Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without!

In 1995, it became necessary to obtain another car, as I was turning over my beloved 11-year-old Honda Prelude to Brynn, who had become sixteen.  To my surprise and delight, Paula let me buy a two-year-old Mazda Miata, which at the time was a reasonably cool little sports car.

That was 26 years ago, and since then, it has been a daily driver when I wasn't on my bicycle,

it has been "driven" by a bunch of grandkids who couldn't resist blowing the air horn I installed,

it has survived some bad weather,

it's been borrowed by friends and family,

it has been lent to teenage daughters in exchange for cleaning it,

and it has been washed by a bunch of grandkids, who found it to be just the right size.

Of course, after a good cleaning, one must drive it around the block, no?

It has been included in Halloween "Trunk-or-Treats" (that's Mike, not an Egyptian, and by the way, that's not much of a trunk).

It sat in the garage up on jack stands for almost five years while we were in South America,

and was still in great shape when we got back.  When I put a battery back in, it started right up and ran as if we'd been gone a week.

However, stuff doesn't last forever, and the leather seats finally gave up (actual photo of someone else's upholstery problems).

I got a price from the good upholstery shop in town who had earlier replaced the convertible top, thanked them and drove home.  Unfortunately, they wanted $1,376.00, which was $329.00 more than what North Carolina thinks the whole car is worth for taxes.

Ever the cheapskate, and finding positive online reviews, I ordered new leather seat covers from a place in Indiana, from a courteous fellow with a southern Asian accent.  Ten days later, a stuffed cardboard box arrived, and this was the shipping label:  

If you read the "Shipperes" address, you'll notice that these did not come from Indiana.  And before you start mulling over funny lines, they were stoutly constructed of good leather.

So the guys in Indiana contacted the guys in Karachi, Pakistan, they made the covers, and shipped them to Raleigh, all in ten days.  Can you say, "globalization?!"

How do you reupholster car seats, you ask?  Easy!  It's spelled Y-O-U-T-U-B-E, the source of all instruction in the known universe.  I pretty quickly got the seats out and disassembled,

and began unclipping the hog rings that held on the old leather covers.  "Hog rings?!" you ask, yes, hog rings.  

The name comes from their use in animal husbandry, where they are attached to the pig's nose to keep them from "rooting," whatever that means.

Somebody, somewhere figured out they were good for attaching auto upholstery also, and so I obtained a kit.

I (very extremely) briefly had a thought pass through my mind, but I quickly realized that Paula probably wouldn't go for it.

I also remembered that she doesn't "root" that much anyway.  

Part of the deal on reupholstering old car seats is building the foam back up, which you apparently do, and I did, by steaming it, and by adding some additional foam.

Yee Hah!  Pretty soon I was hog-ringing with the best of them.

In the record-setting time of only two days, I had done both seats.  That record (which by the way was for the longest reupholstery job ever on just two seats) will probably stand for a century.  

In the end, they came out all right, and I had saved about $800.00, considering that my time nowadays is worth $0.00/hour.  I had also gained an appreciation for a) the real difficulty involved in doing leather car seats, b) for the international trade in animal hide products, c) for hog rings and their various uses, and d) a bunch of cuts, scrapes and a headache from glue fumes.

We hope that your car seats hold together until you can get rid of the thing and make it someone else's problem.

Dave & Paula