Blue Leather Seats Wanted

[Bruceynz]

That one in Chico could have blue interior!

 

[FredMcJoe]

I'm near Eugene, Oregon. About 425 miles away from Chico.

 

[kkritsilas]

Bruce:

The velour seats are extremely faded.

The tan/gold leather seats are in good shape; but the driver's side seat is quite dirty.

The two tone 5th Ave. is here:

The Tan/Gold 5th Ave. is here:

The back seat picture is in shadow, which removed the effect of the sun due to the tinted windshield.

 

[Bruceynz]

Mr V, can we dye the blue velours to make them like new again?

 

[FredMcJoe]

The velour tends to get dirty looking, thats one thing I've noticed but that shows less in the dark blue.

And the caramel color they used til '88... odd.

 

[FredMcJoe]

Mr V, can we dye the blue velours to make them like new again?

Hmm.. never tried that. Its a synthetic material, not a wool velour like a Mercedes... at least I don't think it's got wool in it.... and I don't know about dying synthetic material.

 

[kkritsilas]

If you're in the biz of parts pulling, I've been having a problem finding 2 center rocker panel moldings for my '88 5th Ave. All the ones down here in Oregon get lifted underneath by the junk yards and they destroy the moldings. If it comes to mind and u're wanting to get involved, I'm in the market.

To be honest, I never looked at the rocker panel moldings at all. I can try to see what they are like when I get some time to go and see what's in the yard again. I am NOT in the parts pulling business, but I am willing to try and help where I can.

These center rocker panel moldings are on the rockers, below the doors, I take it? Are there any panels on the door (there is an aluminum rocker panel molding on my Cordoba, but that alsoe extends up onto the lower part of the door, but that's a J body, and I don't know the M bodies too well, hence the question)? Do any of the posted pictures of the 5h Aves. help?

There was actually a 4 door Volare there as well, motor is gone. I also saw a number of 5.9L Magnum V8s, and a 400 big block in a 1975 Newport or New Yorker sedan. Other pickers had taken the carb, distributor, and fan, but the rest of the big block was there. I wish I had the room and money to try and go get that one.

 

[Bruceynz]

KK what you think the blue velour seats are worth out of interest?

 

[FredMcJoe]

I tried dying some original carpet pieces from a 1964 Imperial Crown Coupe back to black. They had faded out to a light buff tone from being black originally. RIT dye made them black again but it wasn't color-fast, meaning if you wiped your hand over it you'd have a black hand.

It would not be a trouble if you only wore dark blue suits, however.

 

[Bruceynz]

Its going to be kinda hard to get perfect seats for a car that was last made 18 years ago! Sun faded is likely to be something I may just have to put up with. The only chance to get what I want is if a low mileage car crashed that has been garage kept! But as not so many one the roads I guess that not likely. So I am going to have to be realistic, faded would be much better than ripped seats I have now!

 

[FredMcJoe]

To be honest, I never looked at the rocker panel moldings at all. I can try to see what they are like when I get some time to go and see what's in the yard again. I am NOT in the parts pulling business, but I am willing to try and help where I can.

These center rocker panel moldings are on the rockers, below the doors, I take it? Are there any panels on the door (there is an aluminum rocker panel molding on my Cordoba, but that alsoe extends up onto the lower part of the door, but that's a J body, and I don't know the M bodies too well, hence the question)? Do any of the posted pictures of the 5h Aves. help?

There was actually a 4 door Volare there as well, motor is gone. I also saw a number of 5.9L Magnum V8s, and a 400 big block in a 1975 Newport or New Yorker sedan. Other pickers had taken the carb, distributor, and fan, but the rest of the big block was there. I wish I had the room and money to try and go get that one.

From what I can tell, the rocker panels were the same for all the M bodies. The difference between your Gran Fury and your Diplomat was the latter came with a rear 1/4 panel rocker molding with the center one that both cars got, and if you got a 5thAve, you got the front fender rocker molding too, making for 3 pieces.

