DIY driver's seat repair

In detail: DIY repair of a driver's seat from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Repair of leather car seats, as well as the restoration of seats made of other materials is a job that many domestic drivers simply do not undertake. Most car owners are afraid of further aggravating the condition of the seats or permanently ruining them. In fact, there is nothing difficult to repair, and how to improve the condition of these interior parts with your own hands should be considered in more detail.

The most susceptible to damage element of the car seat can be confidently considered the upholstery. Its frequent scuffs and holes are associated with the carelessness of the driver and passengers, a factory defect, or simply poor quality. Be that as it may, such situations arise very often, and in order to repair car seats, you need to study the algorithm of work with your own hands.

Before proceeding with the restoration, you need to stock up on material for the constriction. Typically, you only need a few pieces of the same fabric that was originally on the seats of the car. It is desirable that the color of the purchased product and the old banner also be in harmony. If you are a creative person, you can purchase a different type of material and sew pieces of it to the seats as patches. To do this, you will also need a special thick thread that will emphasize such a design.

Having everything you need in stock, we take scissors and cut the fabric into large pieces. After that, we take a thread and a needle and sew patches to the seats of the car. If the condition of the standard upholstery is very poor, and this is the case in most cases, then it is better to buy a large batch of fabric and re-tighten the seats. In order not to make mistakes in the process of work, you first need to sew the material. For this we need:

Video (click to play).

roulette;
Scotch;
pencil;
needle and thread;
scissors;
several sheets of A2 paper.

To stretch the seats, it is necessary to dismantle them from the passenger compartment and completely remove the old upholstery. After that, we cut it, for this, dotted lines are visible on the outside of the factory fabric. As soon as you cut the upholstery, and you have the template according to which the sewing took place at the factory, the resulting shapes and sizes can be transferred to paper. To do this, carefully measure the length and width of each element of the car seats using a tape measure. We transfer the same dimensions to paper and draw them with dotted lines.

In principle, you can do without a tape measure, but simply attach the template of the old upholstery to the paper and draw the same shape. However, this can cause the old matter to slide, which will prevent you from redrawing the shape and size correctly. To sew the material as accurately as possible, you need to take into account the fold lines of the new material. They also need to be indicated on paper. For a complete constriction in the drawing, you also need to mark the places for fixing the material on the seat. As a rule, new upholstery is sewn at a distance of 0.5–1 cm from its bottom, top and side edges.

After receiving accurate measurements, you can proceed directly to sewing. To make the work go faster, you can use a sewing machine. If you do not know how to use it, order this service at a sewing workshop. We strongly do not recommend that you start sewing if you are doing it for the first time. To correctly make a constriction, do not try to guess the size of the material or sew "by eye". Follow exactly the pattern of the old upholstery.

Another important nuance is the properties of the new material. For example, some products can stretch, and this is a very important factor.If you bought just such a material, then do not rush to cut into smaller pieces than your template requires. Be sure to use the exact measurements, but remember to pull more material to the ends as you sew. Otherwise, it will sail. Try to take into account all factors, and only then you will be satisfied with the results of sewing.

The next step will be the constriction. To do this, take a thick needle and thread and carefully sew the material to the seat. The best place to start is from the top of the chair. This way the matter will not fall on you. Next, we move from the top downward. If you have done the sewing correctly, you will see that you have practically no material left "in reserve". Don't worry, it should be so. For sewing, you need no more than 1–1.5 cm along the edges of the fabric. In the process of tightening the seats, you need to work very carefully.

You won't be able to do this job quickly, or you could pierce and ruin the seat filler. The best option is to sew additional stripes around the perimeter of the new upholstery while it is being sewn. This way you will protect yourself from accidental unpleasant mistakes. After tightening the seats with your own hands, provided that the sewing and the hauling were performed correctly, you will see how much the interior of your car will change. It is possible that the new seat upholstery will look even better than when you bought a car. The main thing is not to rush, and everything will work out.

