Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

My front seats have become very tired, also one has a tear behind the drivers seat.

Any ideas whats a good way to tidy them up.

Thanks

Roy.

Clean the vinyl, replace the foam padding and seat straps and get a replacement cover?

Hi,

Replacement covers sounds good, didn't think about that.

Any advice where I could best get them.

thanks.

Roy.

You can buy new covers from suppliers such as ESM, Bull Motif and Newton Commercial but they're quite pricey. Plus one brand new seat cover would look a bit out of place if the other covers have the patina of age. Try placing a message on the 'wanted' section here specifying the year of your Minor (seat patterns changed) and the seat colour you're looking for and you might get lucky. Also keep an eye out on ebay as you might also be able to pick up a replacement seat which has a better cover than your existing seat. Good luck

~whats the year , and the colour ?

Hi,

Molly has red and grey seats like this photo I found in images on Google.
Her year is 1953. Hope this works.

Thanks. Roy.


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That's a 'duotone' interior which was fitted in deluxe models between 1961 to 1964 so if you have a '53 car with those seats someone must have replaced the original interior at some point (or was that a typo and you actually have a '63 car?)

Because the duotone interior was only used for a fairly short time finding good second hand covers won't be that easy but they do come up on ebay from time to time.

HI.

I am very impressed, The photo I sent you, was from what I thought was molly's colour of the seats.

My son has now taken a true Photo of my car seats for you to see.

It just shows how stupid "we think we know everything are." can be.

Lets hope this is the correct year, 1957.

Thanks.

Roy. [frame][/frame]

Yes that's correct for the year. As LouiseM has said already you can get replacement covers, but unless you do the whole interior (v. expensive) they will look very different. If you take the ripped seat out of the car you will see at the lower of the top Screws holding the cover in place. If these are removed the cover can be very carefully "peeled" off. A piece of vinyl could be glued to reinforce the tear from behind.

Coloured leather paint can be bought from suppliers (Woolies) which will revive you interior. www.woolies-trim.co.uk

I have seen this done with good results. Hope this helps.

By the looks of it you've got some of the early morris bucket style seats, they're far more comfy than the later type, sadly they don't come up for sale on Ebay all that often. as they are leather ( I think ? ) you could probably give them some hide food which would do them a world of good.

Thanks for all the information and contact points.

Roy.

They will be leather faced with vinyl sides and backs.

Furniture clinic http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk/ could fix any splits to the leather, fill and recolour or has already been said, you can buy a re colour kit from Woolies Trim : http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-117-lea ... ation.aspx

Covers in leather faced from the big suppliers are expensive. I have found a local upholstery company that will take the seat covers apart and fit new leather facings whilst retaining the old vinyl sides, for both front and rear seats, for what the big suppliers charge for the rear seat alone.

Have a look for local upholsterers before taking the plunge

The front passenger seat cover will be the same as the drivers side, just much less worn, if you can't find one before, next years national rally will almost certainly have one.

Did you see this post?: http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=46184

Might be an answer for you

are the two front seats interchangeable? the driver's seat is more worn than the passenger's, as you'd expect, and i wondered whether they could be swapped around.

yes they can, however the drivers seat has adjustment which the passenger side does not.

If you are fortunate you might find that the fixed passenger seat is in the "correct" position for you if not you are a bit stuck.

Whilst on the face of it as the seat covers are the same, you should be able to simply remove and swap over the covers, taking the opportunity to replace webbing and foam at the same time.. it will make a lot of difference. The only trouble is the amount of damage on the drivers seat might mean that it "falls" apart as it is removed and can not be used on the passenger side.

I have written a newsletter on making your own covers which also covers the strip down and re-assembly of the seats, i am happy to send you a copy of it if you like, just PM me your email address.

thanks for the info, and also the advice on making my own covers, but i'm a bit cack handed when it comes to this kind of thing, and am lucky to have a family firm of upholstery specialists near my home, and they have already done a great job of re-padding the seats. They're now going to stich the drivers' seat, and with enough notice will do it in a day so can replace the seat 24 hours later with no need to swap. But for a longer project, its useful to know they will interchange if needs be.

i don't see a huge problem with the passenger seat's fixed position, as i already have the drivers' seat as far foward as it will go, and would still struglle for an optimum view but for a block of wood under the runners to lift me up a bit higher. and while i'm not tall, 5'9 is hardly a dwarf size. so i guess lots of honours have to find a way of raising the drivers' seat, whether with cushions or by props under the runners.