Replacement seat covers - rear cushion

The rear seat cushion was the obvious starting point to me for two reasons, the cushion is easily removed by lifting up from the front corners and releasing two nylon inserts which locate into a recess in the sill, and secondly the replacement cover is one piece that fits over the base padding and clips onto a wire frame with hog rings.

Here you can see the nylon inserts that secure the base

The simplicity of this eases me into something a little more complicated later on, having not done any re-upholstering on older vehicles with the use of hog rings.

The cover folds over the frame and secured with hog rings

First of all the rear cushion was removed as described above and worked on outside as there was a lot of mess with deteriorated sponge and rotten nylon. Once removed the seat base padding was in quite good condition. The base just sits in a wire frame that had a little surface rust I wire brushed the frame a gave a couple of coats of black paint.

Originally there was evidence of the base being secured temporarily in place with tape before the cover was fitted, so I did the same.

Working inside now with the wire frame painted and seat base in place

Easing the seat cover over the padding and framework then tucking in the edges under the frame gives you a good indication of the final fit. I found that there was a small area in the front corners that was left a little bit baggy no matter how much I pulled the cover tight. I presumed that the base had shrunk or deformed slightly over the years.

To overcome this I purchased a piece of ½ inch upholstery foam and cut out two pieces to shape and glued them into place to pad out the original foam. Now with the cover fitting nicely it was secured permanently with hog rings about every 2 inches along the frame. And that was it finished ready to back in the car.

Rear seat cushion finished stored in the spare bedroom for now

A reminder what the original looked like

Next...the rear seat backrest.