I'm thinking about biting the bullet and buying a set of seat covers for my 87 T/A but I'm not sure if I'll need to re-foam the seats too. I've attached a picture of my passenger side seat bottom and the foam is a little chewed up in some places but it's there.

Do you think I can get away with just the cover, should I get new foam, or just try to find a whole new seat? I've never done any upholstery work before so I may just have to find some affordable fourth gen seats if it's going to be a nightmare as well. Thanks!

 

I'd look for another set of used seats in better shape. No one reproduces cloth covers that are remotely correct for our cars, and you can still find used sets in good shape relatively cheap, as long as you don't have them shipped to you.

 

I've looked, but the deluxe black seats seem to be super rare for some reason?

Are the seat cover sets available all around the internet really THAT bad that it would be more worth it to just spend the money for new seats? I've heard complaints but I didn't realize they were that lousy.

 

My original seats were toast but I found some good 4th gen seats at the junk yard that bolt right in and are MUCH more comfortable. May be some in your area, don't have any idea?

 

Black seems to be by far the least popular/hardest to find of all the basic colors (Gray, Red, Tan, Black) offered from 1982-92. People liked lively colors back then. Nowadays, everyone wants Black interior, which has made used Black seats even more scarce due to all the people doing interior color changes.

As far as the reproductions currently available, I suppose it depends on personal taste. Being that I've been sitting on original GM cloth seats with the correct Pallex pattern in every car me and my family have owned since I can remember, it's always an immediate eyesore for me any time I see covers in the wrong pattern. Nonetheless, I still see plenty of them in cars on here, so apparently it doesn't matter to a lot of folks.

 

It wouldn't bother me too much since it couldn't possibly look worse than that seat right now.

But regarding the foam, how degraded does it have to be before someone considers junking it for an entire new seat or foam pad? There are some chunks missing but would replacement fabric be thick enough to make up for some of that?

 

No amount of fabric is really going to make up for missing foam. If it's just a few small sections that are missing foam and you're on a tight budget, you can ask your upholsterer to add some foam in those areas when installing new covers. If you can afford it though, I would strongly recommend new foam.

 

that could be the foam on the cover itself...If I recall the cloth has some foam on it so its like a thin layer between the actual seat foam and the cloth.

 

Fixing foam is relatively easy.

 

The pros glue a chunk of foam on and just shape it by sanding or cutting it with a hotwire knife. Pretty cool to watch. They use the other side of the seat as a guide if it’s not too worn, or they’ll use the passenger seat if it is since the bolsters are basically the same.

 

Oof, if I have to get foam added by a professional, that's absolutely going to jack up the cost.

I might be better off just finding a pair of cloth fourth gen ebony seats; so that leads me to a new question:

How close is the color between the fourth gen ebony cloth and the third gen black cloth? I had a '00 with ebony (p)leather years ago but haven't ever seen what the cloth looked like.

 

Yep...pretty simple.

The point is, you don't need a pro. This is totally DIY-able... if you can change the seat covers. Older seats had way more hog rings, that is the only part that needs some more attention. I'm sure there are Youtube vids out there. I completely repaired, re-foamed and recovered my 84 Aero seats, including the support wire in the side bolsters that had broken down. It's really not too tough.

 

It’s very doable, just get a good pair of hog ring pliers & a big bag of hog rings (Eastwood). Chunks of seat foam are easy to get at an upholsterers (probably for free) and there are hotwire foam knives/cutters on Amazon for ~$30

 

Would this be a CHEAPER solution than finding an affordable set of fourth gen seats? I can't find a reupholster kit online for anything under 500 bucks and I'm gonna need to do the backs, too so it's looking like either new seats all around or new upholstery all around one way or the other.

 

Yeah...the upholstery is the commitment no matter what you do with the foam. I'm sure I didn't spend 500 on my covers, but I'm not sure the company is still in business.
I don't really know what 4th gen seat assemblies go for, but I would suspect much more than 500. you also run the risk (at this point in their age) of the 4th gens being broken down and worn through as well...

 

A factory seat cover consists of fabric(cloth, vinyl or leather) sewn to a thin layer of foam, and the reverse side of that foam has Velcro strips on it that secure it to the face of the seat foam, then wrapped underneath and secured with hog rings. All of those stitches you see secure the fabric to its own layer of foam, not to the seat foam. So if that torn fabric is loose from the visible foam, but that visible foam lifts with the fabric, then that's the fabric's foam. If you remove that torn seat cover, then you're likely to find the seat foam beneath it in reusable condition.

Seats and seat covers are interchangeable from driver side to passenger side. The only difference between finished seat covers is that the holes in them for the hardware are on opposite sides. So a passenger side seat bottom cover on a driver side seat bottom, the holes in the fabric will be hidden by the console.

But most people who are looking in junkyard cars for a replacement driver seat cover probably don't realize they can get a nice passenger seat cover and use it on the driver seat. And because nice driver seat covers are nearly impossible to find, but it's not unusual to find nice passenger seat covers, then you have that option to recover your driver seat with a nice used passenger seat cover. Or just get the entire used passenger seat bottom, covered, and use it as-is.

And if you can wait a few months after getting the used seat and/or seat cover, then let it air out for as long as you can, because you'll want to get that yard car STINK out of it. People who frequent junkyards know what I'm talking about.

 

I'm not sure where you guys are finding 35 year old seat upholstery in "good" condition, but that has never existed where I live. Classic Industries has new entire set upholstery for less than $500, and it comes with hog rings and pliers. I did this years ago for my camaro. Not too hard to do yourself. Just pay attention as you take it apart and put new upholstery on the same way.