re Seat dilemma

[bushhouse]

Good afternoon all,

I have a dilemma .... have spent the last two years doing up a '56 4 door, split screen and have got to the renovate the front seats or replace stage. Took my two original, ox blood coloured folding front seats to the seat re-trimmer today for a quote for a recover / refurb. £350.00 / seat was the quote. OR thinking about the safety benefits of some new, adjustable seat with headrests for £1200 'ish. So, which way to go ? All advice warmly welcomed.

[samuria]

first its your car,so what ever you like is best...
then how deep are your pockets?
the original seat would look like new
if done well and in keeping.
is that £350 each.....

[charlie_morris_minor]

if you fancy like making your own i can send you an article i did for the custom and modified register on making your own covers or you can fit alternate ones from modern cars again i can send you a newsletter.. you could of course fit modern seats run the car for a while and when the funds allow replace them.. ford ka look good to me and most people seem to spend around 50 pounds if you can find a set on ebay local to you..

[bmcecosse]

I would shop around for alternative quotes to recover your seats - what do Newton Commercial say on the matter? And as above - put some other/maybe modern seats in meantime to get the car on the road!

[charlie_morris_minor]

sit down roy..
newton commercial are £311 each including vat for vinyl or £590 for leather to that you need to add foam / straps so £350 is a good price. why do you think i make my own seat covers.

[mike.perry]

I went for the expensive option for my Series MM, got a lovely green cow to cover them

[bmcecosse]

Ccccccccrikey...........goes off for a large whisky, and a lie-down......

[bushhouse]

Yep, that's £350 per seat. He said 2 days per seat at £150 per day plus £50 per seat supplies. I think that's quite reasonable for a refurb job. Anyway, will probably go for it as a few weeks away yet from hitting the road. Thanks all for the advice/opinions.

[bmcecosse]

Wish I could earn £150/day....

[dp]

I've bought quite a few non-standard seats on Ebay and made them fit - at a fraction of the costs quoted above. The last set was an electric set of Mercedes leather seats for £150. You could find something like Metro seats which can be made fit and other from small cars at good prices usually.

[tom1985]

Having a similar dilemma with mine. Planning to restore the interior of my 1000 2-door this summer, which currently has some awful old Fiesta seats (I think from a Mk1 or 2, no headrests). After seeing some Newton Commercial seats in a local branch member I was tempted - but at the price (£413 each ex-VAT on their website at the moment for the vinyl-only one) I think it's worth considering other, cheaper options before shelling out so much - as good as those seats are. I'm not personally looking for something original, but do want something that will look 'right' in the way that the Newton ones do IMO.

According to these boards there are plenty of modern(ish) seats that will fit (I've seen Rover 200 and Ka mentioned) but does anyone have any experience of having these re-trimmed in vinyl or leather - either themselves or professionally - and what's the result been like? Does anyone have any photos?

[aupickup]

newton commercial have premises to pay , wages to pay, insurances and maintenance to pay, losses to account for etc all coming from the price of their seats and range of trims

we have to charge £35.00 per hour just for our company to break even these days

roy you are a bit out of touch

[charlie_morris_minor]

ford ka interiors are available in leather so no need to recover provided the covers are good, if you do not like the colour you can always recolour them.

[brucek]

These are reckoned to be a very comfortable alternative to the norm and the rear seats fit a saloon too. Probably a bit pricey though :-\ http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROVER-200-BRM ... 4862a8879d

[tysonn]

Bearing in mind theyre cracked and paint spattered theyre a rip off!OP didnt say whether the £350 per seat was to repair the existing leather or recover in new?Where are you?I have a mate whos a trimmer and hes done a few superb jobs for me in leather and vinyl.If youre near Yorks it would be worth asking him for a quote.

[tom1985]

Thanks for the advice. A day ratching around at the local scrapyard has earned me a pair of good condition front seats from a Rover 25 (essentially a fabric version of the Rover 200 seats in the ebay link above) for the grand total of £40. This was after looking at lots of different small cars, but the Rover seats were by far the comfiest as well as looking quite good. Many seats which would probably fit and be otherwise OK were festooned in ugly plastic trim (Renaults and Fiats seem to be among the worst) which would look rubbish in a Minor.

The plan now is to have them re-trimmed in vinyl to match the interior. A local firm, known to the Cumbria MMOC, has given me some guideline quotes for this work - expensive, but less than the cost of buying new Newton Commercials. I'll construct some sort of suitable subframe and fit them into the car first before spending the money, though, to ensure they fit OK and I'm happy with them. Will post photos if anyone's interested as work progresses!