Seat Upgrade Opinions

[Mike]

Looking for opinions into my seat upgrade.  I locked down a pair of e21 recaros a few years back but never got around to redoing them until now. Will need to source a few plastic bits, add foam in areas, and of course reupholster.  So here are my current thoughts:

 

1.  Do all the work myself, including sourcing material, covers, etc...

2. Send them somewhere like Aardvarc to have them redone. Although shipping to/from Canada may be pricey 

3. Reupholster original seats currently in car 

4. Look at other options such as the new Scheel-Mann seats that kind of have an old school look

 

All thoughts/opinions are welcomed to get my creative juices flowing. This car is definitely no longer "period correct" so we can throw that out the window of discussion haha 

 

Happy holidays  

[Son of Marty]

My first choice would be the Recaro's there are pre made covers and foam bits to make the job easier do the work your self if you feel up to it or use a local upholstery shop. Shipping them to aardvark and having Dave (as beautiful as his work is) to redo them would cost a bundle probably enough to cover most of the costs of new seats. Redoing the stock seats unless your going for a stock rebuild of the car, sounds like that ship has already sailed, is very expensive and will yield a non optimal seat for spirited driving. This is all just opinion and it's guaranteed to be worth what you payed for it.  

Edited December 29, 2023 by Son of Marty

[tech71]

I'll take option #1 for $1000- $1200 a pair Alex.

BMW RECARO E21 320IS UPHOLSTERY SEAT KIT (2) OEM GERMAN VINYL BEAUTIFUL NEW

WWW.EBAY.COM

---

Example c olor is black. The material used is BMW German vinyl. We use Recaro specs as guidelines for production. Center foam not included but are optional. The kit is NEW. The appearance is beautiful.

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by tech71

[Dudeland]

Being a fellow Canuck, I chose to do them myself.  It is fiddly but not hard.  Get some hog ring pliers.  Don't get the ones with a line of hog rings like a strip of staples; they bend and are totalled after you do one chair. 

 

You will pay through the A$$ in Canada to get them re-covered.  Nobody works on any old stuff here, and if they do they are big dollars and months to get it done.

 

  

[Vicleonardo1]

Where have all the very good upholsterers gone?  Growing up in  California,  you  could randomly throw a rock and you would hit an a top notch upholsterer for very few bucks. Now that I am old and in Oregon, to find an affordable good shop  is a joke. It was cheaper for me to pay the shipping and send my Recaro's to Dave at Aardvarc  and have them done. He also mounted the adapters, threw in the correct side covers as there was a change due to the switch. 

Glad I did. 

[AceAndrew]

Skilled labor….

 

When parody becomes reality…

 

[Dudeland]

7 hours ago, Vicleonardo1 said:

Where have all the very good upholsterers gone?  Growing up in  California,  you  could randomly throw a rock and you would hit an a top notch upholsterer for very few bucks. Now that I am old and in Oregon, to find an affordable good shop  is a joke. It was cheaper for me to pay the shipping and send my Recaro's to Dave at Aardvarc  and have them done. He also mounted the adapters, threw in the correct side covers as there was a change due to the switch. 

Glad I did. 

Most people my age had fathers who didn't want their sons to become a trade.  We are neck-deep in lawyers and not enough plumbers.  That is why they charge as much as a lawyer to change your hot water tank. 

 

In Canada, there isn't enough trades; the economy is slowing down, but still, there is not enough.  That is why renovating your house in any major city is 400-600 per square foot. 

 

 

[Stevenc22]

I redid my seats with ZoomZoom covers. The kits cost $1500 front and back and a local upholstery shop charged $900 to refoam the seats and fit the covers.

 

Turned out amazing, but not cheap.

 

[visionaut]

https://www.classiccarseats.com/

[TobyB]

15 hours ago, Vicleonardo1 said:

Where have all the very good upholsterers gone?

 

"Supply Side" economics.

 

It's a multi- step process to get down to the real cost of goods vs. labor,

but since finished, mass- produced goods have been devalued so far for so long, the

real effect of (unmeasured) labor inflation means that I can no longer afford to hire

someone making a living wage to work for me.  

 

Since very few can afford such things, the few shops that can make a living do so by

working for the 1% with all the money in their pockets.

 

consume mass quantities, because individual quantities are too expensive, unless ordered

by the hundred thousands from someplace with no real environmental or labor standards.

 

t

in the bottom half of the 99% now.

 

[plo]

On 12/29/2023 at 5:09 AM, Stevenc22 said:

I redid my seats with ZoomZoom covers. The kits cost $1500 front and back and a local upholstery shop charged $900 to refoam the seats and fit the covers.

 

Turned out amazing, but not cheap.

 

Newer to the seat cover idea, do you have a website for zoomzoom covers. Couldnt find it when searching the web. 

[Lucky 7]

They still exist, but fewer and farther between. I had my junkyard recaros recovered locally. $1500 and they came out great. 
 

 

I have since gotten into doing my own upholstery. I sewed the carpet kit, headliner, door cards, and a bunch of the dash cover. That said, I think I’d still be a bit hesitant about tackling the Recaros. They’re a lot more complicated and high visibility.  I’m new to sewing though, you may not be.  With a careful hand and a can-do attitude, most everything is doable. 

[Henning]

Here's an ebay seller you may have a look at:

sportsitze | eBay

WWW.EBAY.DE

fwiw.

 

henn

 

 

[NickVyse]

1 hour ago, Henning said:

Here's an ebay seller you may have a look at:

sportsitze | eBay

WWW.EBAY.DE

fwiw.

 

henn

 

 

 

I just put their recaro-alikes into my Range Rover. Pretty good quality for the price, the pivot point for the seat back is usefully to the front of the seat to aid getting in the back (much better than the e21 recaros that I had in there before), but they are firm to the pont of uncomfortable. Recently did a 4 hour drive and they were just passable, but annoying they're not proper comfy.

 

Plus the base could be a little longer to support your legs.

 

 

 

[Stevenc22]

10 hours ago, plo said:

Newer to the seat cover idea, do you have a website for zoomzoom covers. Couldnt find it when searching the web. 

 

Here is Zoom Zoom ebay store

 

https://www.ebay.com/str/zoomzoomzooming