seat recovering info help request

i have a matching set of 2 bucket seats from a 1999 sr5 4runner.

if anyone is wondering why I got these, these seats bolt right up in an exact match in 3 corners and just the outside front corner legs need to be removed and swapped out with the Tacoma front corner legs for a seamless "bolt right in" fit.

one main problem I have now is I have the blue/gray seats and my truck has brown interior so I really don't want to leave the mismatched look of it.

so I need to get the seats recovered by a shop or just buy seat covers that I can install myself but I dont want those crappy "elastic s-hook and strings tied to the seat" seat covers, you know the ones I mean, the ones that last a month and start sliding off and look like crap from day 1.

im in laplace just outside new Orleans Louisiana so anybody has a suggestion where to look in my area to have it done or where to buy "real" replacement cloth seat covers at a decent price?

im on a fixed income so I don't have a lot of money to get this done.

 

Wet okolies or katzkin leather?

 

thanks for the suggestion, but im looking for something in a stock cloth material and basic design, nothing fancy is desired and $250 for seat covers is just way too much for my budget.

quite frankly I would rather bring it to a professional upholstery shop before im going to be willing to spend $250-$300 for seat covers.

 

Cheap upholstery place is your best bet for stock-like material with good fit and finish.

 

thanks, do you (or anyone else) have any idea on rough price guestimate to redo 2 bucket seats? I know prices change a lot depending on area of the country but a ballpark idea would be nice so I know if a price I get quoted is fair or a rip off. I never used an auto upholstery service before.

 

The tan/brown is the most common pattern for the Gen 1. Most upholstery shops can get the OEM Toyota fabric and cover the seats for you. Usually 2 seats should be around 150 each plus materials if the foam is still in good condition, otherwise you will have to do it too. Please take a pic of your current blue/gray upholstery, if its the same as mine I call dibs on the fabric you take off if you ever decide to sell it. I have some tears in mine that need to be mended and the secondary fabric is discontinued and no one has it anywhere.

 

I hope its not as high as $150 a seat, im hoping for something like $100 a seat which is more in my budget.

I will keep you in mind if they don't have to cut them up for patterns.

the 99-02 4runners have seats that will swap right in so that might be your best option, they seam to come in blue/gray or brown interiors that duplicate the tacoma seat colors and patterns. try a pull-a-part type salvage yard near you. I bet you find one fairly easy, there is not a huge demand for 4runner parts like there is for Tacoma parts. in just 2 weeks looking I found 10 4runners within 100 miles of me but most had been in the yars for weeks so the interiors were trashed or missing, quite a few were torn by idiots pulling out dash stuff getting caught on the seats, it was sad to see such waste.

before its all over I might just wait about a month and try to find another set of brown seats and sell these rather then spend the money to recover them.

 

For $50 more you can get Wet Okoles that will be far more durable than cloth, are bomb proof, waterproof and much easier to care for. The difference in price seems very negligible compared to the product you will receive.

I'm also weary of the quality of work if you go to someone who only charges $200 to reupholster two bucket seats.

Just my $0.02

 

I appreciate your input, I just have very limited resources to work with.

I guess I will just have to keep searching to find a set of brown 99 4runner seats then or I might go back to that place I got the blue ones at. they had a set of 98 brown ones from the wrong year and the seat mount is wrong but the seat covers and foam were in great shape so I can remove the covers and transplant them to the blue seats I have.

until just now I never gave thought to the idea of buying seats just for the covers but I can make them both into brown seats if I do it that way so I guess that's what I need to do. since im only looking for the covers I don't need to be concerned about the seat brackets fitting so I have more options that way.

it sucks but now I have to go all they way back there tomorrow to get those other brown seats from the 98 4runner and its a full 4 hour 225 mile round trip drive but if I wait they will be gone and I don't know when I might find another donor seat. FRACKKKK

 

the only thing i hate about those wet okoles is that they dont breath. i seem to get swamp back after a long drive. also, good luck finding a place that will recover for cheap. i would bet its going to be 200-300 a seat.

 

This doesn't really help you much but if you make friends with someone who restores older vehicles for a living you'll be able to ask them for their upholstery contact. There is a guy in the small town I go to school in that works on fixing older vehicles on the cheap and he pointed me to a place where I could have my seats recovered in any stock fabric under the sun for sub $300 for both seats (as long as I pay for the fabric separately). The only downside is that they usually take 1-2 weeks, so I sorta lost interest.

 

Yes, the price I stated was only for the labor, not including the fabric, possible hardware or foam. $100 each including fabric wont happen because the OEM fabric is about $50 per yard in its own and most fabric houses require a 1 yard minimum purchase

 

Why not dye the seats black and touch up a few interior pieces black to match? Would be cheaper and easier if you ask me.

 

the entire inside of the truck is brown, roof, dash, floor, side panels, steering wheel, so you can see why im not wanting different colored seats.

if I would be satisfied with having mismatched colors I could just leave them blue/gray. I would just rather have a stock look

 

well I scored today! I had to drive 300 miles to get it but I feel it was worth the effort because now I don't have to modify anything, it will just drop in and bolt right up. its also from the exact same year and body style truck as mine.

I found a set of OEM brown Tacoma bucket seats with all the trim pieces. it has a ragged out drivers seat and seat back but the frame and trim pieces are the most important thing since just about any Toyota 4runner seat cushions will swap out with them. it came with a passenger seat in very good shape so im going to transfer the seat cushion and seat back from the passenger seat. I will use the passenger seat I got with it as a donor seat to swap over the seat cushion and back onto the drivers side bucket seat.

since I have 60/40 seats in my truck it already has a passenger bucket seat in place so i'll just leave the existing passenger seat in my truck alone since its still in very good condition.

I just never tried swapping seat backs before so im not sure if I pull the foam off and swap them or if I can take it apart at the seat hinge?

has anyone ever removed a seat back before? im thinking if its put together it must come apart somehow unless its a riveted on permanently kinda thing.

 

I just fixed the bucket seat in my 2000 Tacoma. Undo the large wide plastic clip at the bottom of the seat back that is on the seat back upholstery. It comes apart easily. Then pull the front seat back upholstery forward and then you can grab the sides and pull upwards to expose two 12mm bolts. I'm assuming there are two on each side, though I only needed to access the outside bolts. Pretty simple.

 

fantastic, I was hoping to hear there was a simple easy way to do it.

I really didn't want to have to cut the hog rings off it (or however its attached) and pull the foam completely off to swap them out.

do you happen to know how to remove the headrest bar from the headrest? somehow I have one that's in backwards

and while on that topic I need to replace one of the headrest plastic things on top of the seat, do you know how to safely remove them so they can be reused?