has anyone bought the center section of the 40/20/40 seat from Ford? If so how much.

 

Do you mean the center console?

 

the person that is selling the covers is MPS the web site is http://www.stangparts.com/ he is a good guy to buy the parts from

 

the seat cover

 

hi all - i just recently bought these same leather seat covers on ebay and will be installing them. does anyone have instructions on how to do these?

thanks

 

Do you have a crew or scab/reg cab?
What kind of questions do you have?
I did the two fronts seats a couple weeks ago, but the rear seat covers are still in the box, as I have a reg cab.
Chris

 

Man, I'm looking at doing that let me know if you like the feel of the leather and if it's hard to install..

 

I have a scab and understand that the rear will nead some altering. I just put on the 2 rear head rest and while it was somewhat tough to take off the original, it is quite do-able. only thing that sucks was that one of the head rest had about a 2" rip/cut in it. Hopefully the person on ebay will send me a replacement. if anyone has a reg cab and don't plan on using the rear head rest, I could defintely use it. any pointers you can give me on the 2 front seats? do i need any special tools? do i need to remove the plastic part where the seat belt harness goes (upper portion of seat).

thanks again chris - you have defintely helped me on many of my mods. many thanks

 

Pointers I can do.

Pull the head rests. Two hand job, thumb nail release on the one side, adjustment release on the other.

Remove the back bolts first, run the seat all the way back and disconnect the battery.
Pull the front bolts.
Put towels or something over the door sill, as you don't want to scrape anything with the sharp edges on the bottom of the seat mounts.
Unplug the wiring harness(s).
Lift out the seat and be careful, they are not very sturdy out of the truck, especially the power seat. If you bang one of the corners, you will bend the threaded rod inside the seat. If you do that, it's tricky to fix. Not really hard, but tricky.

Do not sit in the seat when it is out. Not helpful.
Move the seat to where you will work on it. Clean area, carpet is nice, as you will be sitting on the ground doing the job.

Do the headrest first. Unclip the bottom; find the small hole in the plastic bag that the foam is in. Using a vacuum with tube attachment, suck all the air out of the bag, compressing the head rest to a peanut. Actually grapefruit size.

Pop off cover, slide on new cover. Be sure it goes on the right way. Shut off vacuum, mess with it as the foam expands till it sits right. Clip it back shut. Then admire it.

Remove the plastic inserts that the head rest goes into. Look inside for clue to removing them. Manual says
2. The inboard and outboard head restraint sleeves are not interchangeable.
Access and push the release tab and pull the head restraint sleeve out of the backrest frame tube


Which means push down on the fabric and you can push a tool into the side of it, releasing the clips. Look it over closely, you will see the clips.

Recline the seat all the way back. Unwind the lumbar so it doesn't make the seat thick.
Rock the seat back till it’s resting on the back. Aren’t you glad you put it on carpet?

Unbolt the four seat cushion bolts, find the slew of wire holders and release them. Pull bottom cushion.

I pulled the side plates off, but really didn’t need to.

Doing the bottom cushion.

Unclip the really cool plastic clips that run around the seat. Gently pull the cover up till it exposes the first row of three hog rings. Use dikes to cut them and remove them.
IMPORTANT, get all the pieces and remove them. Way away. They will poke holes in anything you put over a left over piece of clip. I am still finding bits of hog ring in my shop…

First installment done. More in a little bit.
Chris

 

Part two;


On the bottom were three rows of hog rings, three in each row. Take time to see how they work. There is a wire in the foam and a plastic wire in the cover. There are holes that you line up.
If you get hog rings and pliers, make sure they work together. There are different sizes. Also be sure to get SMALL hog rings. I cut mine down, as in the small town (1,000,000) population in area; nobody sells the right rings, or pliers.

If you use wire ties instead of hog rings, get the premium ones, with metal clips. You will need about 15 a side. Some say they used 18 a side. Depends on Screw vs. Crew seats, I guess.

Put the new cover on, clipping or using the wire ties. Try to go through the holes already in the foam. Not only is that were they are supposed to be, that’s another way to get all the little bits of ring out. You don’t want a bit of sharp ring poking into your new leather.

Pull the wire ties tight, till they are about the same diameter the hog rings were. 3/8-1/2 inch or so.

