Vick's X1/9 seat upholstery set update

JimD

Waiting for Godot...
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I just wanted to post an update about the X1/9 seat upholstery I bought from Vick's late last summer. I never get things done fast, but I get to it eventually. I did a test fit on a seat last summer, but set the project aside until I got the car painted this June.

Here are some pictures of the upholstery installed on the seats in my 85. The interior was grey/black previously, so I used fabric paint to black out the door cards to go with the new seats. I think the seats look great and go really well with the new Arancio paint job.

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The product Vicks offers is actual replacement upholstery, not seat covers. You need to remove the original upholstery before you can install the new. The foam on my seats was in OK condition for being 30+ years old, so I didn't try to add any volume to it.

The biggest problem I had on install was breaking the original cotton pulls used to tighten the upholstery to the seat shape. I used the old rods and pulls I removed from the original seats. If you tackle this project, using the old rods is fine, but get new cotton straps to make the pulls. I put new pulls in the pass seat to replace the broken ones and was more careful when I pulled on them. I haven't redone the broken pulls on the driver's side yet and you can barely tell it is a little looser at shoulder height than the pass side.

I think this set of upholstery is really nice, especially for the price. As long as you are looking for black seats, which I was, these are an excellent choice. The material is thick and feels sturdy. The rod pockets are sown into proper locations on the inside of each piece. The only thing I can complain about is there is a small area in one panel were the grain seems discolored (traces of white), but you have to look at it just right, in the right light. So it wasn't a big enough concern for me to bother with. Overall I am very pleased. :D (<- that's me right there)
 
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Thank you for posting your experience and that you are in fact happy with what you bought. It is really nice to have a reference about some of the parts and pieces we all buy or are contemplating.

They do indeed look good, they look like the seats pictured in the ‘79s in a Road and Track article. Nice job installing them, it is not an easy thing to do as you no doubt found out.

Bringing the interior up to the standard of the exterior really makes the car come together.
 
Hey that looks great! Likely a combination of (a) good workmanship on the covers by Vicks and (b) good work by you on installing them. I had a local upholstery shop fabricate and install my seat covers -- they did an ok job but I think yours have less wrinkles.
 
Thanks geekdaddy,

This upholstery is a very good fit. It is definitely a learning experience trying to get them to look like they should. I put the covers on, took them off, put them back on and still need one more attempt at the DS seat to get it right. It can wait till winter. :)
 
That's a tempting product for me. Having never accomplished anything positive with upholstery, I could enjoy the challenge. I have a perfect set of Bertone seats I could use for this and it would definitely be an improvement over the slightly mis-matched & repaired with zip ties (really..not by me, however) seats in my '85. The only, minor, grace of the current seats in that car is the amount of cloth vs. vinyl...living in the SE US, I can appreciate cloth seats in a car that does not have AC.
 
I looked at those, but after seeing them installed on an X on Ebay, I decided to keep looking. It could have been a poor install, but they seemed to be puckered all along the edge of the seat. You can kinda see the same effect in the eBay listing photos.
 
Those go over the outside of your existing covers so they are not exactly reupholstering your seats like the ones from Vick.
 
Wait, a newbie type question here, but since seats changed a bit over the years, will the Vicks upholstery fit all years? I'm guessing if I cover some, they'll be Bertone seats...but, heck, I may still opt for some of the cool retro racing seats from ebay...
 
Wait, a newbie type question here, but since seats changed a bit over the years, will the Vicks upholstery fit all years? I'm guessing if I cover some, they'll be Bertone seats...but, heck, I may still opt for some of the cool retro racing seats from ebay...

The Vicks description says 79-88. The seat shape has stayed basically the same since 79. I have read that the thickness of the seat bottom changed to be thinner/lower in the later models. My car is an 85 and the upholstery fit really well IMHO.
 
Completed installing seat covers a few weeks ago. I purchased them from Vick's. Just wanted to share my experience. These covers are very good quality imo. The material is quite thick and the fit is really good. For the price it was a great improvement. The few wrinkles you see in the pics have since smoothed out.
Thanks JimD for posting this. It helped me decide to go with these and im glad i did.
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The Vicks description says 79-88. The seat shape has stayed basically the same since 79. I have read that the thickness of the seat bottom changed to be thinner/lower in the later models. My car is an 85 and the upholstery fit really well IMHO.
I’m in the process of installing these now! Just trying to source new pull straps and clean up the bottom frames. Looks awesome! Hope mine turn out as good!
 
Cool! Thanks. Any idea how much needed? I counted 11 straps/ between 2 and 3’?? So i’m Guessing 33’/= 66’??
Chris,

Make the seat back straps longer than you think necessary. I firmly believe the factory straps are installed long and then cut to length after they get pinned to the lower frame by those little stamped triangle thingies. The extra length gives you a "handle" to work with while trying to tighten things up.
 
Wait, a newbie type question here, but since seats changed a bit over the years, will the Vicks upholstery fit all years? I'm guessing if I cover some, they'll be Bertone seats...but, heck, I may still opt for some of the cool retro racing seats from ebay...
I believe the headrest is a different shape!
 
Ea
I believe the headrest is a different shape!
Early seats came in two varieties: Tombstone on the earliest cars ‘73-74, the more contoured ‘75-78 as Elderair has on his car and then the later style from ‘79 on.

These covers are for the’79 and newer cars.
 
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