custom upholstery for the truck bench seat (banana smoothie?)

I am not sure if I could rename the truck, but since I haven't actually participated with the Tunachuckers for a decade it seems weird to keep stealing the name from them for my truck. I'm trying out Banana smoothie based on the nice powder yellow hue.

Anyway...

I need a bench seat. I did some looking, found a shop on Etsy, liked a lot of their ideas, saw they did customizing, and saw that the lady liked using her own website. I found it, loved it, bought a bench seat core, and wrote an Email. Nothing happened for a week, so I called and left a VM. Nothing happened then also. This was B62 if anyone is interested. Snowden is the popular name, but he is expensive, the seats take two months, and the core I have would be useless. We're talking $2K for a seat with brackets. I contacted a local upholstery guy and got the same $2K for just the upholstery which I install myself over my own foam (which I don't own yet, and costs $300) on my own core.

Woof.

I want to customize it. I don't know how to sew. I've tried. Straight lines are hard. Corners are hard. Forget it. Tunawife doesn't have a good enough machine anyway.

What's the hot ticket here? Pay Snowden the $2K and sell the core for a $10 profit?

You're talking about recovering a stock bench seat in a pickup truck?  I don't know what make/model/year you have but there's always the old standard saddle blanket style cover from Saddleman.  No sewing required, you just slip it over the seat and there are some straps and hooks that hold it in place.  https://www.saddleman.com/fabric-selection  Most auto parts stores also sell seat covers that are less expensive but may not fit quite as well.  I looked at the Auto Zone website, they have some that are branded by Dickies and Carhartt that don't look too bad.

stuart in mn said:

You're talking about recovering a stock bench seat in a pickup truck?  I don't know what make/model/year you have but there's always the old standard saddle blanket style cover from Saddleman.  No sewing required, you just slip it over the seat and there are some straps and hooks that hold it in place.  https://www.saddleman.com/fabric-selection  Most auto parts stores also sell seat covers that are less expensive but may not fit quite as well.  I looked at the Auto Zone website, they have some that are branded by Dickies and Carhartt that don't look too bad.

I want new upholstery, and custom at that, not a cover. I was prepared to pay the $650 for B62.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Looks appropriate in some trucks. But I've had to use them back lat '70 - '80s. They suck, in actual use.

Haven't used one in 30 years or more, but I doubt they've gotten any better

Have you looked around for people near you that do interior work for other non-car things? A former co worker had a side gig where he upholstered boat seats. Boats, RVs, planes,etc all have bench seats pretty commonly, and shaping/sewing your upholstery for a truck bench probably isn't much different than doing it for another type of vehicle

My friend had some Volvo seats reupholstered in Spartanburg(the place was near the Beacon) and he was very happy with the work. It was reasonably priced and they had a large inventory of materials in stock.

I had assumed that the frame you had was a stock factory correct one for your truck. I might be wrong.

That said, a bench seat upholstery kit does not seem that expensive and they are easy enough to install. Picture is from CJ pony. Sure that foam kits are also available. While I agree on the challenges of sewing, foam is easy enough to shape with an electric carving knife and like metal, if you cut off too much you can glue a chunk on and re-try.

these people say you can request color etc. 

buzzboy said:

My friend had some Volvo seats reupholstered in Spartanburg(the place was near the Beacon) and he was very happy with the work. It was reasonably priced and they had a large inventory of materials in stock.

This sounds like a winning ticket, can you connect me with him?

The shop is called Pro Stitch Trim Shop
18642539556

His volvo was done like 10 years ago, so he can't comment on any changes since then.

Maybe have some custom embroidery done on a stock seat cover set? It might be less expensive than a full custom upholstery. 

buzzboy said:

The shop is called Pro Stitch Trim Shop
18642539556

His volvo was done like 10 years ago, so he can't comment on any changes since then.

No answer... :(

Found another guy on ebay I am going to try...

I snooped and B62 is closed and recent work was scammy. 

Shadeux said:

I snooped and B62 is closed and recent work was scammy. 

Hey thanks for that!!

The eBay guy bit, so I think I have something. I want it to look like Porsche made a sports truck alongside the 356. Here's the closest picture I can find to what I like. 

But I think I want the inserts to be suede, and no cupholders