In detail: do-it-yourself car seat repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
Repairing the car upholstery in the event of interior restoration work is almost a priority task, since driving a car on a faulty seat threatens not only with lower back pain, but also with a potential accident. Changing upholstery with your own hands can save you a lot of money. True, in some cases you will have to tinker.
The vehicle interior is constantly exposed to various influences. Drivers often smoke while driving, which often results in cigarettes or their coals falling on the upholstery. Passengers can be children with a special talent for dirtying everything around. In addition, the upholstery can be damaged when transporting bulky items.
Car seat upholstery repair is not considered the most difficult type of vehicle maintenance work, so most motorists prefer to solve this problem on their own.
The car interior is subject to regular maintenance, since, in fact, it is the face of its interior decoration. If it was decided to restore the upholstery with your own hands, first of all, you need to be patient and try to increase your level of responsibility. For repair work of this type, certain tools and materials will be required. The material is selected depending on the fabric with which the seats in the vehicle are upholstered. The main tool will be a screwdriver, which is used to unscrew most of the fasteners on which the trim in the cabin is installed.
Close attention should be paid to the repair of the driver's seat, because it is the most important thing in the car. The more comfortable the driver feels, the safer he is on the road.
Video (click to play).
Repair of burn-throughs on car seats, first of all, means dismantling the seats. First, the car seat is disassembled by unscrewing the bolts that secure the seat to the floor. After that, the electrical connectors are disconnected.
The second step is to remove the old upholstery. To make it easier for yourself, bend the fasteners on the back of the chair and free the edge from the internal structures.
After removing the fastening structures, the cover is removed from the seat. It is worth noting that this process requires some effort, as the inner cushions can make it difficult to pull the cover down.
Car upholstery repair can be started following the successful dismantling of the structure. When restoring the upholstery, the manufacturer's instructions must be followed. During the repair, it is recommended to use exactly those materials that make up the vehicle interior. Here it is better not to save on the price - the avaricious pays twice.
Repairing leather car seats is rightfully considered the most difficult type of work, since it requires the greatest amount of materials and efforts. The materials used are:
First of all, the irregularities are sanded with a sandpaper, after which a thin plastic mesh is applied in an even layer, filled with liquid skin. After completing these steps, you must wait until the repair material dries up, and only then put the car into operation. Car seat leather repairs may take longer than cloth repairs, but the exterior will be pleasing to the eye for a long time.
Note that if it becomes necessary to restore a chair equipped with a heating system, then after disconnecting the loops, the on-board computer will give an error that cannot be eliminated with your own hands. In such cases, it is recommended to contact a specialist.
The repair of the fabric upholstery of the car seats is carried out in two stages, the first of which is the application of the patch. Before repairing, special attention must be paid to the choice of fabric - it must match the color of the car interior. It is also recommended to stock up on a repair kit. To restore the seat, a patch is cut out in the shape of the affected area, and a thin layer of special glue is applied to the gluing site, on which a cut piece of cloth is applied.
The second stage - heat treatment will help to eliminate irregularities at the edges. A heat-resistant film is fixed on the restored area, which is ironed with a heated iron. The result of these operations, as a rule, is a perfectly flat upholstery, which, with careful use, will last for many years.
If a rubbed hole has formed on the seat, then repair the fabric car seats as follows. First, you need to carefully trim the loose edges of the upholstery, and also clean and degrease the surface to be repaired. Next, you should moisten the upholstery and let it dry a little. This is followed by the process of preparing the repair material - it must be clean and free of foreign particles. Then the patch is glued and heat treated.
One of the most important points in the restoration of a car seat is to keep clean those areas of the seat that have a satisfactory appearance. To ensure that the repaired part does not differ from the original material, the adhesive should be applied as carefully as possible. In addition, the adhesive must not be allowed to extend beyond the repair area by more than one millimeter. For this, a piece is usually used, along the edges of which a border is drawn with chalk, due to which there are no difficulties with the exact application of glue.
Read here how to repair the trunk lock of a car with your own hands. The principles of bumper repair without special tools can be found here.
Repair of burned-out car seats is carried out using a specific chemical composition. The cleaned surface is filled in layers until the flaw is completely closed. This mixture can be purchased at many auto parts stores. It is worth noting that special attention should be paid to the color and structure of the composition, so that the subsequently restored area does not catch the eye. If velor seats are installed in the car, then the top layer of the mixture should be covered with fibers that imitate pile.
