I'm in the planning stages of recovering a set of bucket seats and will probably do the rear seats too even though the material I'm getting is supposed to be match the original that the rears are in, 40 years of wear might stand out. Does anyone know how many yards it takes to recover a set of stock bucket seats and rear seats? This would be for my wagon, but that shouldn't matter really for the amount. It's been years since I had a set of seats re-done and I forget how much is needed.
Seat Upholstery Amount
- Thread starter PBGBodyFan
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I would think 7 yards might do it since the cloth is pretty wide. It depends on if its all the same cloth though. . My wagon has vinyl, the main cloth for inserts and another cloth that was an accent for the middle, armrest and the front headrests.
Disclaimer- this is based on the measurements that I took with my 87 442. Your shiit might be a tad different. Take that into account. In other words, you can't hold me responsible for measuring stuff.
Most rolls of material are around 57-60" wide. It also depends on whether your pattern goes "across the roll" or "up the roll" as to how much you may need. For example, most of your "ribbed" looking material goes UP the roll, meaning that you would have to lay it across the seat sideways. You would only have up to the width of the material on the seat back or seat bottom. If you have no pattern, you can likely go either way.
I did write down the measurements of the seating surface of my 87 442 Supreme non-recliners. Can't think that any other similar G-body wouldn't be approximately the same. It's about 22" at it's widest, and approximately 22" front to back. It tapers here and there, but that's the widest point you'll need. So say a 2 foot by 2 foot piece for each seat bottom seating surface area. That material is up the roll, so you would still have 3 feet to use on the backing. It rolls over the top, but it also depends on if you have another type of material involved, like the 87 Cutlass does. I think Montes have headrests? So that saves a bit there. So you're basically looking at 2 yards of material to make sure you have enough just for the seating and the backs. 87 Supreme non recliners (and probably recliners too) can get by with 1 yard of material per bucket. You should have enough for the top of the headrest area left over as it's around 26 inches or so and around 23" wide. 87 owners will have to get the different material [smooth] for the headrest area on the high back)If you have the same material on the sides of the seats, you'll have to account for that measurement as well. If it's vinyl, obviously that is a tad easier to find.
Back seat seating area is approx 55" wide, by approx. 19" front to back (a couple of inches added for going under the top seat section), and around 26" tall (small wrap around at top). There's about a foot section width in the middle of the smooth material. This makes it about total 5 1/2 feet in length and the width should take care of both top and bottoms of the rear seat. So 2 yards here SHOULD be enough to do the rear seat.
You COULD squeeze by with 3.5 yards I'm thinking. But if you want to ensure you have enough to spare, you're looking at approximately 4 yards front/back buckets. You'll definitely need 4 yards if you're benching it front and rear I'm betting.
Most rolls of material are around 57-60" wide. It also depends on whether your pattern goes "across the roll" or "up the roll" as to how much you may need. For example, most of your "ribbed" looking material goes UP the roll, meaning that you would have to lay it across the seat sideways. You would only have up to the width of the material on the seat back or seat bottom. If you have no pattern, you can likely go either way.
I did write down the measurements of the seating surface of my 87 442 Supreme non-recliners. Can't think that any other similar G-body wouldn't be approximately the same. It's about 22" at it's widest, and approximately 22" front to back. It tapers here and there, but that's the widest point you'll need. So say a 2 foot by 2 foot piece for each seat bottom seating surface area. That material is up the roll, so you would still have 3 feet to use on the backing. It rolls over the top, but it also depends on if you have another type of material involved, like the 87 Cutlass does. I think Montes have headrests? So that saves a bit there. So you're basically looking at 2 yards of material to make sure you have enough just for the seating and the backs. 87 Supreme non recliners (and probably recliners too) can get by with 1 yard of material per bucket. You should have enough for the top of the headrest area left over as it's around 26 inches or so and around 23" wide. 87 owners will have to get the different material [smooth] for the headrest area on the high back)If you have the same material on the sides of the seats, you'll have to account for that measurement as well. If it's vinyl, obviously that is a tad easier to find.
Back seat seating area is approx 55" wide, by approx. 19" front to back (a couple of inches added for going under the top seat section), and around 26" tall (small wrap around at top). There's about a foot section width in the middle of the smooth material. This makes it about total 5 1/2 feet in length and the width should take care of both top and bottoms of the rear seat. So 2 yards here SHOULD be enough to do the rear seat.
You COULD squeeze by with 3.5 yards I'm thinking. But if you want to ensure you have enough to spare, you're looking at approximately 4 yards front/back buckets. You'll definitely need 4 yards if you're benching it front and rear I'm betting.
Thanks for the info. The buckets will be the "PMD" style found in some Grand Prix's in 82' & 83' plus the same year Firebird. The backs are hard plastic but it would need to do the entire seat, seats are currently brown/velour/cloth and my interior is beige vinyl which is what I'm going with. Rear seat would be re-done in the same matching material, not sure if they keep the sides and just do the main portion that sees the wear and is most visible. When my Monte buckets were re-done they kept the side/bottom vinyl as it was the velour part being re-done.
Why not ask the shop thats doing the upholstery ? Im sure they could tell you almost exactly how much to buy.
Where are you getting the material ? If its coming from SMS I wish you much luck. They have the OEM cloth and vinyls but theyre a huge pain in the butt to deal with. I bought everything for both of my cars from them and Im glad I'll never need to deal with them again.
Where are you getting the material ? If its coming from SMS I wish you much luck. They have the OEM cloth and vinyls but theyre a huge pain in the butt to deal with. I bought everything for both of my cars from them and Im glad I'll never need to deal with them again.
Fair question, I honestly don't have a place picked yet and am not close to having it done, just gathering parts/materials. There was Jax seat cover, a popular place with the Turbo Regal community but they moved way up north in WI, they did my SS's seats years ago.
And yes, SMS is where I planned to buy the material. They sent a sample that does match correctly, I've heard the horror stories, I still plan to give them a shot.
I hope you have better luck with SMS than I did. When I ordered the two cloths that I needed for my 81 it turned into a nightmare. They only sent one, then they sent the wrong amount, then two different lots so the same cloth didnt match. It took months to get the order right.
The second time I used them I ordered the Olds cloths for my wagon and for some reason they got it right the first time. Maybe because I sent the samples back to them through fedex and told them I wanted an EXACT match to the 3 samples.
Im glad I'll never have to buy anything from them again. LOL
Yea, I might re-evaluate it when I'm about to make the purchase, my basic idea is buying the material this summer sometime, then having the seats done over winter, or by spring. Maybe I'll buy a couple yards in two different purchases, in case there are issues it lessens the risk a bit 
.
.I wouldnt do that. If you are buying one color/pattern you need to get it all at once. They may have multiple rolls of what youre buying and the dye lots might be like night and day. Thats exactly what happened to me. They finally sent me a sheet of paper with multiple 2x2 pieces of samples of the single pattern. I had to pick which sample matched the stuff they already sent me. The samples were marked with letters. They pulled the rolls in the warehouse and stapled the same letters on each roll so it would be a match.
Like I said, it took months to get the order right. Too long for stuff that was $95 a yard.
Like I said, it took months to get the order right. Too long for stuff that was $95 a yard.
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