DIY: How to Recover Your Z Seats - LOTS OF PICTURES

[Zup]

Hey Keith--

The greenish color you need for the seat sliders is the same as for the horns. (I might add that it is correct as well for the heater blower and heater blower housing)

@CanTechZ started an interesting thread some time back and I added my experience with trying to duplicate this color in it.

The aerosols I used were Rust-oleum products readily available at Lowe's or Home Depot:

You'll have to experiment a little to get the right combination of camouflage and oil rubbed bronze as I described in the thread. I think it will be what you are after.

Colors don't show up well in the photo above or from the 2015 photo in the thread, but the greenish bronze combination is very close to the original color used on the components of the rails, horns, and heater box blower motor housings.

Hope it helps.

 

Zup

[zed2]

Great, thank you.

[Hardway]

Another option would be to find a paint store that custom mixes cans of spray paint and take your paint card from SW.  A Car Quest store in Georgetown just north of Austin does this.  I had them mix up a can of orange paint for an original air cleaner I painted.  Think it costs $22.  Even in Plano there has to be a place in Plano or Richardson that does this.  Call around, someone knows.

So happy to see that this thread continues to live on and help other owners.

[Zup]

11 hours ago, zed2 said:

Imperial Japanese  Army Green

That just has a proper ring  to it for these Z'z 

Thanks for the legwork @zed2 !

 

[jalexquijano]

On 11/5/2018 at 10:58 PM, Hardway said:

Another option would be to find a paint store that custom mixes cans of spray paint and take your paint card from SW.  A Car Quest store in Georgetown just north of Austin does this.  I had them mix up a can of orange paint for an original air cleaner I painted.  Think it costs $22.  Even in Plano there has to be a place in Plano or Richardson that does this.  Call around, someone knows.

So happy to see that this thread continues to live on and help other owners.

Hardway,

Found your step by step restoration guide for the seat in my 1972 240z. As per your experience where should i purchase the materials: seat covers, foams, etc? Any supplier you recommend? Is it worth investing in leather interior? 

[psdenno]

48 minutes ago, jalexquijano said:

Any supplier you recommend? Is it worth investing in leather interior? 

Use this link:  https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/classic08f

If you plan to totally rebuild the seats, you'll need new foam, new upholstery, maybe seat webbing depending on year of your Z, spray paint for side rails and seat frame & back.  MSA is the source I used recently and I'm pleased with materials and results.

[w3wilkes]

I went with leather from Interior Innovations and new foam from MSA. I also did matching leather for the shifter and ebrake  boots. Here's my thread;

Leather Seats - Interior - The Classic Zcar Club (classiczcars.com)

[Jeff Berk]

I likewise went with Interior Innovations and chose to go with black with red stitching and Z emblem to tie in with the red exterior. I'll be doing leather door, dash, shifter boot and center console over the next few months but had to go with J-F customs since Interior Innovations didn't have the measurements to do the dash.

I'll be spending a lot of time on the door panels because it looks like to match the diagonal pattern on the originals, I'll need to learn how to sew foam-filled channels on the leather and figure out how to patch the speaker holes a PO cut in the door card.

[Mark Maras]

 I worked for an upholsterer a long time ago. When we stitched patterns onto foam back material we glued (contact adhesive) burlap to the foam so the stitching had something to grab.

[Jeff Berk]

Thanks Mark. I purchased 1/4-inch "scrim foam" after viewing the technique on sailrite.com. I've got the foam glued and stitched onto the leather and will be sewing the diagonals hopefully tomorrow. I like the burlap idea but the scrim foam saves a step.

[davewormald]

I just re-covered my passenger seat with the Interior Innovations cover that I bought from @KenFirch a while back. I purchased the replacement foam from Interior Innovations as well. I wasn't really looking forward to the job. It sounded like it was a bit of a pain, but it went very well and didn't take me more than a couple of hours. I thought I'd add a couple of things to this thread that might help people doing it in the future.

My car is a 1971 240 (the one @grannyknot has been working on in a current build thread), but the seats seem to be from a 280Z. They have the metal "springs" in the seat bottom rather than the webbing. They've been recovered previously (the covers were obviously not original), but the foams seemed to be original. A couple of things made the job easier, as described here.

There was a thin sheet of plastic covering the foam of the seat back. It seemed to be professionally made to fit the seat, but I don't know whether it was something that came from the factory. It was a little worse for wear, but I was able to reuse it. I was also able to leave the very thin layer of foam on the metal seat back. It was wrapped around and over the edges of the foam on the front of the seat back, but I was able to peel it off.

I first glued the edges of the new foam to the metal seat back. I used Lepage Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive and it held very well through the rest of the work. The plastic on the top of the seat back made it easy to slip the top of the new cover over the seat back down to the point where I needed to hog ring it to the metal back. Once I'd done that (more on that in a minute), I was able to very easily roll the rest of the cover down over the rest of the back. When using the tangs to secure the front and back of the cover to the bottom of the seat back, it was easy to pull the material down far enough. This was probably because it could slide easily on the plastic sheet.

I was able to hog ring the cover to the metal back through the slot without too much trouble. I first used plastic cable ties to pull the wire on the metal seat back and the wire in the seat cover insert together, then used the hog ring pliers I bought to add the hog rings. I was going to cut the cable ties off afterwards, but decided to simply trim them instead. I can't see them doing any harm, and they're providing extra holding power.

When I did the seat bottom, I first used the tangs to pull the cover down tight on the foam and metal seat base. Once I'd done that, it made the job of attaching the hog rings much easier because the foam was quite compressed. I used the cable ties again, which made it very easy to attach the hog rings. I do kind of wonder whether you could do this job with the cable ties and not bother with hog rings at all. Maybe they'd wear through over time.

So I would suggest using a plastic wrap over the seat back, attaching the seat bottom cover using the tangs before doing the hog rings, and using cable ties to pull parts together when installing the hog rings.

I'll be doing the driver's seat over the next few days, so I'll get a chance to do this again. Hopefully it will go as well as this one did.

[Namerow]

Nice job.  I used Distinctive Industries' covers when re-doing the seats for my 70 Z.  I did not purchase new foam b/c the OE foam still seemed in good shape.  Long story short, I found the fit of the new covers to be a bit baggy.  Things improved a lot with the addition of 1/2" and 1/4" foam sheet in strategic locations (esp. the front and side bolsters), along with pushed-into-place 'basting' material (bought at a dressmaker's shop) that helped to remove/reduce wrinkles in certain locations.  I was pretty happy with the end result, esp. considering the fact that this was my first-ever venture into the world of automotive upholstery.  FWIW, hot rod and boat shops can provide a lot of guidance for this type of work.