When repairing burn-throughs on leather seats of a car, the hole should also be filled with a chemical composition, and for shine, a special gel should be applied on top, thanks to which the chair will regain its former gloss. The final stage is painting over the restored surface.
Did you know, dear reader, that the price of car seat repair is very high today. In order for the repairmen in the car service to undertake to replace the seats of your car, they will first issue you a preliminary invoice, which you are unlikely to like. What to do if the seats have become unusable and must be replaced? It's simple. Learn to do it yourself!
Old car seats
The fact that the level of comfort from driving a vehicle depends on the interior decoration and the condition of the seats has been noticed for a long time. And it is not for nothing that in the process of car production, well-known and popular concern brands hire ingenious designers who can decorate everything beautifully inside.
Over time, everything ages, including the upholstery. It is clear that such eye damage will not please. Squeezed-out chairs, in addition to an aesthetically unpleasant perception, also cause discomfort. During the movement, passengers and the driver himself are not able to relax and the seats constantly cause inconvenience.
How to eliminate these flaws with your own hands? In our time, this will not be difficult. You can fix everything: defects in the upholstery, scuffs on the armrests, tears on the backs of the seats, and much more.
Torn car seats
Often forces you to repair an accident. Even the lightest accident can destroy the integrity of the seat frames, and the previous gloss of the interior will disappear.
Before you start changing anything, you should arm yourself with the necessary tools and, most importantly, decide on the material. Much will depend on the material: the complexity of the repair, the price for it, etc. It's not the same thing: working with leather, vinyl or textile fabrics. Although the essence of the repair is the same everywhere - repeated coating of the damaged area with a specially selected composition, and then heat treatment.
To begin with, it is useful to choose a color scheme with which we will work. This will depend not only on the taste of the owner, but also on the integrity of the painting. Everything should look harmonious.
We start, of course, by dismantling the old seats. If the seats are upholstered in leather, they will need to be removed. It is advisable to work with a new cover at home, where it will be more convenient to place fragments of leather or Alcantara on the constriction material. It is recommended to sign each part of a standard case, indicating the name of the material from which we will prepare the cut itself. You can use a regular marker for marking.
We remove the standard cover from the car seats. We remind you that the chairs must be removed in order for the work to be carried out comfortably.
We remove the old cover as follows: squeeze out the metal clips located on the back of the seats. The cover always comes off upwards.
After removing the cover, we see a foam rubber frame. It will also need to be removed. This will not cause any difficulties, since the foam rubber frame is held only on paper tape.
Making the lumbar support of the seat
Go ahead. It is recommended to make a lumbar support on the seat, which will noticeably increase the comfort of the seat - both for the driver and for the passenger.
We need a set of the following tools and devices:
nuts with washers;
cold welding;
long bolt;
towing strap;
a homemade plate made of an easily bendable material.
We take a nut and clamp the plate, then press it with cold welding for reliability. We bend the fasteners under the belt. Here it is important to pay attention to the following: the belt itself is thrown over parallel supports and the process of friction occurs only at the edge. Cold welding will help where you need to build up the components so that the belt lies flat.
We fix the belt with a long bolt so that it does not fidget. For fastening the bolt, fixing with glue is provided. Thus, it will not spin and the bolt will not go anywhere.
That's all. Yes, and a comfortable handle is recommended on the adjusting bolt. The same lumbar support crowns the seats of foreign cars, so the first stage of repair and creating a comfortable chair with your own hands has been completed.
Let's move on to work on the material. The removed cover will need to be ripped open first. At the same time, you need to divide it into separate parts in order to use it later on new material.
Each of the pieces of leather or Alcantara is pressed against the new material with weights. Take a gel pen and draw around the edges of the material. To combine the flaps, mark them with short notches around the perimeter. It is worth knowing that alcantara, like leather, can be easily cut with scissors.
Alcantara - a material that looks more like suede than leather, has a short nap. Such a pile is directed in one direction.This is very important to take into account when cutting, since if the direction of the pile is not the same, flaws can form and the interior of the car will look bad.
The next stage in the work involves strengthening the leather or Alcantara with foam rubber. This is a prerequisite for a competent constriction. Do-it-yourself car seat repair is not difficult, but there are many nuances in this work that you should know. And foam rubber is one of the important little things. It is imperative that the thickness of this material is 5 mm, and on the reverse side the material must be on a fabric basis.
The video describes how to repair the upholstery of car seats: