Why You Should Reupholster Your Car's Seats to Give Your Interior a New Look

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As you may know, the typical automobile is not engineered to last forever. Car manufacturers are, of course, in the business of selling as many vehicles as possible and this is why they build redundancy into every component. You may do your best to get ultimate value for money out of your purchase, but with time every component is going to wear out and will need to be repaired or replaced. This extends to the interior as well and certainly when it comes to the condition of your car seats. If they're looking a bit worse for wear, how can you give them a new lease of life?

What Is Your Car Like?

In an ideal world, you would spend as much time cleaning your car's upholstery as you would the exterior, but this often doesn't happen. It's best to vacuum the interior very carefully to get rid of dust and dirt that can accumulate and start to wear away at the fabric. In particular, spills or stains would be treated immediately to mitigate the damage.

The Real World

However, over time this damage can really do a number on the seats and they will become discoloured, frayed and worn. At this stage, you have to get them reupholstered and while this can be done "at home," it is rather tricky.

Step-By-Step Process

You will have to take each seat out of its mounting and you need to pay close attention here, as they have to be replaced very carefully for safety's sake.

Once you've done this the worn-out fabric will need to be removed, but you will need to keep this intact as much as you can, so that a pattern can be created for the new material you're going to use. Typically, the fabrics are attached to the seat using staples, so remove these carefully.

You will need to lay the material out onto a very large sheet of graph paper, so that you can trace around the edges to create the template. Visualise this as carefully as you can, so that you can progress to the next stage.

Get hold of a special type of marking pen and draw the pattern onto your new material. Once you've done this, you can use an upholstery cutting tool that is designed for the type of material in question, whether it is fabric, vinyl or leather. When you are ready to cut it out, the ink from the marking pen can be easily washed off before you start to attach the new material to the frame. For this, you will need a special staple gun and you should proceed carefully so that the finished job not only looks good, but will fit snugly in place when reassembled.

Getting Professional Help

If you feel that this is going to be too challenging a job for you to complete in your garage, get in touch with professional upholsterers, who can provide you with a brand-new look for your car's interior.

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14 November 2017

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Hello! I am so happy that you found my blog. My name is Petal, and I love working on cars. I was the youngest child of five and the only girl -- as a result, I learned all about cars growing up. Currently, I am getting ready to return to uni, and I work as a delivery driver. I hope to study auto maintenance and repair. First, however, I want to write a blog all about car maintenance, auto accessories and related topics. This is my first blog, and I hope that you enjoy reading it. Thank you for reading!