2000 Mr2 Spyder Seat Cover Replacement Project

Transcription

1 2000 Mr2 Spyder Seat Cover Replacement Project Tool List: Plastic Trim Tool, Hog Ring Pliers, Medium or Heavy Duty Wire Cutters, 12mm socket, 14mm Socket, Ratchet, Extension, Flat Head Screwdriver & Gloves Recommended Supplies: Seat covers (obviously), Hog Rings & Spray Adhesive (for door panels) Initial Thoughts: I purchased my interior kit (as it s called) from I initially placed the order and guessed at the colors I wanted, not to worry though Tim called me back and suggested they send me some color samples to look at. A few days later the color samples arrived and I called him back with my decision. In the conversation and online he/they indicated the door panels would be color matched vinyl, I wanted a bold look so I chose the silver color, well the material I received for the door panels was in fact leather and not vinyl after all. Not sure if that was because of the color I chose or not, but be aware that yours might be vinyl. I also ordered the adhesive; hog rings and hog ring pliers from them as well. Note: I documented the process using the passenger seat, but will note the difference between the passenger and driver seat where it is important. Without further ado: Here are the samples that they sent me:

2 Here is the kit and how it looked upon opening the package which took about two weeks after ordering it: Here are the supplies and tools unwrapped:

3 The Seat Covers & Door Material: The Subject: A really boring interior that needed lots of help!

4 Now let the fun begin: Step 1: You remove the seats by removing the four mounting bolts on the floor. I started in the back and worked my way to the front. Release the seat latch and slide the seat as far forward as you can and then release the seat back and lean the seat forward as far as it will go. You should have enough room to access the two bolts in the back. Use the 14mm socket, ratchet & extension to remove the bolts. The outboard track behind the seat is covered a plastic decorative piece that just snaps off: The other one is on the side of the tunnel or hump below the console: Now Slide the seat all the way back and you can get to the front two bolts and remove them:

5 With the seat back leaning forward slide the seat back into the forward position and lean the seat all the way back as far as it will go to reveal the plug underneath that goes to the air bag switch. Unplug the connector by pressing down on the little tab and pulling the white part at the same time: Remove the seat from the car and put it in a reasonable work area, I recommend an old table or something that s counter top height. I used our kitchen counter since it a bar type and I had access to it from three sides. I covered the counter with the cardboard scavenged from the box the covers came in and then covered that with old towels once I started replacing the covers. Step 2: Remove the plastic piece on the side of the seat by 1 st removing the seat back adjustment handle: Pry up on the tab with the flat head screwdriver or plastic trim tool, and pull the handle forward to remove it.

6 Remove the plastic trim on the side of the seat: Pull the round part of the trim free from the back of the seats by forcing it out and away from the seat frame. It s tricky but it s flexible enough that I was able to get it free. You have manipulate it but if you look at it you will see some of the clips that need to be released. Once the back (round) portion is free the whole piece will slide forward. It s rather stubborn so keep at it and it will break free from the slide clip that s holding it in place. The other side of the seat is easier to remove because the piece is shorter and does not go the length of the seat. Remove the trim on both sides before proceeding:

7 This is what it looks like on the underneath the plastic trim: Once the trim is out of the way and stored in a safe place you can take out the four bolts that hold the seat top to the bottom (two per side): Don t fear the spring, it stays with the bottom frame.

8 When the seat back is loose you need to remove the hog rings that are on the back of the seat cover to begin the last part of the seat back and bottom separation. There are three or four hog rings holding it together, just remove them all:

9 Slide the back cover out of the way, and reveal all the goodies inside. Now things are going to get a little interesting. When you have it opened up you will see green cords and foam on the inside. Not shown in the picture, but the green cord follows the grooves in the foam and is tied in to the back of the seat top. Remove the hog rings holding the green cords in place and pull them out of the way. Take the foam and push it behind the tube that goes between the seat rails and the top should be free from the bottom.

10 The back and the bottom are now separate:

11 Set the seat back aside and we will continue with disassembling the seat bottom. Remove the seat slider release lever by pushing up on one of the springs with the screwdriver and gently pulling the bar out of the spring s notch. If you are gentle enough with it the bar should only have to move about ¼ inch or so. Then release the spring on the other side and move the handle about the same distance. Once both side of the bar are free you can pull it in the center and it should come out with little effort. Put the bar aside noting that it points up towards the seat when assembled. Now we are going to remove the four bolts that hold the seat rails in place. Note: The bar that is in the back can be removed on the passenger seat, on the driver seat it was more difficult to remove because of the way the bottom seat adjuster was built. I tried to keep it all together when I removed it because it was easier to deal with. NOTE:I didn t document it but I seem to recall the bolts were 12mm for the rails.