The center moldings are very easy to remove. A block of wood about a foot long, and a mallet or hammer to hit it with. Place block on underside of molding beginning at one end, gently tapping upward to release all the gathered mud down in the clip channel, and work your way to the other end. Once it's all loosened up, tap a little harder at one end, enough so that you can lift the top lip of the molding off the plastic clip, and work your way down the molding. Thats all. There's no screw down clips, no nuts. Just tap up then lift off.

I'm suddenly looking at a trip to Chico. I need a door too. That car has a blue interior so maybe this will help Bruce. That car may have trim pieces so hold the presses. I think I'd like to check this out.

 

[Bruceynz]

Mr V sounds good! If you get me the interior happy to share some of the gas cost for the trip down. If the seats are good you can just take the skins off and leave the frames there??

 

[FredMcJoe]

Its going to be kinda hard to get perfect seats for a car that was last made 18 years ago! Sun faded is likely to be something I may just have to put up with. The only chance to get what I want is if a low mileage car crashed that has been garage kept! But as not so many one the roads I guess that not likely. So I am going to have to be realistic, faded would be much better than ripped seats I have now!

Well, the photo of the gray velour KK sent shows nice fabric. I think they had upped the quality of materials for the 5th Aves to give people a little something for their $14,000 price. I don't recall seeing that velour in a 5th Ave tear apart, I suspect it is of highest quality. Dying faded material back to the same color would probably go along way to making it look new again.

 

[FredMcJoe]

Mr V sounds good! If you get me the interior happy to share some of the gas cost for the trip down. If the seats are good you can just take the skins off and leave the frames there??

yep, thats what I would do unless instructed otherwise. Have you used a set of hog-ring pliers before? Can you get a set down there? Would you think the shipping would be less w/o using a freighter? Maybe you have other stuff coming down. Would I ship the covers to your shipper in LA or to you directly? How would I get the covers-on-frame down to LA to your shipper?

 

[kkritsilas]

Its going to be kinda hard to get perfect seats for a car that was last made 18 years ago! Sun faded is likely to be something I may just have to put up with. The only chance to get what I want is if a low mileage car crashed that has been garage kept! But as not so many one the roads I guess that not likely. So I am going to have to be realistic, faded would be much better than ripped seats I have now!

Hard to tell in the pictures, but the seats are VERY sun faded. They look gray in the pictures, but are actually very faded blue ones. They appear to be ripped as well.

Have you considered recovering your seats in fabric? There is a company called SMS (I think) that actually has reproduction fabric that is a really close match to the factory material. You would need two materials, the outer plain dark blue velour, and the center section dark blue and black material. I looked at this for the dark blue 1982 Mirada I had. They even sent samples. If you have a good upholstery shop, or can do the work yourself, it would be new material with the proper colour, without the degraded fabric due to sun and aging.

 

[kkritsilas]

KK what you think the blue velour seats are worth out of interest?

If I can manage to get the seat covers off at their location, the covers are being quoted at $CAN5.99 each. If I have to take the entire seat out, each seat is $CAN62.99. I don't know if my friend and I can get them off on site or not; I have never tried to do that on site, and I don't know much about M body seats, so it is hard for me to estimate how hard it would be.

 

[FredMcJoe]

Hard to tell in the pictures, but the seats are VERY sun faded. They look gray in the pictures, but are actually very faded blue ones. They appear to be ripped as well.

Have you considered recovering your seats in fabric? There is a company called SMS (I think) that actually has reproduction fabric that is a really close match to the factory material. You would need two materials, the outer plain dark blue velour, and the center section dark blue and black material. I looked at this for the dark blue 1982 Mirada I had. They even sent samples. If you have a good upholstery shop, or can do the work yourself, it would be new material with the proper colour, without the degraded fabric due to sun and aging.

