The Pantera Place
"Your de Tomaso Connection"
Pantera Upholstery Repair At The Mad Stitchers, Inc.
By Mike Dailey
When I found my Pantera back in 1998, I was very pleased that the interior was in such nice condition. But I recently noticed that the lower part of the driver's side seat was splitting and before it split more, it needed to be repaired.
View of the split area on the lower part of the seat.
First, I removed both seats so a repair could be made on the driver's side seat and matching work done on the passenger's side seat. The seats are bolted to the floor with four cap bolts and once removed, they just lift out. In the image above you can see the seat removed and the spacers that keep the seat rails above the carpet.
The next step was researching the best shop to do the
repair. I decided to use:
The Mad Stitchers, Inc.
4945 Peachtree Road
Chamblee, GA 30341
770-455-7505
They have an excellent reputation and are perfect for this type of repair.
I met with John at The Mad Stitchers and we discussed the condition of the seats
and determined that the split could be repaired by taking the seat apart and
changing the seam to a pinch seam that would be stronger reusing the original
upper part of the seat cover. John also determined that some rebuilding of the
seat padding would be required and agreed to take pictures during the
repair and rebuilding process. The driver's side seat form was crushed a bit,
so John suggested swapping the forms between seats and building up the crushed
form with padding.
Views of the seat disassembly.
The rebuilding process and the completed seats... In these views you can see the new added padding and the new lower part of the cover.
Close up of the repaired seats and the new pinch seam. Really nice work!
View of how the seat back is attached. While I had everything apart I cleaned and lubed the seat rails for smooth operation.
Job complete. With the swapped seat form and new padding, the seating position is a bit higher but much more comfortable and I still have good headroom.
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