With regular use of the machine, it often becomes necessary to replace the device that is responsible for tilting the car seat. To avoid such situations, you should constantly monitor the serviceability of the mechanisms. As soon as you notice jamming or loud squeaks, they can be repaired with regular lubrication.If the lubricant did not help, that is, the mechanism is completely out of order, then you will have to replace it. Doing it yourself is easy. This will require acting in a specific sequence. First you need to dismantle the facing element, which is located in the seat cushion. We turn off all the bolts holding the lower pivot link at the very base of the seat. Image - DIY driver's seat repair

At the next stage, you need to dismantle the axis located in the opposite part of the back, after which you need to remove the back itself. The upper part of the hinges will need to be cut off at the very base of the backrest frame. Next, we apply a new mechanism and fasten it with bolts at the base of the pillow. Install the upper pivot link so that all the holes are aligned. Next, using the axis, we attach the pillow to the back of the chair. After that, carefully install the backrest, taking care not to damage the seat filler. Finally, we weld the backrest and the hinges together.

If there is a need to repair an electrically powered and heated seat, you need to remember that when all loops are turned off, most on-board computers give errors that can only be eliminated at a service station. This is what causes car owners to refuse to repair their seats with their own hands. As a result, they take the car to the workshop and pay a lot of money to repair the car. Image - DIY driver's seat repair

In order not to pay a large amount, you can repair the seats yourself, and take the car to specialists only to correct a computer error. In order to solve the problem with heated seats, you can go in two ways: find the malfunction and try to fix it yourself or completely replace the broken heater. I must say that the second option is more popular because of its reliability and time saving.

In order to change the car seat heater, it is not necessary to buy a new part. You can search for a used item and install it in place of the broken one. Once you have found and bought a heater, you need to start installing it. First you need to remove the seat and take it out of the car.You will see a small black block with wires - this is the seat heating system, which is regulated by the on-board computer and takes power from the battery.

In order to replace the unit, you will need to disconnect it from the computer. This must be done very carefully, it is better to make sure once again that you are pulling out the correct wires.

Next, we unscrew the bolts securing the heater to the bottom of the car and remove the broken device. We install a new block and screw it on. After that, you do not need to try to connect the wires yourself. Let them do it for you in the workshop, because you already saved quite a lot. For example, for all the work on replacing the heater, the service station employees would ask for about 12-15 thousand rubles. At the same time, connecting wires and eliminating a computer error will cost you 2-3 thousand rubles.It is worth noting that many models of universal on-board computers do not give any errors when disconnecting wires. Therefore, be careful - if after replacing the device your computer is “silent”, then nothing needs to be fixed. You only need to configure the operation of the heater via a computer.Do you still think that car diagnostics is difficult? If you are reading these lines, then you have an interest in doing something yourself in the car and really savebecause you already know that:

STO lomat big money for simple computer diagnostics

To find out the error, you need to go to the specialists

Simple wrenches work in the services, but you can't find a good specialist

And of course you are tired of throwing money away, and there is no question of driving around the service station all the time, then you need a simple ELM327 AUTOSSCANER that connects to any car and through a regular smartphone you will always find a problem, pay off CHECK and save a lot.We have tested this scanner ourselves on different machines. and it showed excellent results, now we recommend it to EVERYONE! So that you do not fall for the Chinese counterfeit, we publish here a link to the official website of the AutoScanner.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 seatsThe 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 beautifully decorate everything 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 seatsOften 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. A lot 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 seatGo 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:

Long-term operation of a vehicle negatively affects not only its technical condition, but also the appearance of the car, including the attractiveness of its interior. Of course, a shabby or torn car seat will not only create discomfort for the driver and passengers, but may even pose a danger when driving on the roads. That is why DIY car seat repair is an important topic.

How do you know when your car seats need repairs? In fact, everything is quite simple here. As soon as you stop liking their appearance, or staying in the salon becomes extremely inconvenient, and the former functions will no longer differ in the same reliability, then you can certainly assert the need for repair actions.

