73aussie455

Hi all.
Does anyone know if oem or repro seat skins are available for Old's seats and from where?
I want to recover the front bench and redo the foam on my '73 Delta. My friend has a upholstery shop and will do the job but asked if I could get an original cover as he can't match the original fabric to do it from scratch.
What do others do if one of these old cars needs re-upholstering?

Thanks

jaunty75

I needed to have the front seat recovered on my '73 Custom Cruiser, and I just went to a local auto upholstery shop. We looked through his catalogs and found something very close to what was in the car. He ordered it, did the job, and it looks great.

Before and after photos are below. I'd dare anyone to tell me they can spot any differences. The little rectangular buttons along the seat back, which you can't see in the top photo, are original. He reused them.






The important thing to keep in mind is not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There are zillions of fabrics and styles available out there. Sit down with an upholsterer and his catalogs and pick something. It may not be a 100% match, but a 95% match is close enough. These aren't 1000-point, concourse-quality show cars, so who cares if the match with the original is not perfect. They're fun cars that we essentially use as toys, so just have fun, and at the same time, you'll spare yourself the hair-pulling, expense, and time required to get a perfect match if one is even available at all.

jcdynamic88

have you checked SMS SEAT FABRICS ? you may be able to buy the fabric and have the pleats sewn in or maybe redo front and back seat to match.

73aussie455

Ok, update to my search for seat trim.
I found an Auto trimmer Stateside that has original style repro seat trim for most Oldsmobile's, more importantly for my '73 Delta.
We have already matched the exact style from their patterns, but now need to find the exact colour and fabric to get a good modern match.

The trim code is 334.
Do any Olds guru's know how to decode this to get the color and fabric details?

Thanks in advance for any help.

brown7373

Kits for GM A bodies are plentiful. There are not many kits for B bodies after about 1968. As long as you have the originals, even torn up, a good trim shop can make new covers, using the old as patterns. SMS does have a lot of original seat material yardage, but expect to pay a lot more than for repro material. You can probably find a match or something very close, and as jaunty said, hardly anyone will know. That said, I had the interior on my 1970 Bonneville Convertible redone about 20 years ago with repro generic. When new, it looked identical to the original, but over the years, it changed color. It was sandalwood, very light, almost white, that got darker as it aged. I recently bought NOS sandalwood material from SMS and am having a local trim shop redo the seats, and am hoping it doesn't change color.