Fasten the plastic clips back on, then admire the new look. Smooth it around, and look it over. It should be pretty tight. Some wrinkles are normal. Let it sit in the sun a few days at work or something, and it will look even better.

The back has a long clip that runs under the bottom. Kind of hard to release, then it glides apart.

If you have screw seats, disregard the following.

Seat belt mounted seats, the hard stuff follows;

The plastic tower has two side plates. Use something that won’t mar soft plastic, and pry the two side plates off. I used a soft putty spreader.

There are torx bolts under there. Remove them. The seat belt head will go through the plastic piece. You will see what I mean when you get there. Not easy to do, not hard. Just go slow so you don’t mark up the plastic. First one will take a few minutes, second a minute.

Put the plastic cover where it won’t get harmed.

Next, the hard stuff.

 

Look over the way the factory made a protective fabric cover and clipped it to the seat belt mount. The Screw seats don’t have this, so don’t damage it. Unclip it from the mount, and then go to the bottom of the seat back.

Removing the seat cover is like skinning a rabbit. Four hands make it easier. Roll and gently pull it up till you hit the first set of hog rings. Clip them, and get the pieces.
Bunch and roll it up till you hit the next row, clip and get pieces. Some have reported a third row on the back? Not on mine.

You should have the seat cover loose now.
Decisions here. I unstitched the plastic surround piece that holds the fabric that goes over the belt mount. I have heard that shops just ignore it, and do without.
Your call.
I re-stitched the fabric to the plastic surround. Easy to do, I used fine fishing line and a needle. It’s gonna be under the plastic cover anyway. I just wanted to be sure it would never come loose. Holes were already there anyway. Ten minutes to do. I then placed it back in position, expecting the plastic square would be very tightly held by the cover and the plastic cap over the seat belt. It was.

Scarry part. You have to cut a hole in your new seat cover. Ouch. I measured it, and measured it against the old seat cover, and finally rolled it up and pushed it onto the seat till I could see where I had to cut. All three ways worked, but didn’t make it any easier to take a pair of scissors to that beautiful new leather. I cut the hole way to small, and then when the seat cover was almost on I kept gently enlarging it till it was a perfect fit. The hole I used was not as big as the factory cut hole in the old covers. Just being careful.
I did not stitch the plastic piece to the leather. I just put in on first and pulled the seat cover down to hold it till I put the plastic cap back on.
I cut it smoothly, leaving no edges or corners that could start a tear. I have inspected it with a mirror and light, and it looks fine after 3 weeks and a thousand miles. You might do this differently. Your call.

Pulling the seat cover on was a little bit of work, but not too bad. I put the hog rings in as I went, and did the final hook on the bottom, then put the cushion back on.

After the install I treated it with Tanners leather treatment. The covers were new, but a little dry. I treated them again two days later, and will do it one more time soon. Too much treatment makes the covers soft and stretchy.

Hope this helps someone.
Chris

 

thank you for taking the time to write some detailed instructions. these will surely help myself and others.

cheers

 

I thought I saw a post where someone bought the center consol cover for the 40/20/40 seat from their local Ford dealer. Around $80? Does anyone know what dealer or who to talk to?

 

If you are talking about the parts of the 20 in 40-20-20 seats, that is just plain wrong.
I priced the parts.
The cover in black leather for the bottom cushion is 259 bucks on line. At Ford it was 316.00. That is just the cover, not the cushion.
169 for the flint cloth cover.

The back is sold as a unit, only. 169-369 quotes new, 169 plus shipping was flint cloth. 369 was leather.
I checked into buying the indivdual parts, and after lots of e-mail, and calling dealers I had to give it up.
They may sell the parts someday, but as of now, no individual parts are for sale.

I had my center seat covered in Ford 'leather like' black fabric, same as they use on the other seats, for 125. Estimates ranged from 85-150. Looks fine, looks stock.

Buying just the top for 80 bucks wouldn't be a bargain, even if it was true, unless you had damaged yours.

Two center seats went in the last few weeks on e-bay. First went for 225 as it was black leather.
The other was flint gray with a small burn in the lower cushion cover. It sold for about 65, plus shipping.

These were the entire seat.

Chris

 

Does this guy sell alot of sets? So if I dont get this one maybe there will be one down the road?