Topic: Custom Seat - Epoxy Glue, Rivet or...

[Ellz10]

About halfway through fabricating my custom seat for my '77 K7 and thought I'd hop on here and get some personal and/or professional opinions on how I should go about attaching the leather to the underside of the seat pan: Epoxy glue, rivet, another method I can't think of?

What're your thoughts?

[Don R]

 I see a few of them with short rivets, A combo of contact adhesive and rivets would probably work. 

[Ellz10]

I see a few of them with short rivets, A combo of contact adhesive and rivets would probably work.

I was thinking of doing both as well. Couldn't hurt anything, only help I would imagine.

[tourmax]

What i used to do with steel pans was knock a little "triangle" out with the point facing inward. Then I could pull the material over it, through it and then hammer the triangle "point" back down and the cover is pinned in place.

Have to be careful with your material though, if it rips or tears easily, pushing it over the sharp point can cause it to get a running tear that will ruin your material. 

[Shopdog]

I bought a set of upholstery tack strips and jb welded them around the bottom inner lip. I tried just tacking them with mig, but they're either some type of alloy or coated with something. Anyway, I stripped the underside down to bare metal and the bond is great. Everything got a coat of black paint before the vinyl was put on. 

[carnivorous chicken]

I've used epoxy and the litte triangles that are at the front of stock seat pans. One thing that helps is a dozen or so binder clips to hold it into place, although you want to make sure that there's no epoxy under the cover on the outside of the pan otherwise you'll get an indentation from the clip.

[madmtnmotors]

I bought a set of upholstery tack strips and jb welded them around the bottom inner lip. I tried just tacking them with mig, but they're either some type of alloy or coated with something. Anyway, I stripped the underside down to bare metal and the bond is great. Everything got a coat of black paint before the vinyl was put on. 

I have used these with excellent results. I placed them around the inside of the seat pan and riveted them in place from the outside (so the extended part of the rivet is to the inside):

New gator teeth upholstery strips riveted to the seat pan to hold the new seat cover:




New skin stretched into place:




All that work just for this:

[Ellz10]

I bought a set of upholstery tack strips and jb welded them around the bottom inner lip. I tried just tacking them with mig, but they're either some type of alloy or coated with something. Anyway, I stripped the underside down to bare metal and the bond is great. Everything got a coat of black paint before the vinyl was put on.

I bought a set of upholstery tack strips and jb welded them around the bottom inner lip. I tried just tacking them with mig, but they're either some type of alloy or coated with something. Anyway, I stripped the underside down to bare metal and the bond is great. Everything got a coat of black paint before the vinyl was put on. 

I have used these with excellent results. I placed them around the inside of the seat pan and riveted them in place from the outside (so the extended part of the rivet is to the inside):

New gator teeth upholstery strips riveted to the seat pan to hold the new seat cover:




New skin stretched into place:




All that work just for this:

I'm going to have to give these a try! Not sure if I'll like it or if it'll work for the pan I'm using but we'll see and it's good to know in the future for other projects!