Thanks to Pasty and others for the inspiration

Now on the 2nd part of the hardest part, having done the first rear

 

Well guess what, not half as hard as it has been reported, but then maybe that's because leather is more forgiving a material than fabric (not to say it looks good baggy or stretched, but I think it just lends itself more naturally as a material to be more flexible?

 

Well I've got some suggestions on how to do with with leather.

 

Firstly, I was lucky in that my rears came with 3 headrests but my rear donors also have the spare headrest mounts.

I dunno if there is meant to be any real issue with that, but the mounts go in perfectly for me, good to make sure there aren't visible holes !

 

Secondly, the top trim (well the whole foam and back) is WAY too big, at least mostly on the top, the bottom part actually isn't that different.

No biggie - just cut off the extra trim away from the leather on the further past (a few cm or so) so the leather on that side is no longer held to any clip and hanging awkwardly to the right.

I plan to sort of fold or clip the extra leather out the way in the right corner - so it won't be hardly visible.

I haven't bothered with trimming any extra foam this time - which will be on the top right part of the base as you look at it from the front - may get away with it as I imagine it will just squeeze together with the other back part when they fit together ? If not it will be no effort to unclip and hack away.

 

Thirdly, and more concerning, like the other side there was always going to need to be compromise somewhere. This time, it is on the leftmost head rest where there is a pull and a slight amount of hole visible to the base below (where some part of the seat stems used to be)..

So it necessitates cutting the leather a bit more to release some of the stretch, and requires stitching in a cm or so of fabric on the left side of each headrest (like I did on the other side with only the release part), which I freed up elsewhere that the material is in excess.....

 

All in all I'm happy its gone so easily and doesn't fit too bad for a mk1. I'm gonna have to get busy with the stitching though to get it as perfect as I can lol knit one pearl one....ah those early school lessons finally come useful !

So the hard part out the way? The fronts should now be easy?

 

Sadly my decent Android phone is broken and my other camera phones crap and the wife gone to bed dare not disturb to ask where the Canon is ...... so pics will have to wait

glad you're getting them sorted

 

people really shouldn't be as scared as everyone is

Once you get started it is actually really simple

 

the guy that did my octavia half leathers actually said the leather was more difficult to work with than if it had been fabric.

less malleable and maneuverable on the machine apparently - although to be honest he seemed like a bit of slacker who'd take the easy way out rather than doing a "proper" job

 

Looking forward to seeing these yellow beasts in situ

Cheers, been out tonight so no chance to do anything else but its looming ever closer to D Day...I'd love to sort out the heating at same time though

W.R.T this particular rear though which I'm not 100% happy with yet, its the foam and leather thats somewhat wider on one side.

 

I'm thinking of maybe shaving 1cm of foam off that side (I think the side that meets the other).

It may be okay and just "squeeze" to the other one fine, but as its going to be tighter

 

The next question is what to use for this, I'm not sure whether to use a saw, or just burn it off with soldering iron or cut with sciccors or what. I might get away with it as said but I have a feeling that when I pair them together it will look a bit too much like to squeezed up lady pillows side by side lol

 

Think it will look better with badges too, so on top of the other finishing touches I will hope to at very least mock off some gloss printed logos that I can put in place to get a feel for whether its worth ordering badges.

I gave mine to the professionals who i think trimmed the foam an inch and took an inch of foam out too

 

The next question is what to use for this

 

I did all my foam trimming with a steak knife

Good idea. I used a sharp saw, worked well enough. To be honest I only took 1cm off.

 

Although a bit of that foam came in handy for a bit of repair on drivers side base foam ! I saw it was leaking foam a bit and as usual you get wear so I've added some extra foam up there and had to glue the plastic lining back in place for the supports. Although sensible hat on, thinking make sure to switch them around and make the passenger material and foam the drivers and vice versa? Clever,me :sun:

 

Bit knackered today, finished fully dismantling all the seats to get the donor front bases, angle grinded those supports off, I'm going to use them.

Might try araldite them in place? I did see aldi had special on arc welders which tempted me for this, but I haven't bothered.

 

I think if I had a large garage as opposed to distant sheds and all the crap in the attic etc it would have been far more efficient operation !

 

This is very close now. If I'd more effort I'd probably have been finished and got them in the car. Tested the heated seat circuits though and they seem on face value to be close to zero resistance I think, so stand a fair chance of working when wired up ? I'd like to do this.