12 Step 3:Set the rails aside and your ready for the fun stuff. Things can get a little confusing here but I ll try my best to explain. I unhooked the sides of the seat cover 1 st and then the back and the front. It was VERY stubborn but I was able to get them unhooked. There are tabs you need to bend out of the way on the front, back and sides:

13 Remove the four hog rings. Then you have to force the sides front and back of the old cover to unhook them from the seat pan. The front is a bit tricky since it is folded over and clipped in backwards. See my sketch in the upper left corner. (The Blue is the seat cover, yellow is the sewn in retainer strip and red is the seat pan. The circles mark the hog rings that need to be cut.) The back is supposed to push forward and up, but due to the rust mine would not budge so I took the trim tool and rolled the plastic strip off one inch at a time. The side just clip straight on with the seat cloth tension holding them in place. Note: in the picture below the front of the seat cover was loose. Looking at the tabs underneath it, the front was never attached at the factory. Go figure. When you have the sides the front & back loose, pull the cover up from around the edges and it will expose the hog rings that hold it in place on the top. The photo below shows where the hog rings are so you can find them easily without much hunting.

14 Fold up the sides and look for the three hog rings, cut them and repeat for the other side. Then fold up the back to expose the two hidden hog rings in the middle.

15 The cover should now be free to be tossed aside. I had a pretty good bit of trash and foam that had rubbed off on one the seats (drivers side) so I sucked it up with a vacuum cleaner. Step 4: Start installing the new seat covers by turning them wrong side out. I learned the hard way that there is a right and a left bottom in the case of my seat cover kit. There was a piece for the seat belt wires to run through that protected them from rubbing against the rails. I put the driver s side on the passenger seat bottom initially only to later discover the errors of my ways. To be sure the passage needs to be on the right side of the driver s seat and on the left of the passenger s seat.

16 This picture shows the passage on the seat after installation is completed: Align the seat bottom on the sides to make sure the retaining strips will line up with the side grooves. Then fold the cover over and hog ring the center piece to the wire in the foam. This was the hardest ones to get with the hog ring pliers as I had to use a good bit of force to pull it down enough to catch the wire in the cushion.

17 When the center strip is lined up and tied down with the hog rings you can do the side strips. They are fairly easy compared to the center one. When you have the other six hog rings in securely you can unfold the sides and ends together to roll them over the foam and the seat pan.

18 When you have the seat covers rolled over the sides, front & back you can tackle the hardest part of the seat bottom and that s getting the bottom pieces tied clipped into the seat pan. I don t have a pictures of the process because it was all sweat and tears. But it s the same concept as taking off the old ones. Once you have them all snapped into place the bottom part of the seat should look something like this when flipped over. Next comes the reassembly of the seat rails. Which is the reversal of the removal process, just watch your wires and don t forget to hog ring the side back flaps of the seat to the frame. I cut X s in the area above the two bolt holes that was covered up by the flaps I hog ringed to the seat pan.

19 Turn the bottom over and re-install the seat frame: Replace the adjusting bar and the back tube if it came out before you tighten all four of the bolts to make it easier to align everything up. Route the wires to where they were before and wire tie them in place (I cheated and used a hog ring loosely placed around the wires and the seat springs). Put the bottom assembly aside since you re done with it for now. Step 5: You re ready to start removing the cover on the seat back. Start by working the back and front up the foam from the bottom. Gently start rolling up the cover as you go to make the final steps much easier.

20 About ½ the way up the seat you will run into the first set of hog rings to remove. Remove them and continue up so the next set. The next set are a little more tricky but still pretty easy to get too. This set of Hog Rings reveals the other end of the mystery green cord. Now it all makes sense right?

21 The last set of Hog Rings are not accessible what to do?

22 Continue rolling the back of the seat cover over the top of the seat. Be careful that you don t rip out the wires in the foam. It s a little tight but now too hard to do. When the seat cover is rolled off the back it will be attached to the front like the photo. There are two Hog Rings that you have to remove to take the cover completely off. When you have removed the old seat cover you need to pull out the green cords and the two wires across the middle as well as the wire on the top. Mine were pretty rusty and took a lot of effort to get them out. I used a Brillo pad and cleaned them up on the driver s seat for re-assembly and it made a big difference in putting them in the new covers. Go ahead and turn the seat covers inside out to get to the channels sewn in for the wires. Once you have the wires and cords transferred your ready to begin re-assembly of the seat backs. You start out by placing the wire at the top of the seat cover in the grove on the foam. Double check the alignment of the other grooves and wires further down the seat back, but ONLY secure the two Hog

23 Rings that are hidden when the cover is flipped over the back. This gives you the flexibility you need to fold the seat cover over the back of the seat. When you re folding the seat cover over the back of the seat, be careful that you don t pull out the wires imbedded in the foam. Work your way down to the next set of Hog Rings and install them. The top should start getting a little tight at this point but you re about to break over the hump and it will get easy again. As you roll the seat cover over the seat, be careful that you don t scuff up the material since you working from the inside. Pay attention to the foam and massage it in place as needed. You won t get all the wrinkles out but you need the foam to be in place on the cover as you pull it down.

