Is this a reasonable charge for upholstery work?

[Guest Anonymous]

My driver's seat has a rip, and I bought a rear seat cover that matches the material in order to repair it. I took the car to a local upholstery shop, and they said they would charge me $100 to sew in that panel. This is assuming that I disassemble the seat and bring in the cover separately, and supply the material to patch it. This seems pretty steep to me, but I have never had any upholstery work done before.

-Matt

[Guest Anonymous]

Especially that you have to take the seat apart yourself, and that you also bring your own material. That means no downtime for them for searching the proper vinyl or taking the seat apart.

Even including fresh piping on that section, I would think it is twice the regular price. I am pretty sure you can find a much better price...

[Guest Anonymous]

Time to shop around, I guess. I also gotta find a source for Canuck Al's suggestions of materials for replacing the horsehair (for smell and support reasons), they hadn't heard of 'bottomskin foam' either.

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.zeebuck.com/02bc/index.htm

I quoted a guy about $95 Canadian a few weeks ago, for a similar repair, but I was doing the seat teardown, and supplying the vinyl.

Al

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.zeebuck.com/02bc/index.htm

Doesn't surprise me that they hadn't heard of bottomskin foam. You'll have to ask a foam wholesaler about it. They will know. Unfortunately, to buy from a wholesaler, you typically need a tax number, and a minimum order of a couple hundred bucks.

Al

[Guest Anonymous]

And the job was absolutely perfect. The vinyl was perfectly stretched, no wrinkle.As it came from the factory.

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.zeebuck.com/02bc/index.htm

But that is some pretty cheap, domestic vinyl, and improper foam on the back of it. As long as you were happy with them though.....

Al

[Guest Anonymous]

And foams were all original and new. But I had the guy to line the side bolster to stiffen them up.

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.zeebuck.com/02bc/index.htm

You have cushions, and then you have a layer of "sew foam", which is stitched to the upholstery, before the covers are installed. The good, imported scrimback foam is expensive, but works great. You probably didn't get good scrimback, which is just one of a few reasons why a proper seat resto can get expensive. Like I said though, as long as you're happy....

Al