Has anyone tried these possibilities for repairing vinyl upholstery?

[Tom Boehm]

I am trying to think of ways to improve and preserve the original vinyl upholstery in my 1973 Dart. I know there is exact reproduction upholstery from Legendary and others available. Someday I may do that but I want to preserve the original as long as I can. I thought of 2 ways. Has anyone else tried these? 

1. Take the seat upholstery off and  machine sew a reinforcing panel on the back. Stich the edges down to the reinforcing fabric. 

2. Without removing the upholstery, work a piece of reinforcing fabric under the torn vinyl and glue the edges down to it. What kind of glue? 

 

Would 50 year old vinyl just tear again next to the repair? 

[Xander Wildeisen]

There are a few ways to repair the damage. All of them will show the repair. What look do you want? A repaired seat, showing the repair. Or a nice original look with new seat material. Pulling the material off of the seat and replacing just the damaged sections is the best thing to do. But a exact match will not happen due to age/condition of old and new material. You could then use products to die or color the whole seat. To get the repair to blend in with the old material. Then matching the seat back becomes a issue.

[Tom Boehm]

If I wanted perfection I would replace it with new reproduction from Legendary. I don't mind if the the repair is visible. I just want to close up the opening and possibly prevent the tears from getting longer. I don't mind if I see stitching on a repair. I don't want to splice in new vinyl. 

[Xander Wildeisen]

Contact a local interior shop, if you are farming out the work. And get their feedback. Go on YouTube and search vinyl seat repair. I bet there are videos on it, showing nice results. Looks like a nice interior in your car. Do not blame you for wanting to keep it original.

[Bloo]

8 hours ago, Tom Boehm said:

I am trying to think of ways to improve and preserve the original vinyl upholstery in my 1973 Dart. I know there is exact reproduction upholstery from Legendary and others available. Someday I may do that but I want to preserve the original as long as I can. I thought of 2 ways. Has anyone else tried these? 

1. Take the seat upholstery off and  machine sew a reinforcing panel on the back. Stich the edges down to the reinforcing fabric. 

2. Without removing the upholstery, work a piece of reinforcing fabric under the torn vinyl and glue the edges down to it. What kind of glue? 

 

Would 50 year old vinyl just tear again next to the repair? 

 

5 hours ago, Tom Boehm said:

If I wanted perfection I would replace it with new reproduction from Legendary. I don't mind if the the repair is visible. I just want to close up the opening and possibly prevent the tears from getting longer. I don't mind if I see stitching on a repair. I don't want to splice in new vinyl. 

 

I know this isn't what you asked, but in cars where authentic repro covers are available (Legendary?), that is by far the cheapest and best repair. I worked in an upholstery shop when I was in my teens, and I have done quite a lot of repairs. Authentic replacement covers at that time were only available for things like the 65-66 Mustang and the VW Beetle. Certainly nothing Mopar. I would have replaced the whole insert here.

 

Would 50 year old vinyl just tear again next to the repair?

 

Yes, but not because it is 50 years old. Body oils make vinyl hard and that can be a cause, but the main issue here is that when you sew vinyl it makes a perforated line that can tear like one of those "business reply mail" cards they used to put in magazines. On an insert with exposed stitching like that, they made a sandwich with some cloth underneath, foam in between, and the vinyl on top. Unfortunately the cloth underneath (decking? ducking?) may have been something inadequate, and some modern trimmers have been known to use materials that are even worse. There is about a 99.9 percent chance that the cloth underneath has failed along those seams where the vinyl is ripped. When the insert was new, the vinyl and the cloth underneath shared the stretching load approximately equally. When the cloth fails, the stress concentrates where it failed and rips the vinyl along the perforations at the cloth failure. The stress will concentrate right at your repair, too. It's a losing game.

 

[nickelroadster]

What ever you do ,I would not try to remove it to repair.  That would probably lead to more damage.