A budget guide to front seat and carpet restoration.

This afternoon, I installed a set of late Chevy Cavalier Z24 seats in the '89 Camaro... 1) because the stock seats were getting pretty shotty/ripped-up and 2) because I had them laying out in the shop from a previous project.

I picked the seats up a few seasons back at a local junkyard for $20. Let's say $5 in chemicals/cleaners that were used in the nasty carpet clean-up. All in all, $25 + a few hours of my time yielded a 1/2 way respectable interior.

Now for that cracked/falling apart dash AND fubar'd gauge cluster !

I snapped some pics of the progress; I thought of it AFTER the original seats were out and the carpet was cleaned up though.

Here goes:

The seats are out and the carpet is FINALLY clean:


Here's what I started with... *disgusted*:


Here's the Cavalier seats that went in; not exactly red, but a big improvement:


Side by side seat comparison, they were EXACTLY the same on the bottoms/mounting areas... swapping tracks was effortless:


Freshly scrubbed carpet... still wet; Febreze knocked that funky old carpet odor down too... the trick to getting it clean (or semi-clean) is to soap-up the carpet REALLY well w/ a thick solution of color-safe-bleach, laundry detergent, and water... then scrub the H3LL out of it w/ the scrub brush until foamy(you'll be able to tell when it's time to quit scrubbing).
Then use a bucket of clear water & a towel to 'mop up the grime/soap residue'. Wring out towel and dump/refill the water when dirty... REPEAT process until the towel/water remains semi-clear when rung out.
(Approx. time - total - 1 hr. for both sides).


The finished product:


Passenger side:


Tools/Cleaners used:


The job was pretty easy; I cleaned-up & sprayed the slightly rusty seat tracks w/ black spray paint and lubed them up well w/ PB Blaster and axle lube.

The most time consuming part of the whole job was getting that NASTY carpet clean.

 

Definately an improvement. Too bad the rears won't fit as well, huh ? There is another member (or members by now) that used cav seats as well. Regardless of the mis-match, a good upgrade from trashed stock fronts.
I've also found that liquid tide (filled to large load on the detergent cup) diluted in a spray bottle works very good for removing grime as well. Excellent as a hand/engine degreaser full strength as well. Also leaves that 'laundry fresh' scent after your done

 

I would dye the rears to match or get a set of grey rears,

Looks good, good work.

 

deadbird
That 'fresh laundry smell' is a bit overpowing at the moment.
Febreze is some strong stuff @!!

Aviator857
I like your idea about the grey rear seats, as those front ones can't be called black or blue.

Thanks for the kind comments.

 

Lookin good! I have the same front seats... red with a ripped bolster. yay!

Let us know what you do for the rear seats, as I plan to do something like this in the near future!

Aviator857 How exactly do you dye seats? That sure would be easier!

 

Well to dye the seats you have two choices,

you can get some spray fabric&vinel dye and take them out and spray several coats on them, brushing the seats with a stiff brush between coats to keep the fibers from matting.

Second choice: You can take the covers off and dye them in a bucket with some ritz type dye.

I prefer the first less work, by the time I do the second I would rather just get a shop to do the rear seats, I found a shop that would recover all my cloth seats for 350, but then I put leather 4th gens in it.

 

damn, $25

just did the 4th gen leather swap in mine, and got a good deal (UK, remember) at $800!

money well spent, i wish i could do an upgrade with those kind of results for $25.

 

This method works well on the carpet too, and is worth the time if you don't feel like installing new carpet.



Car looks good BTW