Be sure to check the business history of any 'sample" sending business. They could have books and books of the old fabric selector books that the upholstery shops used to get and cut samples out of that. Some places will then sell you an amount and you'll hear back in a few months that they actually had run out and will have to remanufacture the material which they rarely if ever do and never to the original manufacturer's quality.

Check the business history before you spend money. I've been burned on that kind of deal before with a business I mistakenly trusted because they had some amount of fame. They were just in the business of collecting money, not providing material they said they had.

 

[FredMcJoe]

Hard to tell in the pictures, but the seats are VERY sun faded. They look gray in the pictures, but are actually very faded blue ones. They appear to be ripped as well.

Have you considered recovering your seats in fabric? There is a company called SMS (I think) that actually has reproduction fabric that is a really close match to the factory material. You would need two materials, the outer plain dark blue velour, and the center section dark blue and black material. I looked at this for the dark blue 1982 Mirada I had. They even sent samples. If you have a good upholstery shop, or can do the work yourself, it would be new material with the proper colour, without the degraded fabric due to sun and aging.

Ripped velour? I guess they do. The blue they would have used for that velour would have been a very dark blue. It seems the vinyl and all else is the same gray, and that seems to be the right light gray color those came in. It's what I put in my Volare Premier wagon, but mine is the light gray leather.

 

[Bruceynz]

this is the middle of the back seat, approx 17" deep

 

[Bruceynz]

Check the fitment of the rear seat in this Imperial. The Imperial is similar to your car. The red rear seat in this pic,

https://www.forfmjbodiesonly.com/cl...407876128715_3939493129191370152_n-jpg.17796/

is out of a 4 door 5th Ave. You can see how it cuts back at the corner edge, not cut straight across like your 2 door rear seat bench.

It looks like it might hang a little too far forward, or maybe it just wasn't fitted in fully. This poses a possibility that the rear seat bottom is deeper in the 4 door cars. My rear seat bottom bench measures 20 inches deep at the center of the bench with the tape measure 20 inches out to the visual edge of the front of the seat.

Just off-center where the frame is extended a bit at the rear and the padding adds a bit to the front, in a simple measurement eyeballing it has a maximum depth of about 21.5 inches.

You might take a measurement of your rear seat to see if its much less than 20 inches in depth. It would be good if that were the case, you can just hog-ring the cover at the appropriate length since you're likely to have too much material than too little.

So, this adds to your question about 'bolt in'. The 4 door rear seat bottom may not pass inspection if it doesn't fit right, requiring the transfer of that cover to the 2 door seat frame.

This is one more plus to have the covers removed from the frame before shipping, you'll have to do it possibly for the rear bottom seat if they don't interchange.

For the front seats, I have a distinct memory of having to switch my passenger seat track due to a change in that side's floor from a 1984ish 5th Ave to my '77 Volare's track. The driver's was a direct bolt-in fit.

BTW, when removing bolts from the underside to the seat frame, it's worth taking the time to scrape off the undercoating. The bolts will break if this isn't done.

There's also another way of doing this. When they ship, have them at least take off the base and you can use your own. I believe the topside of the bases were never altered, just the bottom where the floor pan changed.

If weight isn't an issue in shipping, then yes, it would save you some labor in putting on the covers. I happen to have some experience with covers and I tend to look at it as an easy procedure, but its not exactly all easy. So if you can save some labor and the weight isn't important, yes sir, you've got an 'almost bolt in' set of seats. You'd just have to, and only possibly, depending on what floor the Cordobas had and I don't know the answer to that, at most just switch out the passenger side seat track base from the underside of the seat frame. Its easy.

The rear seat then has that other issue. I don't know if the seat back is exactly the same but I would tend to think it's a simple fit and bolt down.It looks like it fits in the photos of the white Imperial At worst would be undoing the hog-rings with some pliers and re-ringing the new cover to your old frame. The rear seat bottom, as well. At worst with any of this, it can be resolved just with switching the covers if one of the frames don't fit.

So you found some blue leather seats?