Worked on rebuilding the 78 280z seats for local club member Scott M. on and off this winter.  Finalized them today.   Phew.... glad they are done.

The leather covers are from Interior Innovations,  new foams were from Classic Datsun.

Ran into an issue with the closure of the seat backs...  The material was about 1 1/2" too short to make it close properly over the tangs in the bottom of the seat backs.   Either the manufacturer screwed up the length,  or the 78 seat back frames grew and got longer.   Tried every trick in the book to overcome the issue,  finally had an upholstery shop sew in a extension to the leather at the seam where the reinforcement is.   Worked out perfect,  the fit is now tight without it trying to tear the seat material apart.

This is the 2nd set of leather covers I have done from interior innovations.   The first set that I did for my car 2 years ago was tight,  but nothing like this.   If I were to order any more covers,  I would have them extent the problem area with the 1 1/2" of extra length.   Overall, the leather covers are of great quality.  The ones I did for my 77 z car are just coming up to 2 years and I will do a 2 year update on them very soon....

Nice work!

I got the faux leather from Interior Innovations about three years ago.  They were tight.  I found  that Summer is the best time to do seat covers, just for the heat factor.  Good Job!

Since they're not leather could you wet them to be more pliable? I'm needing to do my '77 and like those, a lot.

Edited March 21, 20186 yr by siteunseen

9 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

Since they're not leather could you wet them to be more pliable? I'm needing to do my '77 and like those, a lot.

HIs are leather, mine are not.  I don't think wetting would make a diffeerence on the fake leather, but Mr. Sun on a hot day sure does...........

Those look really nice! Is it possible the fit was because of the foam padding? Thicker possibly?

1 hour ago, gwri8 said:

HIs are leather, mine are not.  I don't think wetting would make a diffeerence on the fake leather, but Mr. Sun on a hot day sure does...........

Thank you Greg. I see heat guns at all upholstery shops all the time. I gotta a pretty good hair drier with low mileage I could use.

36 minutes ago, rcb280z said:

Those look really nice! Is it possible the fit was because of the foam padding? Thicker possibly?

The foam was an issue with the seat bottoms.   The final closure of the rear flap which gets hog ringed to the frame was very tight.   After much analysis, I ended up cutting a small 1" pie shaped piece from the bottom of the back of the seat foam.   The seat bottom foams did seem a bit too large at the back for the seat frames.   Maybe one day I'll get to try a vinyl set.   I'll bet they are easier to work with than the real leather.

For the seat backs,  I used a dry cleaners plastic bag to make the covers slide down easier.

Delivered Scott's completed seats for his red 78 on Saturday,  a nice 70 degree spring day.  Zup came over in his 240 to assist & make sure the 73 model year was represented.  (Thanks for the conversation and great burgers you made later Jim!)

Seats look good in the red car,  which may be the one he takes to Branson this year.   A happy project ending....

Some shots of the seats in the car & 1 of the modification to extend the material for the closure of the problem area of the seat backs.

 

I'm seriously considering these for my Z, thank you for the info and the pics!

 

Great job, on my list as well


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