New Seat Covers for the Plymouth Sport Fury - Part I

My dear wife bought me seat covers for my car quite a while back. Like two years ago. I don't really know why it's taken so long to get them installed, but now that I've started the process... let's just say it is a workout. Now I know what the guy at work meant when he said installing seat covers is difficult (btw, hi Jason Huff if you happen to read this).

Here is the first seat finished and back in the car:

I found out from talking to the original owner that he had the seats redone in Tijuana about 1974 when he was living in California. Previously he'd lived in Texas and the heat had baked the original interior.

Here's a "before" photo of the seat covers, taken when I was installing the new carpeting. The covers weren't really that bad but the diamond pleat stitching kind of dates the car and the green color doesn't go with the black I'm transitioning to.

What have I gotten myself into?.... The foam was in good enough condition to reuse it. I added a 1" piece of foam under the seat bottom foam to give it a little boost.

The rod you see in the center of the photo below is supposed to be straight. It stops the seat back from folding forward too far when getting into or out of the back seat.

I supported the rod from the bottom and gave it several whacks with a 3 pound sledge hammer and long drift to straighten it. That is pretty much the only thing I had to do to repair the framework after 50 years of use.

The local fabric shop wanted $47 for a pair of hog ring pliers but I happened to find some at the local Lowe's for $10. They were out in Gardening, in the fencing department...

I added a layer of burlap under the cushioning (see below) since the original burlap (above) was a bit worse for wear. Since I was doing this project alone, I used two boards and clamps to compress the foam/springs to get the seat cover edges close enough to the seat frame to attach with hog rings.

First part done.

And here's the final product.

The seat covers are from Legendary Auto Interiors, who specialize in making seat covers in the original look and pattern. They make videos on how to install their seat covers, which is great. Only problem is, they make it look so easy.