24 When you get to the next set of Hog Rings go ahead and secure them.

25 Finish pulling the seat cover over the foam and massage it into place. You might have to work it more in some places than others, but overall it should be a snug fit and everything where it needs to be. Don t worry too much about the wrinkles because they will settle out or you can hit them with a heat gun or hair dryer to shrink up the leather.

26 You are ready to re-assemble the seat back to the bottom. I created this very colorful and busy image to assist in understanding where everything goes, just in case you have forgotten how it all came apart. Bend the foam down and over the metal tube. Pull the green cords over the foam and then pull the back of the cover over the foam as well. When you have the assembly loosely pulled together you need to align the bolt holes and replace the four bolts in the seat back. I managed to do this by myself, but it s easier with a helper I m sure.

27 When the assembly is bolted up you can flip the seat over the edge of your work bench and adjust the back so it stays in place and allows you to attach the green cords to the seat back.

28 You are now ready to secure the bottom of the seat back. Mine came with zippers whereas the old ones had Hog Rings on them so use whatever method your seat covers came with. Replace the plastic side trim on the seat and your ready to re-install it in the car. Finished Product:

29 When replacing the seat in the car in case you didn t notice there are two guide pins in the front tracks that will help with seat alignment if you accidently moved one of the rails and they are out of sync with the other one. I set the seats in place and tilted them to the back to plug in the connectors. I then put the front bolts in place finger tight before doing the back ones once all four were in place I used the ratchet and socket to tighten them up. Now go replace the passenger seat and pull out the driver s seat and start at step one. No-one wants to see this in the day time! Trust me. Additional Thoughts: The drive seat is a little different in that the base has the adjuster built in for the seat bottom. This makes the seat tracks a little more cumbersome and heavier to move around so be prepared. Also make mental note of the adjusting knob for the bottom, I didn t take any pictures of it but you have to remove the knob before taking off the seat tracks. Also note that after you install the seat tracks you have to carefully cut a hole for the shaft to stick out for the knob. I cut an X over the

30 shaft and pushed the leather around it. It took several tries and minor adjustment to get the knob back on but eventually I prevailed. You can let the car sit out in the heat and massage the covers a little here and there to get the wrinkles out, or you can hit them with a hair dryer or heat gun. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE HEAT GUN if you go that route. No-one likes to sit on baked beef. I also want to point out that I got a very nice unexpected upgrade with the replacement seat covers. I now have seat pockets in the driver and passenger seats. This was not mentioned anywhere on the website or in the phone conversation we had, but it reinforces the you get what you pay for philosophy. I wasn t expecting the seat pockets and was pleasantly surprised to find them when inspecting the seat covers prior to the install. The Finished Product: I did not include instructions for doing the door panels because it was my first endeavor into anything like this. The seat covers were one matter, the door inserts were a different matter all together. Plus I didn t take any photos because I was so focused on the task that I didn t think about it until it was too

31 late. I will say it was a LOT easier than I expected and I HIGHLY recommend you follow the advice on the website and leave the factory material in place as I did. What I did was take a butter knife and roll out the factory material that was tucked in the crack along the edge. I masked off the door panel and sprayed it with the contact adhesive. Laid out the new insert panels and sprayed the back of them as well. After about 10 minutes or so I laid the leather over the top of the cloth and massaged it in place. Then I took scissors and an exacto knife and trimmed the leather to closely match the cloth. I recommend leaving about 1/16 of an inch over lap on the leather over the cloth so you have room for the bend the leather has to make when being tucked in. I let the door panel set about 20 minutes or so after trimming it and used the same butter knife to tuck in the leather. I am pleased with the results but I do wish I had taken some photos along the way, but I didn t so this is what you get. Thanks to everyone on Spyderchat.com for following the project and thanks to for a great product. I have no affiliation with them, just a happy customer. If you want or need more information I strongly advise you to go to YouTube.com and search LeatherSeats.com and watch some of the project videos they have. Tim was very pleasant to work with and certainly knows his way around the leather business.