The other day, I was a victim of "bait and switch." About a month ago, I went to Wally's Auto Upholstery, located on Geary St., to get a price quote to rewrap the cushions of my Recaro SPG's. I brought with me the three cushions from the Recaro, and told him that I wanted a price for labor, as I would supply my own material. He spent about 2-3 minutes looking over the pieces, and gave me a quote of $125 per seat, just for labor. I was fine with this quote.
Fast forward to two days ago. I bring in both sets of cushions, as well as the Recaro gradation fabric to Wally's Auto Upholstery, with the intention to drop it all off and let them perform the work. The guy who originally gave me the quote of $125 per seat denied ever quoting me that. Instead, he tried to tell me it would cost $300 per seat to rewrap the cushions, because, "it is a lot of work." I argued with him for a little bit and mentioned that he originally quoted me $125 per seat. I gave up and decided it is not worth it, so I packed up all cushions and proceeded to leave. He followed me to the door and kept dropping prices. By time I was out the door, the last number I heard was $400 for both seats. I simply said, "No thanks." Screw that..
So I have two sets of seat cushions that need to be rewrapped, and three sets of Recaro gradation fabric. I decided to give it a try and rewrap a cushion myself. If I were to mess up, at least I have two sets of fabric leftover to let the professionals take care of it for me. So I busted out the scissors, needles and thread, and got to work. Surprisingly it wasn't very hard. The main issue that I had was the fact that the original paddings were wider than the seat openings. This wasn't an issue for the stock fabric, as it is very soft and easy to work with. The Recaro fabric, however, which is foam backed, was being very diffucult, and wouldn't lay flat. It took a lot of tinkering with in order to get it to sit right.
In order to secure the Recaro fabric to the cushions, I applied adhesive velcro to the inside of the fabric so it would be able to stick onto the back of the cushions. That way, if I ever wanted to go back to the stock, I had the option. The backside of the cushions do not look very good, but nobody sees the back anyways.
The front bottom cushion was the most difficult, as I needed to construct sides for the cushion as it was very thick. I had to make a template in order to get the correct shape for the sides. I then had the sew it together on the insides, which was very time consuming. I performed all the sewing by hand. I wish I had access to a sewing machine, as that would have been a lot faster, easier and cleaner, but I worked with what I had.
Overall, I am very happy with the results of the rewrap. I still need to get the main piece sewed across the center, where there should be a seam. The fabric is naturally starting to crinkle around that location, so hopefully the seam will absorb that crinkle. I am pleased with the results of this seat, that I plan to perform the upholstery on the other seat myself as well. It is a sense of accomplishment, and I am glad I did the work myself. I also saved a lot of money!!
Measuring up the fabric..
Rewrapped down the center.. Don't mind the seat fabric/harness holes. I haven't fully assembled the seats since I painted them..
Recaro gradation..
The end pieces I made and sewed on..
