Hey All, WAAAAAY back when I first bought the Mondial, a friend of mine who is a genius with all things sewing, volunteered to create new skins for the front seats (they were REALLY REALLY torn and nasty). She regretted volunteering to do it, because it was so much work! But basically, she took the skin from the passenger seat and made a pattern out of it, then made new skins. I bought the leather on-line (sending samples back and forth with a vendor until we found a matching color). It took almost two years for her to get finished with the whole project (because she has a real job too, and this was a non-paying favor for me!) Anyway, she told me don't even think about giving her name to anyone else because she never wants to do this again! But I thought I would post the pics of putting the skins on the seats a couple weeks ago. I haven't re-installed everything yet, so I'll wait to post finished pics. Last night we finished skinning the headrests, so I'll be able to put those in as soon as I get the right sized rivets to put the bottom pieces back on them. I was surprised how complicated the skins are on the inside, with little rods, springs and strings to create all the folds and pleats. Not difficult to put the new skins on, but you definitely need two people and a hog-ring tool. Anyway, here are some pics....this first set is taking the skin off a seat bottom. Birdman Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
OK, and here are some of putting on the new skin on the seat bottom... Last pic shows the finished seat bottom next to the old skin that came off! You can see that this seat (drivers seat) was missing some foam where the old skin had ripped, so we had to patch it with some other foam, and the bump is a bit noticeable in the finished seat. But it will smooth out with use. The passenger seat came out a little better because the foam was perfect and the old skin was much less mangled. But of course, we forgot to take pics of that seat! The seats are back in the car (without headrests) but the car is covered in plastic right now because I'm painting the rear quarter panel to fix paint which had been overbuffed by the PO. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The issue of how to remove the headrests came up in a previous thread. Each headrest has two rods with detents and there is a ball inside a tube in the seat that clicks into each detent. Problem is that the last detent on the headrest rods is designed so that the headrest can't be pulled out. From inside the seat, you need to ram a thin-walled tube up inside the tube that has the ball in order to push the ball out of the way. Then you can yank the headrest out. Pretty easy, except for two things. 1. It has to be done from inside the seat, meaning the back has to be removed. (Two rivets need to be drilled and the rigid back of the seat taken off. 2. You need a thin-walled tube that is slightly larger in ID than the rods on the headrest and slightly smaller in OD than the ID of the tube in the seat back. We found a little brass rod at a local hardware store that did the trick. Custom tool: $2.79. Figuring it out: priceless. Some pics to illustrate: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Stay tuned for pics of the completed job. Man, it really transforms the interior! I have been driving around with seat covers over the seats for 2 years. I am so excited to have a decent looking interior now! Birdman
Guido, Watsa matta you huh? (You did that to your friend???) Nice job, but there are forteen old italian momamia who need the worka.....
A lot of problems also revolve round the foam. This is injection moulded and forms the exact shape of the seat. This is fine when new, however, 20 years down the line the foam is fragile and tends to crumble. I am trying to find a source of liquid foam (especially liquid visco-elsatic "memory" foam) so that I can make my own. If I can't find this then the shapes will have to be carved out piece-by-piece.
