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Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:36 pm

Just wondering if any of you had experience with preventing the vinyl on your seats from cracking.
What I have is a good original set of seats for my 66 in brown colour.
The front seats are not cracked and the rears have a split around the bottom frame edge on the corner.
I kinda like them and was hoping to refurbish them but ..... the reason they are not cracked is because my car didn't get used for 25years. Now the vinyl looks ok but I can almost guarantee the UV light has affected its strength and will crack in no-time once I started using them regularly.

Wondering if it's possible to remove the skins and reinforce or laminate the vinyl from the back with a 'second skin' of some kind of reinforcement glued on to give it some additional strength in tension. Has anyone done that? You know like that really sticky sheet of sports injury tape that physiotherapists stick on athletes muscles. Just some ideas. I'm afraid if I can't work out a solution I'll probably remove the seat covers and put them in storage while I have my fun with the car. Building it to drive but wanting to retain its original stock parts that are worth saving without damaging anything beyond repair.

Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:56 am

Yabbadubbadoo wrote: Just wondering if any of you had experience with preventing the vinyl on your seats from cracking.
What I have is a good original set of seats for my 66 in brown colour.
The front seats are not cracked and the rears have a split around the bottom frame edge on the corner.
I kinda like them and was hoping to refurbish them but ..... the reason they are not cracked is because my car didn't get used for 25years. Now the vinyl looks ok but I can almost guarantee the UV light has affected its strength and will crack in no-time once I started using them regularly.

Wondering if it's possible to remove the skins and reinforce or laminate the vinyl from the back with a 'second skin' of some kind of reinforcement glued on to give it some additional strength in tension. Has anyone done that? You know like that really sticky sheet of sports injury tape that physiotherapists stick on athletes muscles. Just some ideas. I'm afraid if I can't work out a solution I'll probably remove the seat covers and put them in storage while I have my fun with the car. Building it to drive but wanting to retain its original stock parts that are worth saving without damaging anything beyond repair.

With vinyl....UV is actually the least of its issues. With vinyl....the UV is mainly responsible for fading. The main enemy of vinyl is heat.

Vinyl comes in many varieties....flexible, rigid, reinforced....alloys...etc. All have the same main issue. The more flexible they are, the more solvents and plasticizers they contain. The hotter they get, the more plasticizers they bleed out. This makes them harden up and shrink with age.
Eventually your seats will die.

If you look at your vinyl from the back you will see that its already laminated to a cloth. Its about as good as it can get.
Do not use armor all whatever you do. It is a solvent in its own right and has a tendency to attack the surface....thats how it makes it soft.

One product I have found that really seems to work well and is not slick or oily is Blue Magic Leather and Vinyl cleaner. It smells like saddle soap. Its a spray and wipe.

Preserve what you can of the vinyl but just realize it is going to die eventually and there s nothing you can do. Just spend the interim time searching for the right materials to replace it.
Sewfine has nice type 3 sets. Ray

Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:56 am

I think the only solution is to install new covers.

Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:48 pm

I guess new covers might be the go. My car spent all its life before I got it in the Central west part of the state which is hot and dry.

I don't really know if that pattern in my seats is available. It's not the same as that highly defined basket weave pattern you see on all the repro covers. It's got a much nicer and more delicate sort of pattern. Is that available?

Might be able to get a pic of them later. Here's one I found but you can't see the pattern too well because it's really fine.