After about five years of use, a quarter-sized hole has developed in the fabric covering the driver’s seat of my car. The location of the hole is on one of the side bolsters, not on the seating surface itself. I’d like to patch or cover it in some way, but I’m not sure of the best method. Mostly I’ve seen others use tape of some kind; it doesn’t have to be a perfect repair but tape always looks like utter crap. Anyone got a better method?
In my experience the only repairs that look worth a damn (and last more than a few weeks) are;
Buy a new factory seat cover, replace
Take the seat to an auto upholstery shop and get it fixed
Buy a seat cover that covers the entire seat. (1 or 2 piece)
Maybe one of those iron on patches for pants?
Hmmm. Wouldn’t you melt the foam rubber cushion?
I’m with Rick.
I was thinking of an iron-on patch, but I was guessing as well that the heat of the iron would do bad things to the padding.
Anyway, very disappointing. It’s not a big enough hole (yet) to warrant a full seat cover, much less a whole new seat. Dang.
What car do you have? Junk yard seats go for 50-75 bucks I think?
Umm… how about a sticker?
It can do double duty as a car air freshener if it’s scented.
There are some really neat seat covers out there, and it really isn’t such a bad option. I would go for this as well. What kind of car do you have? If it is pretty new, you probably could get an exact replacement cover from the dealer for less than you think.
Also, if you know someone that is nifty with a needle (sewing kind), you can take many seat covers off by finding a little zipper and unzipping it. It can be very tough to get it to slip back on with the seat in the car, however, because there is lots of tension on the fabric. The ‘sew it back together’ method works well if the fabric is in good shape, and isn’t frayed or missing around the hole, like if it was more of a rip instead.
The car’s a 2001 Subaru Impreza. Thanks for the advice so far, but I’m not inclined to go through the hassle of replacing the whole seat for the sake of a relatively small hole.
In checking around a bit I’ve found that there are kits like this that purport to do fabric repair. I’m quite sure the repair will not be invisible, but as long as it wears reasonably well, I’ll consider giving it a try. If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, feel free to comment.
Psst EL Check these guys out. They are now doing Subaru stuff after doing Volvo stuff for years. Good company, and nice guys.
heh, an impreza eh? L, Outback sport or RS?
I own a 99 outback sport myself
If you hate the seats like I did, then you should know pretty much any WRX or forester seat will fit into your car. I have 02/03 WRX seats in mine. The good thing is resale value on them doesn’t really go down. In a few years I can probably sell the two fronts seats for what I bought them for (175).