Classic car owners love to talk about their car’s paint or their car’s engine. But for those of us who love to drive, there’s one typically overlooked component that can affect the overall experience behind the wheel more than anything else: the seat. After all, this is where you sit to enjoy your car. Shouldn’t it be comfortable? You may think that your seat is just fine, but it’s just as likely that you’ve become accustomed to worn foam and broken springs under a decent seat cover. Think about it this way: Cars from the muscle era are now pushing 50. […]
Classic car owners love to talk about their car’s paint or their car’s engine. But for those of us who love to drive, there’s one typically overlooked component that can affect the overall experience behind the wheel more than anything else: the seat. After all, this is where you sit to enjoy your car. Shouldn’t it be comfortable?
You may think that your seat is just fine, but it’s just as likely that you’ve become accustomed to worn foam and broken springs under a decent seat cover. Think about it this way: Cars from the muscle era are now pushing 50. How many times over the years has a driver plopped down behind the wheel and smashed that old foam and those ancient springs?
Fortunately, bringing a seat back up to snuff isn’t especially difficult with the right parts and a few tricks from an interior pro.
We took Auction Editor Chad Tyson’s front bench seat out of his 1967 Impala — complete with bus-style generic seat cover installed sometime in the 1970s — and ordered a new OE-style cover and foam kit for it from Lutty’s Chevy Warehouse. We then took it all over to Rick Redmond at AIR Automotive for a quick lesson in seat revival. Here’s how we did it.
Parts List:
- Lutty’s Chevy Warehouse (www.luttyschevy.com, 724-265-2988)
- P/N 13990 Black front bench seat cover, $345
- P/N 12614 Bench seat foam kit, $259
- P/N 5405 Hog Rings, $2 (two packs required)
Special thanks to Richard Redmond at AIR Automotive (503-997-9596)
Time spent: Four hours
Difficulty: 3/5
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