How to Restore Your Tiger’s Seats

Joe Parlanti

B382000026

If your Tiger's seats looked anything like mine, a full restoration is in the cards. There are basically two choices; pay an upholstery shop a lot of money, or do it yourself. I’ve always been the type to learn new things whenever I can, especially if it will save money, so here goes. The primary reason for writing this article is that when I received all of the parts for the seats from Rick at Sunbeam Specialties, I was at a loss as to the proper procedure. I checked around and finally ended-up calling Martha Wheat of Pro Prep Interiors. If you’ve never heard of Martha, she’s the person who has made most of the interior kits sold by the various Sunbeam suppliers for many years. Martha also reupholsters seats.

While the vinyl on my seats was not too bad, virtually all of the other soft parts were a mess. Here are a few of the "before" shots:

 

 

My favorite discovery was the homemade seat straps that appear to be constructed by hand sewing fabric straps to rubber tubing which also captured a sawed-off nail around which music wire was wrapped in place of seat hooks. Must have taken forever just to save a couple of dollars by not buying the inexpensive strap kit.

Disassembly

The first step is to remove the seat slider mechanism. Separate the seat bottom from the back by removing the large flat head screws. Be careful as these are easy to break or to round out the slots. An impact driver may be required to get them loose. At this point remove all of the brackets, springs, and hardware from the seat halves keeping track of where everything goes. I find that taking digital photos during the disassembly can save a lot of guesswork during the reassembly process. Here are a few shots that may help:

 

 

 

 

After all of the hardware has been removed you can start stripping the old vinyl covers, foam, etc. from the frames.

The covers are held on with 24 clips which can be pried off with a sharp bladed screwdriver. Next, remove the foam cushion which, depending on condition, may range from a single piece, to a pile of foam dust. Finally, remove the canvas strap supports by drilling out the rivets holding the steel straps to the frame. For the seat bottom, there will be a total of 6 steel straps, 4 to hold the 2 canvas pieces to the frame, and 2 to provide a place to hook in the rubber straps.

---

	+ The Roots of Rootes   + History of the Tiger   + Tiger Model Overview   + Tiger Production   + People & Pioneers   + Workshop Manual   + Factory Race Equipment   + Literature: Books   + Articles & Videos   + Advertising   + See Rootes Resources		+ History of the Tiger   + Sunbeam Tiger 2005   + Early Race History   + Ken Miles, an appreciation   + The "Beastie" explained   + The Playboy Pink Tiger   + Casting a Light on Lucas   + LeMans at Goodwood 2002   + Monterey Historics 2003   + My Life With Cars   + See Articles & Humor		+ High Perf. Exhaust   + Tiger Dash Restoration   + 350 Lunati Tiger   + Installing a T5   + Sound Advice   + Installing New Carpet   + The Ackerman Angle   + "Cool It Buddy"   + 3 Point Belts   + Tiger Rotisserie Plans   + Tiger E-Mail List Archives   + See Technical Tips		+ Tiger Club Information   + Events Calendar   + Service Directory   + Owner's Gallery   + Buyer's Guides   + Contributing Editors   + Team Tiger Updates   + Photo Gallery   + See Online Resources