loose. Ended up drilling it.

Once I got it out (drilled it and then used an easy out), the captive nut underneath is all messed up. I can't tap it, but you can tell the threads are messed up. Plus - it's just floating loose under there.

I'll try and push it out of the way, and secure the seat later with a pinch bolt.

Hopefully.

 

By the way - Here's the starting point:

You can see some of the wear/cracks on the driver's seat.

Car looks crazy empty, but it gave me a chance to clean up the floor.
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Besides that - I've also removed the plastic covers/knobs off of the sides of the seats. I'm sure the upholstery guys don't mean to wreck stuff, but I figure if it's not on the seats when I take it to them, they can't hurt it.

I may remove the steering wheel and send it off for recovering. I've used these guys before, and they do fantastic work.

Craft Customs - Leather and Wood Grain Steering Wheels - Wood Dashes

 

Robo, your seats look great. My dye job wasn't sticking though. Desperate times call for desperate action.

Didn't make it to Stitches today. Will try again tomorrow.

 

Right now, I don't know.

The only quote I have gotten is for pre-cut skins (Gahh). I'd really like to talk to a few more guys before I commit to anything.

I'm still in the data gathering phase you could say.

 

OK - update:

To deal with the captured nut that was loose and stripped, I did a few things. First - I used a step drill and opened up the hole to 1/2". After I did that, I drilled two opposing holes in the offending nut on opposite sides. Using bigger and bigger drills, I finally broke it in half, where it fell down into the bottom of the pan, along with a 1/8" drill bit that I broke off.

The offending nut out of the way, I used a punch to make the bottom of the capture flat again. I then installed a 8 mm x 1.25 Rivnut in the hole. Fits flush with the floor, and should make it so that the seat rail will bolt back in perfectly.

The only problem is going to be the broken nut and bit rattling around in the pan.

Finally - the engine lid is off, and I've removed the air cleaner. Carbs may be out by next weekend.

 

No - we're well past that stage. I'm going to have to remove the pan to have a shot at getting that stuff.