Hi Everyone,

Just looking for some advice regarding re-upholstering my 70 squareback front and back seats.

I was looking at stripping the seats back and importing all the parts(covers,padding etc) from Isp west and having a crack myself.

Alternatively i can take it to a local car upholsterer here in adelaide and get it done professionally. Anyone recommend a reliable place here in adelaide.

Hoping someone has weighed up both options themselves and what they would recommend.

Cheers Nigel

Have heard varying comments about the stuff from the US. Luckily for me my originals are in good condition, but my upholsterer said if I wanted to replace them to get the ISP ones, bring them to him and he would custom fit them. Sometimes he said they need a seam here or there to be opened up and re-stitched so that they sit right on the frame without having that pulled or stress ripple look.
Good luck...

My plan was to have a go at doing this job myself - using imported covers. In the end I took them to a trimmer. Glad I did - he fixed broken springs, added some additional padding and generally had the seats looking brand new. Money well spent in the end!

i did it myself with the ISP West (TMR) seat cover replacements.
bought some additional foam from clarke rubber to 'plump' the seats.

they came up awesome.

do it yourself my 2c

TMI best products

just like original

I did mine myself with TMI its good stuff
I also resprayed the seat frames while dismantled

I did a combo of both.
Stripped all the seats down myself.
Got the blasted for $200 and primed (that was for bus front seats and middle seat).
Used satin black primer&topcoat acrylic from a can from frames and springs.
Bought springs and edge banding from DIY Upholstery Supplies and fitted them ($100 but only used about $60 worth).
Then got an upholster to custom make seat covers using coconut husk from the front hi use seats and foam for the back.
I used TMI material for my main colour but did it a bit different to most.
All up cost me about $3000 but the quality is second to none.

Busses have the issue of fitting covers too due to the large variety of seats from different years that are swapped about.
Type 3's might be a bit more simple.
It would be pretty time consuming to fit them but certainty doable. Real skill would be in the stitching them together or modifications. But if you need to modify one you can fit the rest and then just pay hourly rate for the modification somewhere.

Thanks everyone for the advice and personal experiences.

I think after hearing from everyone who have had a go at doing it themselves i will do the same.

Ill strip it back, spray the seat frame and springs.
Ill redo the cushions with some high density foam from clark rubber coz the springs have destroyed the original cushioning.
The TMI seats covers look great too.