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Sat Mar 15, 2003 11:40 am

I've got a '68 bug that I am in the process of restoring and was wondering what peoples thoughts are on the seat upholstery kits that are available from TMI and other places. Is it worth saving a few bucks and doing these myself, or should I save the time/hassle and pay a little extra to have an upholstery shop take care of the seats for me?

Sat Mar 15, 2003 12:27 pm

It's pretty straight forward putting the material on the seats if you buy a kit, don't waste your money at an upholstry place.

Sat Mar 15, 2003 1:29 pm

An upholstry shop told me the same thing. Custom seats are expnsive. I paid about $850 to get Thing seats rebuilt/recovered. Would have been cheaper to purchase ready made but I wanted a certain color scheme.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:16 am

If you call wolfsburg west or west coast classics they can do different combinations of colors I think, it's worth the call to ask.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:53 am

Hot VW's or VW trends magazine, one of the 2. Had a artical on installing TMI seat covers on your bug. My wife and I did ours all by ourselfs on our 64 bug and it turned out great. I really couldent be any more pleased with the outcome. Looks like a pro job and both of us had never done it before. The artical had alot of helpfull tips. try looking on the magazines wep page, I think they might have the artical posted.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 12:00 pm

Yeah, I have the Hot VW's restore issue from last year. That is what got me to thinkining about doing it myself. It always looks so much easier when a "pro" is doing it though.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 5:44 pm

Save yourself time and money and do three important things:

1. Figure out exactly what fabric you want to use, and send a swatch of the old stuff to TMI or their distributor to make sure you get the right basketweave.

2. When you remove the padding from your frame, wirebrush any rust and spray the entire frame with Permatex Extend rust conversion spray. Then use the matching Wolfsburg West frame spraypaint to give it that stock color (L43 grey-black)

3. Don't use string to tie down the seat bottom covering to the metal tabs on the bottom of the frame. Use wire, like 16 Gauge utilty wire to do it. That is what they use at the factory, not string like most upholstery shops use.

I hope this helps.

Sat Mar 22, 2003 7:00 am

I agree with jpickens.
I got the seat cover kits from TMI and was very pleased with them. They were the most like the original in the form of design and application. The only thing is that I replaced the string with wire as J. said.
Big Al

Sat Mar 22, 2003 11:30 pm

I just redid my ghia seats with all velour, it was a little more dificult than doing them in vinyl because they cannot be heated to stretch them, but it took only one day to do all of them. I got a TMI kit, with 12 inch inserts, really nice quality. They also give you a fair amount of spare material with it, enough that you can make your own seat buttons and still have a fair bit left over. I also agree with J.Pickens, make sure you use wire, not only is it the same as they did at the factory but it really is far better, far, far better.
Skaven Xavier

Tue Mar 25, 2003 11:27 am

I used SewFine seat covers - they fit well, look good and have some nice tow-toned color combos if that's what you're looking for...

Tue Mar 25, 2003 9:51 pm

Sewfine does really-really good work, but as I stated above, its up to you to make sure you get the material you want. Sewfine will make seatcovers out of anything, so if you want stock-style, you need to provide swatches of original material for them to match, or have them send you a swatch for you to verify.

Mon Mar 31, 2003 10:18 am

What about sport seat kits from Scat and others that are made to "bolt in" to a VW? Good or bad luck with these?