The most common problem that requires work on restoring car seats is the worn out trim in the area of the cushions and armrests, and it is visible even to the naked eye: some parts of the seats change color over time, crack and acquire a very repulsive appearance.

However, this is not the worst thing yet. There are also more serious problems, such as damage to the operation of the spring base and a malfunction of the frame or seat pad. You can also determine these malfunctions during operation, when the once comfortable seat seems terribly uncomfortable to you.

Mechanical defects not related to long-term use of the vehicle should be grouped into a separate group. In particular, they include burn-throughs, tears, cuts and broken bases caused by the impact of any large load or simply careless handling of the car owner.

Depending on the type of damage, the appropriate way to eliminate the problem that has arisen is also chosen: whether it be repairing the upholstery or replacing metal parts in the base of the car seats. In any case, you will need the appropriate tools and materials.

To get started, prepare a few pieces of new upholstery, because such common scuffs, severe cuts and scratches are mainly eliminated with their help. The color and quality of the purchased material completely depends on your preferences, but the main thing is that the interior looks harmonious as a result. Suitable for work synthetic, artificial or even natural leather, as well as any other upholstery fabric. Of the tools, hand sewing needles, an awl, glue and several types of thread are useful. If minor damage is present in the leatherette or velor trim, then special compounds that can be found in any car store will help to eliminate them.

Mounting and dismantling the chair, as well as correcting frame defects will require the use of a set of wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, a hammer, and a hacksaw. Also, the presence of a vacuum cleaner will be useful, which will help clean the seats before doing all the work.

Like any other activity, repairing leather, velor or other types of vehicle seats involves a series of steps.

If the problem is only minor damage (for example, a cut or burn-through), then after cleaning the required area, you can proceed to the direct elimination of the problem using the previously purchased repair kit. However, in the event that the problem lies much deeper, and the tilting mechanism or heating system needs repair, then the chair will have to be disassembled completely.It is most comfortable to perform this task on a table with a workbench. You can unscrew the fasteners on either side of the seat using a conventional screwdriver. It is better to put the backrest with a pillow aside for the time being, so that, if necessary, later repair it.

In the event of a malfunction of the spring block or a complete replacement of the casing, you will have to dismantle the old material from the seat. To do this, all the seams on the damaged seat are gently loosened with a sharp knife. To quickly complete the task, the fabric should be well pulled so that all the seams are clearly visible. Also, at the preparatory stage, all the tools necessary for subsequent work are collected.

In the course of active use of the car, it is often necessary to replace the tilting mechanisms, which are responsible for changing the position of the seat back. This type of car seat repair is quite laborious, so it is better not to take it to extremes and constantly monitor the operation of the tilting mechanism. If any faults or jams are found, they can be easily repaired with lubricant.

In the process of replacing the reclining mechanism that adjusts the angle of the back of the car seat, all repair actions are performed in the following sequence:

• first remove the trim (located at the base of the pillow);

• then unscrew all fastening bolts holding the lower link of the hinges at the very base of the car seat, and, having got rid of the axis located on the opposite side of the backrest, dismantle the backrest itself;

• the upper link of the hinges must be cut off at the base of the backrest frame, and then fix the new mechanism with bolts at the very bottom of the cushion;

• the top link should be placed in the desired position so that all holes can be aligned;

• using an axle, the cushion should be connected to the backrest:

• the position of the part, put the back and weld the hinges to it.

Often there is a need to repair electrically heated car seats. Of course, this is a much more difficult task than adjusting the tilt mechanism. First of all, do not forget that when all loops are disconnected, the on-board computer of the vehicle generates an error that can only be eliminated by specialists from service stations. In addition, if the chair has a built-in airbag, then self-repair should be ruled out altogether, since any inept influence will entail the appearance of errors in the operation of the computer. In order not to risk it, it is better to immediately seek professional help.

