88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

I finally got around to taking some pics of newly re-covered GTA seats. I bought the black hampton vinyl kit from Hawks. I'm really happy with the covers. They are alomost identical to the factory upholstry. Here are the before and during pics:

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

And here is the finished product:

chevydrvr

iTrader: (1)

looks great! it does look factory. Nice job. How much it set you back?

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Thanks! I bought the kit from Hawks Third Gen. It was around $400 and included hog rings and pliers. I installed them myself so there were no other costs involved except for the $10 I spent on a piece of foam and some spray adhesive to patch up the foam in a few spots.

chevydrvr

iTrader: (1)

wow, i'll keep that in mind when/if I ever have to do this. Are they covers? Or are they like replacement fabrics for the seats. Do you take off all the old fabric and use this to replace it?

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

They are pre-sewn upholstry just like what was put on them when they were in the factory. You have to remove all the old uphostry. Takes some time but not as hard as I would have expected. I thought taking the seats apart and puting them back together was harder (and more time consuming) than doing the upholstry work.

chevydrvr

iTrader: (1)

oh cool. How do you actually put the new upholstery on? You mentioned hog rings? What are those? Sorry for all the questions. I'm planning on buying my first car soon and want to fill my head with all thirdgen knowledge. lol

92RS(real slow)

wow looks great that's not to bad of price either

Al Hasse

Looks great I did the same thing to my 89 RS, including rebuilding the foam on the seat cushions. My kit also came from Hawks, but fabric instead of vinyl and cost me about $350. I have a thread in here somewhere about it. Sure feels good to see how good they look, knowing you did it all yourself, doesn't it?

EDIT: I found the thread

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/inte...ing-seats.html

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Thanks! Those RS seats looks awesome too. Actually I remeber looking at that thread a while ago. I was a little nervous to tear into this project and risk ruining $400 upholstry but yours came out so nice I decided to go for it. I'm very happy with the results.

QUICKCHICKEN

iTrader: (12)

hiflyer, what about the plastic on the back, how hard was all of that to work with? did it come apart easy or was there a science to it?

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Taking the plastics apart was pretty straight forward. There are A LOT of screws holding the peices together though so make sure you put those somewhere that you wont lose them. I had to be very careful with the back plastic pieces because mine were pretty brittle. As long as you handle those gently and don't overtighten the screws when you're putting them back together you wont have a problem.

QUICKCHICKEN

iTrader: (12)

thaanx much, thats what i was hoping to hear.

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

How does the new material feel? Is it soft and nice to touch? Or is it plasticy and cheap feeling?

I have 4th gen seats right now...Ide like to recover them, but I was never happy with the cheap feel of the material. I know its vinyl...but still.

They look great!!

J.

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

I am pretty impressed with the hampton vinyl. It actually feels a lot like leather and there is virtually no difference in appearance (except it's not cracked or ripped lol). Everyone I've shown my interior to so far has been surprised when I told them it's not leather.

I was pretty skeptical about replacing leather with vinyl but after reading other members reviews on here I decided to go for it. If you decide to do yours just make sure you get the "hampton vinyl" because there is a standard vinyl available which is probably plasticy and cheap feeling. Hawks was really cool to deal with when I bought them too. They answered all my questions and they are pretty flexible about what you get since they are made to order. They will two tone panels at no charge and you can get them with or without the perforations.

The only downsides to the hampton vinyl over the leather are:
1. They smell like vinyl (wore off after a week or two though)
2. They get really f-ing HOT!

BigWhiteGTP

I noticed you are missing the "gills or ribbing" on the sides of your seats. Does the Hawks kit not come with replacements, are they destroyed removing them from the seats....whats the story?

Larry 89GTA

The Hawks site says you need to reuse the existing plastic. They recommend having an upholstery shop sew the new seat covers to the old plastic. Presumably, the old plastic is not destroyed in removing the old seat covers, assuming you do it right. My car needs this now. I'm debating recovering the seats or replacing them with 4th gen or some aftermarket seats.

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

No the hawks kit does not come with the acordian pieces. I planned to re-use mine but couldn't find an upholstry shop to sew them in for a reasonable price. I bought a hand sewing machine and tried to do it myself but the machine wouldn't go through the plastic so I just left them off.

