The upholstery in my 96 XJ Country overall is in excellent condition except for....the one, driver's side, door side vinyl panel on the seat. It is starting to crack and the foam is sagging. Has anyone had this repaired? If they did, what was the cost? It is just some foan and removing and adding the same color vinyl panel. I'm thinking about getting this done if I can have it done for a reasonable price.

 

Same issue here, it only gets worse. I'll be interested to see what people say.

 

The door card assembly may be detached from the vehicle, disassembled and the deteriorated fabric removed and replaced.

The parts are usually retained to the door card by heat staking posts into holes in the card.

The difficulty is matching the fabric.

The replacement fabric may be retained to the panel w aerosol adhesive.

 

This image shows the front and the rear of my ZJ door card, showing the mushroomed-over posts that were heat-staked to hold the assembly together.

 

Oops, you said seat.

My driver's seat foam was also sagging. The prevailing theory is too many hours being pressed by my butt.

For my seat repair, I partially removed the fabric cover, then sculpted some upholstery foam to replicate the original contour.

If my seat fabric panel also required replacement, then I would disassemble the cover, using a seam ripping tool, to remove the bad panel. I would either hand sew for a small section, or machine sew for a larger section

 

My 96 Country needs it too, but I had the same thing done on my KJ (outer leather and refoam) for $90, plus got to keep the left over material. Got the exact OEM stuff.

 

My seat has a fabric center panel with the side panels being gray vinyl. All the fabric is in excellent shape as is all other vinyl except the drivers side outer panel on the seat cushion. I am in the process of renewing my interior and that panel bugs me. I'm not a seamstress or seamster(?) I can however remove the seat cover and take it to a upholstery shop. Looking for others that may have also done it and what was their financial investment.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll be checking with shops tomorrow.

 

Go to a used car lot that doesn't sell piles of trash and see where they go for work like that.

 

I picked up 2 sets of leather removable headrest seats. Front and back. So so condition for pretty cheap. From '99's. Going to put them in my '00 to replace the one piece buckets. So the plan was to rehab them myself the best I can and use seat covers. Went with Coverking Rhinohides in a black. So as far as the back seat went I picked the better of the two, cleaned it up the best I could and called it a day. Now generally passenger seats are in better shape then driver's. So I picked the worse of the 2 to use as a passenger seat. Cleaned that all up. Now what I have learned dealing with the driver's seat. The upright part. The part your back is against. The cover itself is the same from passenger side to the driver's side. That can be removed and swapped pretty easy. It is the bottom, the part your butt sits on, that is a little more complicated. For starters there is leather on the outside and carpet on the inside. So if you were to swap the bottom cover from a passenger seat to a driver's seat you would now have carpet on the outside and leather against the console. Now this is not a problem for me because it will be hidden by the seat cover. It is the way it attaches to the frame that needs to be modded. Both sides have a piece of plastic that is sewn to the inside that attaches to the lower metal frame work. Issue is that they are two different set ups. My plan is to swap them with some sewing. Hoping the pictures below will illustrate what I am talking about.

 

What kind of metal did Jeep use that it rusts like crazy. It seems like every stamped piece of metal under the interior decorative plastic has surface rust.

 

You are so right. I prepped and POR 15'ed the one on the passenger side and will do the same with the driver's.

 

You copyright your photos? lol

 

Is there a way to remove the front seat covers so they can be washed separate from the cushion like in a washing machine? I already did the rear seat. It was easy. The front seats are very different.

 

The upright part, the part your back leans against, is pretty easy. The bottom, the part your butt is on, has a couple hog rings that attach it to the foam. If you remove those then I am thinking it could be done. I don't have a clear shot of where they are in the second shot but pretty sure there are only a couple.