If you have the skills of an electrician, then you can independently check the health of the wires and plugs. But heating repair can be performed only if you own a vehicle without an on-board computer, otherwise, there is no point in turning off the heating for the sake of self-repair (as mentioned above, a competent re-tuning of the on-board computer can only be performed at a service station).

For those who nevertheless decided to repair car seats with their own hands, you need to know that this procedure requires a responsible approach and a lot of patience.

Get rid of scratches and scuffs

The easiest way to repair car seats is to remove scratches and scuffs on the leather upholstery. If only the paint layer that has been applied to the surface is damaged, then for repair purposes you will need either a special spray paint or an appropriate polish with a filler.

After checking, prepare the damaged area for future repair work by cleaning it of dirt and dust, thoroughly drying it and degreasing it. All further repair measures include applying paint to the scratch, followed by drying and polishing.When applying the coloring material, it is necessary to avoid the formation of smudges, since it will be problematic to remove them, and instead of restoring the skin on the car seats, you will only aggravate their condition. After painting, all that remains is to polish the restored area and enjoy the result.

It is quite possible that in your case the car interior is not leather, but, say, velor, then to eliminate defects you will need a needle, threads and patterns that can be made from fragments of old upholstery. When choosing a repair kit, you must pay attention to one important detail: all fibers included in the kit must be of different colors. Using a special brush and glue (or spray), fibers of the appropriate color and texture are applied to the damaged area of the seat. To fix the result, the restored area is covered with a Teflon film and ironed with an iron.

Eliminate tears and cuts

Today, a fairly large number of products for the care and repair of car seats in the vehicle interior are presented on the market. Therefore, if you need to restore the car seat, then there should be no problems with the selection of material.

Restoring leather seats will require a little more effort and a liquid leather replica, along with a mesh and a suitable repair kit. All irregularities (for example, the edges of a cut) are carefully sanded with a sandpaper. After that, a fine plastic mesh is applied to the cut or tear and the area is filled with liquid skin.

Special repair compounds can also help with the repair of the leather interior, the whole point of using which is to fill a small defect with a special mixture that not only closes up an unnecessary hole, but also helps to restore the texture of the skin. To achieve this result, a special composition is applied to the whole part of the seat, which, after drying, is able to copy the texture of the leather upholstery. After that, the resulting film is carefully removed and applied to the damaged area, previously filled with polymer mass. At the final stage, iron the treated area through a Teflon pad.

The fabric interior is restored with a patch of the desired shape made from the same material (parts of the old interior can be used). To recreate the color, you need to choose the right paint and paint the new elements of the chairs with the help of the color scheme. Such restoration of car seats perfectly helps to hide the most noticeable damage.

The restoration of the plastic elements of the seat follows a similar scenario, only all cracks, chips and holes are filled with a granular composition that ideally imitates the plastic surface. At the final stage, the damaged area is painted with paint of the appropriate color. If the work is done correctly, no one will notice any traces of damage.

We restore the seams

There are situations when the factory seams simply diverge on the seats. Basically, all that is required of the car owner is to sew the ripped sections back together. To do this, it is necessary to dismantle the seat in order to see the reverse side of the tear site. After you get unhindered access to the area of interest, you need to pry off with a needle those places where the seam is most weakened. Thus, the tip of the thread is pulled out. After that, you need to pull on the thread to strengthen the seam in the undamaged place. By tying the thread in a knot, you can avoid further seam divergence.

Direct restoration of car seat seams involves the implementation of several sequential steps: first, three stitches must be retreated from the end of the thread, having found a hole there from the old seam. Then all the layers of the seat are collected in one pile: after passing the clip with a needle through all the layers of the seat, it is necessary to leave it in this position and insert a thread into the eyelet.The needle is then pulled back by pulling the thread outward through all the layers of the seat. After finding the next hole from the last seam, thread the needle through it and sew all the layers again. Thus, a loop should form, and if you thread the thread through it, you will get a knot.

The process continues until it is possible to sew everything to the end. Having tied the last knot, cut off the excess ends of the thread and inspect the seam from the front side - the tear should be completely eliminated.