I would highly recomend re-upholstering the original GTA seats rather than putting in fourth gen seats. I couldn't wait to take my fourth gen seats out when these were done. Fourth gen seats look cheaper in my opinion. They look okay but you wont be sorry if you re-cover your GTA seats. Just my 2 cents.

Larry 89GTA

I've heard that the 4th gen seats are more comfortable, sit lower, and go further back, allowing more head and leg room. I'm ok on the headroom, but I often wish the driver's seat would go back one or two more notches. I like the 4th gen headrests better. The "E.T." style head rests on the 3rd gen lumbar seats rattle like crazy. At least, my passenger one does. Drives me nuts! Other than that, they're great!

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

My GTA seats are way more comfortable than the 4th gen cloth seats I that I had in the car. I used to have a 97 Formula with the same seats in leather. I remember them being pretty comfortable but definately firmer than the 3rd gen seats (at least the GTA seats). I can't remeber if they went back further or not, I'm not that tall lol. I think they did sit a little lower though.

If you do decide to go with 4th gen seats the good thing is that the cloth upholstry they used is the exact same material as the cloth on the GTA door panels. It looks good either way but I definately don't regret keeping the originals.

BigWhiteGTP

I went from my 96 Formula with the 4th gen GTA seats to my GTA and the difference is very noticeable. Much softer especiallly the thigh supports. The 4th gen leather is tougher and the padding is more dense. Even the cloth seats are the same.

QUICKCHICKEN

iTrader: (12)

speaking of GTA seats, how many of you experience the under seat wires breeaking? these are the wires that go from the front of the seat on the underside and goes to the back of the seat and then up to the top of the base.

mine are broken across the same spot on both seats, one worse than the other and this is outside the foam. it supports you and keeps you from eventually breaking thru the foam.

im thinking about pulling my seats apart and re wireing it with bailing wire. it will require un wraping the exsisting strands and then tieing in new lines. wont be hard from what i see but to bring it back correct it will take an hr or few.

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Most of the wires were broken on mine. I did exactly what you're talking about with bailing wire. It was pretty easy but I'll worn you those old broken wires are sharp. You'll know they're there when you're reaching blindly under the seats to find the anchor bolts. My arms looked like I got attacked by a cat lol.

frankwi

I would say they look slightly better now... j/k they look awesome ! I'm jealous ...

QUICKCHICKEN

iTrader: (12)

yeah, i found out the easy way. when i bought the seats ($100 f & r ) i seen this before i grabbed them. at first i was a lil let down but i thought "i'll take em home and see if something can be done" and as figured it can be as i got a good chance to look em over.

these seats are flawless and to had left them behind would have been a mistake. your re cover job looks great BTW.

itsMikey

seats look great! i need to do this with mine :P

88gta_hiflyer

iTrader: (1)

Thanks! They're actually not that hard to do, just takes a little time. They look pretty intimidating though. Before I started this project I got a couple quotes from upholstry shops just out of curiousity. The first shop said they wouldn't touch them and the second one wanted $1200 just for labor! The covers are expensive enough but well worth it if you do it yourself.

Al Hasse

Very true. I actually have about that much in my 92's seats, door panels, headliner, visors and sail panels. It would have been more to have OEM material than the custom stuff I had done. My 89, I went the Hawks route and did the seats and door panels myself for about $500. I still need to do the headliner and sail panels and visors.

lsd88ta

I'm thinking about covers like these.. but were the factory back leather seats perforated like that all over the backrest? I seen some that were smooth on the sides and just perforated in the middles..

QUICKCHICKEN

iTrader: (12)

being my T/A seats i have/had in my FORMULA are getting worn i went to the salvage yard and happened across a seat just like the one in my FORMULA so i snatched the seat cover only to find the pouch on the back was a full piece of material vs the net style currrently on the seat.

on that same trip i looked in another car and found a perfect pas seat so i snatched those covers. being my pas side FORMULA seat was perfect all i needed was the cover i found in the other car. washed the covers and threw em on the dr seat and its back to perfect on both sides again.

BTW, the car i got my cover from was a grand am around the 89-90 years. those seats are exactly the same. luckily my foam is in excellent shape as well. i'v learned to stock up as our seats are getting hard to come by. i have roughly 3 complete front seat sets for the foam and fortuantly with the condition of the covers i can make another good pair if needed.

and then there are the GTA seats i have put away.