How to Reupholster a Truck Seat

X-HT-200651

Whether you restore cars as a hobby or you just have need for new seats in your vehicle, we've got a great tutorial for you. The seats in pickup trucks often take a beating. Trucks are used hard, especially if they're work vehicles; your truck seats may see a lot of in and out, causing wear and tear. We're going to show you how you can sew your own seat covers for a truck.

Video Chapters:

Patterning & Making Pleated Panels — 0:29 min.
Patterning Off Old Seat Cover — 5:25 min.
Assembling Top Plate — 7:03 min.
Patterning Rear Boxing — 10:04 min.
Sewing Rear Boxing to Top Plate — 13:31 min.
Patterning Forward Boxing — 18:59 min.
Sewing & Finishing Forward Boxing — 24:15 min.
Fitting Cover Over Foam — 25:37 min.
Materials List — 27:45 min.

Materials List:

Fabric Backed Sew Foam 58" (#124306)
3M™ Super 77™ Spray Adhesive Low VOC 18 oz. (#636100)
Morbern® Seabrook Midnight 54" Vinyl Fabric (#105987)
Textilene® Sunsure Vinyl Mesh Dove Grey 54" Fabric (#123792)
PremoBond® Tex 90 (V-92) Black UV Bonded Polyester Thread 4 oz. (1,350 yds.) (#123338)
Morbern® Seabrook Vinyl Welting/Piping Midnight (#120144)
Polyester Batting 55" (#124305)

Tools List:

Tape Measure 120" (#102986)
Seamstick 3/8" Basting Tape for Canvas (50 yds.) (#129)
Scratch Awl Yellow (#235411)
Sailrite® Standard Fabricator® Sewing Machine Package (110V) (#400500)
Cording Foot Set 3/16" for Sailrite® Fabricator®, 111 & Big-N-Tall (#103281)
Yardstick, Marker, Scissors, Camera, Pen, Seam Ripper

Re-covered seat in a 1976 Ford F350.

The seats in this 1976 Ford F350 had seen so much use they were disintegrating. To recreate the seat covers, we removed the entire seat from the truck and removed the cover. We patterned our new cover from what remained of the original.

Just like before, we used a vinyl fabric for the edges of the seat and recreated a channeled fabric for the center of the seat. For the vinyl edges, we used Morbern® Seabrook, and for the channeling, we sewed sling fabric to sew foam. In the video, we walk you through step by step how to measure the fabric and sew the channeling for a perfect fit.

In the video, we only outline how to do the seat of the truck, but you’ll notice in the finished shots that we reupholstered the seat backs to match as well. Making the seat backs follows all the same principles as the seats, and you can use the existing fabric to pattern the seat backs as well.

You can see in the video that, with the sew foam, vinyl fabric, and piping, the assemblies being sewn for automotive upholstery like this can be very thick. You’ll need a heavy-duty sewing machine like the Sailrite^® Ultrafeed^® or the Sailrite^® Fabricator^® to complete a project like this.