During operation, not only the technical parts are worn out, but also the interior of the car itself. Most often, car owners have to deal with seat upholstery repair or replacement of covers. Let's figure out how to rehabilitate the seats with our own hands and save not only money, but also time.

If your seats are made of leather, see our material on the professional repair of leather seats, in our other material.

Situations and reasons why you have to restore seats in a car can be very different - from physical wear and tear of the device to serious damage to the structure due to accidents (RTA). It should be remembered that using a vehicle, even with damaged seats, is fraught with dangerous consequences. Aged upholstery or sagging seats can cause maximum inconvenience and discomfort for both passengers and the driver himself.

In addition, the dilapidated upholstery of car seats does not look very aesthetically pleasing. With the help of modern finishing materials, it is quite simple to reconstruct the coating and return it to its former appearance.

The most common car seat problems are:

erasing armrests, upholstery and cushions;
breakage of gaskets and the base of the car seat structure;
damage to special springs;
discoloration of the skin and its cracking due to temperature changes or ultraviolet radiation;
mechanical flaws not related to the operation of the device - burn-through, rupture, breakage of the bases or cuts due to inaccurate handling or exposure to external factors.
deformation of the seat structure due to the activation of the car safety system as a result of an accident.

The choice of a way to solve the problems of car seats is made taking into account the type and nature of the damage. Tools and materials are also determined according to the situation.

When changing the upholstery of a car, it is important to take into account the type of coating used and working tools. The complexity of the process itself and the quality of the final result depend on this. In order for the car interior to look harmonious after the seat constriction, the color scheme of the upholstery must be precisely matched to its main shade and not be out of the general picture.

Secrets! Most of the materials for the constriction, you can buy in China at the Aliexpress site! For example, artificial horse skin https://ali.pub/2jm5ix or alligator skin https://ali.pub/2jm6ii

Car seat upholstery can be made of leather, fabric, leatherette or Alcantara. The latter is a material with a short pile, somewhat reminiscent of natural suede. It is necessary to work with Alcantara very carefully, taking into account the direction of the fabric hairs during cutting.

To replace leather coverings, artificial or synthetic leather can be a good alternative to a natural surface. It is more convenient to eliminate defects in velor upholstery or leatherette using special compounds that are available in any automotive store.

In addition to the coating material, the following tools must be available:

a set of hand needles;
awl;
chalk or a bar of dry white soap;
thick silk threads;
glue;
hammers;
keys and nuts with washers;
cold welding;
towing belt;
pliers;
hacksaw;
screwdrivers;
machine vacuum cleaner.

Also, do not forget about the foam rubber for the lining of car seats. All this can be found on the Internet, including on your beloved Ali.

Do-it-yourself car seat repair is completed by connecting the pillow to the back of the chair and attaching the hinges with screws.

Any constriction of car seats should be accompanied by reinforcement of the upholstery material with foam rubber. This is an important nuance without which a high-quality car seat upholstery repair is impossible. A prerequisite for the pillow is the fabric base of the synthetic backing and its thickness equal to 5 mm.

Minor scuffs, scratches or cuts are best repaired with small pieces of upholstery. The main thing is that the quality and color are in complete harmony with the main surface.

The material is sewn along the edge of the parts, strictly following the labels. Deviation or violation of the outline of the sketch will ruin not only the material, but also the whole result of the work done.

Glue foam rubber to upholstery fabric better with spray glue and before connecting the elements of the case. In this case, it is important to glue the foam rubber with the side opposite to its base, and in the case of Alcantara, place the flaps of the material with the pile in one direction.

The cuffs of the back seam should be finished and smoothed. For this, a hammer is used, with which it is easy to beat off scars, and sewing needles with threads to secure the cuffs.

It is always necessary to finish the restoration of car seats by steaming the overtightened parts and drying them with a technical hair dryer and a hot air stream. This procedure should be done carefully so as not to burn the surface.