c900 interior project

[RyanF]

So, one of the winter projects my wife and I have lined up is to do a complete overhaul of the c900 vert's interior.

We bought the car out in LA, and while the seat were still intact, they weren't in the best of shape after years of sun exposure and the stitching was starting to let go. Even though they were in rough shape, they were comfy enough for the 3,600 mile trip back to Boston without either of us feeling the need to buy seat covers along the way. So on the table is a redo of the seats, door cards + inserts, and maybe more depending on how ambitious we get along the way.

I'll update the thread as we make progress on the project. Would greatly appreciate any tips, feedback, or thoughts from anyone who's re-done their seats

For now, the heavy duty sewing machine is at the shop getting a servicing before we get the leather needles and other tools to handle the thicker materials.

Next, we have a few sources for the automotive grade leather hides, and need to finalize the design, pick the colors, and buy the leather.

Below are a few of Caroline's sketches that we're starting with (ignore the colors for now). One of her ideas was to try to find a way to incorporate the side bolsters that the Turbo X seats have, so we'll be doing a bit of foam seat construction along the way.

Baseline sketch of the interior:


two design options drafted so far. We're going with leather covers and exploring options for colored/contrast stitching, piping, and quilting the leather (think spyker interior )

Design 1:


Design 2:


Another idea that Caroline had was to find a way to incorporate a heated seat element into the passenger seat, which currently doesn't exist on ours. Either find a way to route one switch control power to two elements (not sure on that...) or get an aftermarket element that we can wire in somehow. We have a spare element on our parts car we can snag for this....need to do more research on my end.

Well, time to do more planning! Before and after pictures to come...

[CycM17]

This looks cool; keep us posted! (Hey Ryan!)

[jk88]

Awesome. Spyker quilting ftw.

[132417SAAB]

I like the first design; very cool and unique

[turbocon86]

Your passenger seat should already have heating elements. It could be just non-functional--broken or disconnected. The passenger seat heater works when someone sits in it. It closes the switch and heats the seat. Some people disconnect the PS, because it doesn't have a separate rheostat. It's all-on or off. You should probably consider adding a rheostat to the seat when you rewire it.

As far as the upholstery goes, I like that you are tackling this yourself. Can't wait to see the progress. I like the extra bolster concept, and the contrasting stitching or piping. I know of several people who have actually installed 9-5 seats in their c900s for the extra support. Everybody has their own taste. Myself, I'm not a big fan of the crosshatch. I do like the interior that Glen Atchinson put in his '88 coupe.

[RyanF]

Thanks guys, definitely looking forward to getting started soon. The sewing machine should be out of the shop soon and we're going to be ordering the leather soon. We'll have a few more designs drafted soon and hopefully we can pick one.

@turbocon86 thanks for the tip on the heated seats! Will definitely be checking for the heating element in the passenger seat when we take apart the seat skins apart.

[SOAB]

Originally Posted by turbocon86

Your passenger seat should already have heating elements. It could be just non-functional--broken or disconnected. The passenger seat heater works when someone sits in it. It closes the switch and heats the seat. Some people disconnect the PS, because it doesn't have a separate rheostat. It's all-on or off. You should probably consider adding a rheostat to the seat when you rewire it.

As far as the upholstery goes, I like that you are tackling this yourself. Can't wait to see the progress. I like the extra bolster concept, and the contrasting stitching or piping. I know of several people who have actually installed 9-5 seats in their c900s for the extra support. Everybody has their own taste. Myself, I'm not a big fan of the crosshatch. I do like the interior that Glen Atchinson put in his '88 coupe.

Oh




My




Lord

Any more pics of this thing??

[RyanF]

Alright, progress! A few months later and the sewing machine is out of the shop- serviced and adjusted to be able to handle stitching leather.

We took some time last Sunday to get the old seat covers out of the parts car:



Taking the covers off the seats while they were still in the car wasn't that hard, but it would have been much quicker if you already happen to have the seats out or if the convertible top is down. I will definitely be taking the seats out of our car anyways since we'll need to check the patterns against the fit on the seats a few times over. Since this was the parts car I wasn't exactly gentle on the foam when removing the headrests, but it's fairly straightforward to get it all apart using the walk through on twinsaabs: FixMySaab: Removing the Front Seat Skins

Seats without the covers:



Here's the pile of the old seat covers, minus the rear backrest. The stitching on the front seats was fairly fragile at this point, and the panels came apart easily.

[RyanF]

We drafted up a pattern today using the old seat panels as a template to test out what the quilted leather option would look like:

marking the lines:


fabric marked up with chalk, fabric batting in between layers:


Here's the panel after stitching. Once we get around to the full leather, the quilting effect should look more pronounced as the foam backing on the leather will be a lot thicker and denser than the fabric batting we're using now.


I wanted to see what the color contrast would look like on a lighter background:


And here's what it looks like on the old worn out seat:


Lots more work to be done and a lot more details to work out, but it's starting to come together quickly as we piece together the full pattern.

[mcrowley]

Very cool!

[tuner4life]

This could be very cool!

[SOAB]

I am very excited about this! Me and my girlfriend were going to try something like this summer since we couldnt do it last summer. Where are you going to get leather?

[RyanF]

Soab: We're still sourcing out the leather between several different places. We need to get a better idea the colors we're looking for (we've been ordering samples to see them in person) and we need to check on the leather/vinyl color matching since the seats are a combination of both.


We got some more work done over the past couple of weekends:

Took apart the rear seats:



LOTS of old staples to remove:


Took apart the stitching:




We've finished a mock pattern for the front seat:

Quilting inserts:



This is going to look different depending on which leather we go with and the colors we end up choosing. For the fabric pattern, it's two panels held together with the quilting batting in between. For the seats, it will actually just be one layer of leather with a foam backing attached to it. Hard to tell how it will lay flat right now with the test patterns (which are actually made from fabric we trimmed from IKEA curtains that were too long)

Full mockup:


More work to do but now we're waiting on both the Turbo X and the 9000 to get back from the shop. The Turbo X has been in for over a week awaiting a new fuel pump to ship in from Sweden...more driving time in the convertible this week

[LKNY]

I really like the idea of having the propeller symbol embroidered near the headrest. Looking forward to seeing how it all comes out!

Oh and sorry to threadjack, but what is the steering wheel he has on here?

Originally Posted by turbocon86

[turbocon86]

that wheel is a Momo.

OP, the patterns are looking good. I like the way you tied the corner seams into the crosshatch quilting. The OEM seats have the horizontal seams wired to the seat frame. What do you plan to do instead with the crosshatch panels? Just secure the outer ring perhaps?

[KPAero]

Originally Posted by turbocon86

OP, the patterns are looking good. I like the way you tied the corner seams into the crosshatch quilting.

Agreed, the patterns are looking really good, definitely shows some thought went into the layout.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by LKNY

I really like the idea of having the propeller symbol embroidered near the headrest. Looking forward to seeing how it all comes out!

Oh and sorry to threadjack, but what is the steering wheel he has on here?

Its a Momo "Race" Wheel