SOR seat covers vs professional reupholstry

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fjkev

10 Year 15 Year
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Apr 12, 2010
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8
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Location
Wake Forest, NC
Trying to decide whether to go with the SOR seat cover and padding kits or have the front bench seats professionally reupholstered. If I go with the SOR kits and install myself it will cost around $400. This is around half what it will cost for a professional reupholster job.

Just want to get an idea from others what their experiences are with these options or if there are other seat cover kits to look at.

Kevin
 
I went the SOR route and it turned out very well, but I cursed every second of doing the job. My wife also laughed at me and called me a dumb ass for not having it done.
 
My upholster quoted me 250 for my front bench seats with the high grade choice of fabric/vinyl/naugahyde.
 
I found the reupholster to be quite easy. It helps to have hog-ring pliers. I did some for a truck, and they turned out really clean.
 
Paging Shane. Are you in the building???

Metric TLC

If you want real Quality...
 
X2 on Shane's work. Check out metric TLC/ AATLAS1X on the supporting vendors list. I'm not sure how to attach the link, but search "seat covers" in this forum, and I posted a few pictures of Shane's work next to the SOR covers, and the originals as well. Very high quality, and a spot on match of the OEM vinyl.:cheers:Brendon
 
fjkev said:
Trying to decide whether to go with the SOR seat cover and padding kits or have the front bench seats professionally reupholstered. If I go with the SOR kits and install myself it will cost around $400. This is around half what it will cost for a professional reupholster job.

Just want to get an idea from others what their experiences are with these options or if there are other seat cover kits to look at.

Kevin
Click to expand...

Greetings all........

Year? Buckets? Bench? Color?

Side note.

Everyone is trying to get in the sewing business.

SOR has great covers, I have torn them apart, each has a serial number that tell them build date and who made them. Patterns are very close and made for their foam which is also excellent.

Cruiser corps aka cruiser crazy? They make covers but there is no way they put the R&D into them that SOR or I have. Plus he can pound sand with statements on his items that I have brought to the cruiser community from my own restorations like shift plates and door limiter kits stating they are the first to offer these items and such.. Then saying they match color to OE, then they have never seen OE covers.

Here is my FJ55 covers and factory covers. This is reproduction, as this vinyl was computer matched and made for me. Not ordering marine graphite from local shop.
fj55 original.webp
fj55new.webp
 
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Here is '74 to 78 Reproduction covers.

If you want quality, but SOR.

If you want OE replacements I am the guy, no it is not cheap. But the quality and detail, can't be beat.

Thanks for the plug guys.

Also the original was 34 years old with 12,410 days of jeans sliding in and out. So they are a little dark, and the flash on my new ones looks funky, but they are the same color makeup.

Shane
fj40 original.webp
fj40 new.webp
 
The bad this about going to the local shop is you get what you pay for. Some jack ass that thinks it's an old jeep and you should be happy with the results. Buy from someone who has dealt with all the daim bramage and has the correct patterning.
 
Great, thanks for all the info!!

Shane, sorry I should have been more clear..... I have a '70 FJ40 with the split bench seats. The seats are black and I will stick with black. Please let me know how much the seat covers will cost for my LC and give me an idea of how long it may take to manufacture.

I am willing to try just about anything once and don't mind doing a DIY install of the seat covers. Might not do it a 2nd time though ;-) I do agree it is best to stick with people familiar with the TLC when doing most anything with the LC. Glad to hear that people are happy with the SOR seat covers and there are other options such as AATLAS1X.

Kevin
 
fjkev said:
Great, thanks for all the info!!

Shane, sorry I should have been more clear..... I have a '70 FJ40 with the split bench seats. The seats are black and I will stick with black. Please let me know how much the seat covers will cost for my LC and give me an idea of how long it may take to manufacture.

I am willing to try just about anything once and don't mind doing a DIY install of the seat covers. Might not do it a 2nd time though ;-) I do agree it is best to stick with people familiar with the TLC when doing most anything with the LC. Glad to hear that people are happy with the SOR seat covers and there are other options such as AATLAS1X.

Kevin
Click to expand...

Look at them closely, are the black or dark pewter?

Bench seat covers
 
$300 doesn't seem a bad price. Looks like very good workmanship. Any chance you can send me a small sample of the dark pewter? If so I can PM you my address.

I am pretty sure the seats are black. Also pretty sure the PO had them reupholstered. The pattern of my seats is much different than yours and SOR's pattern.

My LC is in the shop right now so I can't look. But I can swing by sometime and verify the color scheme.

I have a white LC and like the black accessories that go with.

Kevin
 
I was going to order the SOR stuff for my 45 but after talking to my upholstery guy he did it for less than I could buy the SOR stuff for. If you have someone you trust and repeat as a customer you can build a good relationship and get good quality work for a fair price. He also blasted and painted the frames while he had them all apart...

IMG_3469.jpg


IMG_3467.jpg


IMG_3472.jpg



I don't have experience with Shane's upholstery but he's a MUD vendor and everything I have bought from him has been top notch.

:beer:
 
Looks nice.
I have spoken with upholstery folks and the weakest point in the cover is the stitching. It is a row of holes that weaken the material. That being said, the only way around stitching is to do heat creasing. Some shops can do that. My $.02.
 
Those look nice!! Thanks for posting the pics.

Kevin
DomSmith said:
I was going to order the SOR stuff for my 45 but after talking to my upholstery guy he did it for less than I could buy the SOR stuff for. If you have someone you trust and repeat as a customer you can build a good relationship and get good quality work for a fair price. He also blasted and painted the frames while he had them all apart...

IMG_3469.jpg


IMG_3467.jpg


IMG_3472.jpg



I don't have experience with Shane's upholstery but he's a MUD vendor and everything I have bought from him has been top notch.

:beer:
Click to expand...
 
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