After searching the forum and finding individual portions of this project described, I thought I would see if anyone has a good description of how to change out the front seat upholstery and/or seat foam bottom on a 1979 spider.

Specifically, how is the existing upholstery removed from the seat foam and seat pan? It seems like the upholstery is stitched around a groove on the seat pan, but was not immediately obvious to us how to remove it without cutting seams.

Also, are there any tricks to attaching the typical upholstery obtained from vendors on this site to the seat foam bottoms (original or purchased from vendors) having wires through them?

thanks!

Lo4dapack wrote:After searching the forum and finding individual portions of this project described, I thought I would see if anyone has a good description of how to change out the front seat upholstery and/or seat foam bottom on a 1979 spider.

Specifically, how is the existing upholstery removed from the seat foam and seat pan? It seems like the upholstery is stitched around a groove on the seat pan, but was not immediately obvious to us how to remove it without cutting seams.

Also, are there any tricks to attaching the typical upholstery obtained from vendors on this site to the seat foam bottoms (original or purchased from vendors) having wires through them?

thanks!

On my 85 the bottom cover has a small metal/plastic strip sewn into the cover. This strip fits into a groove on the pan and is held in place by the upward pressure from the foam. To take mine off, I just knelt down on the seat bottom to compress the foam and reached under the seat to slip the strip out of the groove.

Check YouTube for good general videos on auto upholstery, you'll learn a lot about what to do and what not to do.

It seems like seat covers are all attached in very similar ways, so the YouTube videos will give you an idea of what you are getting into before you take your seats apart.

Excellent, thanks for the help!

Did you see this?
http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=26168

Thanks for passing that link along. Yes, I saw that before, but was still a little confused without the help of pictures. With the help of davery and youtube, I have gotten everything to work. I will try to remember take and post pics when I do the next seat so that other's with my experience level will have a visual reference.

Thanks again