72 Plymouth upholstry on 73 Dodge seat

[hotrod Al]

Im getting ready to order upholstry for my seats and have a few questions. My seats are 1973 Charger with good seat buns and I want to use 1972 Roadrunner upholstry. Will the buns work for this kit? I was also wondering if there was a video tutoral on upholstering 71-74 b-body seats? I would appreciate any help and tips you can give me.

 

[moparmarks]

Don't think the RR covers will fit the Charger foam

 

[hotrod Al]

Thanks moparmarks. I've been looking at seat foams and noticed that all seem to be sold universal for b-body, so i'm going to try my luck and see what happens. I ordered a set of RR covers from Dante while they are on sale and plan to install them in the spring if I can wait that long.

 

[ODZKing]

Not sure if it is a RR-Charger thing but I believe 72 and 73 seats are different.

 

[hotrod Al]

Not sure if it is a RR-Charger thing but I believe 72 and 73 seats are different.

From what i've seen on here and the 71-74 Charger forums, 71 is different because of it's own seat foam and 72-74 the covers will interchange.

 

[YY1]

IIRC 70 is one year, 71 is one year, and 72-74 are the same.

If I may ask, how much were the covers from Dante's?

I got mine on sale from Classic Industries for what I thought was a pretty good price.

Front buckets and rear bench was right at $600, shipping included.

 

[hotrod Al]

I got just the fronts for $288.00 on sale till the 20th. I couldn't pass them up at that price.

 

[YY1]

Whew!

Looks like it would have been about a wash on price.

Thanks.

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http://www.legendaryautointeriors.com/category/installation-videos/1876.html

About 2/3 way down is 71-74 A/B/E buckets.

Haven't watched all of it yet, but I'm almost done with mine.

Wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

Just have the backs of the fronts left to do.

 

[jessipup]

I put the 72 covers on my 74 seate they look great. I was worried that I had heard from others that something might get caught on the buttons and rip them out.So I went with the earlier covers they fit and look great

 

[hotrod Al]

I put the 72 covers on my 74 seate they look great. I was worried that I had heard from others that something might get caught on the buttons and rip them out.So I went with the earlier covers they fit and look great

That's the exact reason why I went with the RR covers because of the button issue. They look alot like the 71 Charger/Superbee seats and being 72 they would fit my 73 frames.

 

[YY1]

Interesting that the video at Legendary doesn't show the most difficult part.

I did the back seat and the bottoms of the buckets- no sweat.

But.....the backs of the buckets are 25 times more difficult.

There are listing wires that hold the buttons in tension to other wires that are molded into the foam, plus a wire that marks the separation between of the head restraint portion.

It was fairly difficult to remove the old cover, let alone attempt to put the new one on.

I really can't see any way to do it other than cutting the foam out of the back side and hog ringing from behind.

There just not enough room to get the pliers in the deep recess from the front, plus the cover will be directly over top, with little room and an odd angle.

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...and...when I tried to insert the listing wire into the sleeve on the new cover, the fit was super tight, too tight, really, and...the stitching they used to form the sleeve pocket was kind of wimpy, and started to come out.

 

[hotrod Al]

I suppose slow is the way to go. This will be my first time at it but I think if I take my time I can get it done. I'm thinking the used (but still good condition) seat foam might have a little more "give" to be able to work with. These are going into a 72 Coronet so i'm not pressed about perfection, just as long as it looks good. I do believe the listing wires might be the challange here. I guess i'll find out after i'm in there.

 

[YY1]

If I were you, I'd do them in the order I did.

Leave one seat assembled, or at least partially assembled to use as reference.

Start with the back, if you are doing it.

I only needed my wife's help with the back part of the back seat. Some of that was a tight pull.

Once you see how things go, and what techniques work, you can progress to the more elaborate bucket bottoms.

I'm debating taking my bucket backs to an upholstery shop.

Even at $50-$75 an hour, I bet they could do them in under an hour each, since I have the seats apart, and one already torn down.

Might be worth it not to have to deal with the frustration and time.

 

[hotrod Al]

Thanks YY1, I was going to do just that. I'm going to take plenty of pics before I take anything apart for added insurence. I'm going to have my brother be my extra pair of hands in all of this. I agree that a shop could do it a whole lot quicker, but this is something I would like to learn to do. Who knows, I might be good at it and save a little money

 

[Texpar]

on a hot day lay the covers out in the sun to get really warm. if no sun a short tmie in a drier. Keep a hair drier handy for stretching areas that have cooled off. The materials will stretch more and less likely to pull on stitching if they are warm. Get ready for really sore fingers and finger tips the next day.

 

[YY1]

I did mine indoors- about 78* and didn't have any issues.