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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Seat covers or something else....

Gents

Just picked up 2 very nice red cloth MGF seats from Graeme for the midget - thanks very much indeed. Very much appreciated. What a spendid thing these forums are....

However, how to match them with my essentially blue interior?

Dye them - They are cloth facing so perhaps not an option.

Seat covers - of the appropriate colour. Plenty around, but not sure of the fit and finish. I don't want to end up with some horrible, loose-fitting shapeless looking things. Never used them before. I assume they simply fit round the existing squabs and backs over the existing covers?

Remove the existing covers and replace anew - from Rimmer Bros or MGOC perhaps? Did this with some old Midget seats and it seemed to work well. Could be pricey though perhaps?

Thoughts most welcome




Oggers

Respray the car
GuyW

Ha ha - yes indeed Guy! Looking at the price of the proper replacement covers rather than the over-covers you may well be right....
Oggers

I thought you could dye or paint fabric and vinyl seats, have a word with an upholsterer.
Nigel Atkins

I used a Dylon dye to recolour some fabric door seals to match my interior. It was very easy and worked out well. But different types of material absorb the colour at varying rates so some testing is required. I think that recolouring the fabric panels would work well, but the vinyl or faux leather sides would not absorb the same dye, and certainly not to the same extent.

Leather and vinyl recolouring is a different process more like paint spraying. You might need to do a two stage process of dying the fabric by immersion in a dye and then masking off and spraying the vinyl.

I used these people when I wanted to recolour leather seat but they also do fabric and vinyl. They were very helpful with advice.
https://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk
GuyW

This sounds promising. I'll give furniture clinic a call.....
Oggers

Think I have said this before. British Sportscar Trim, Plymouth collected two seat frames on a Monday and returned them on the Thursday re-upholstered cheaper than I could buy the parts from Moss.
L Langley

Don't know if you've got this over there but you can get vinyl/carpet paint here, works a treat and super durable
There's a few different blues/greys

https://www.duplicolor.com/product/vinyl-and-fabric-coating/

I think VHT do one as well
William Revit

Interesting stuff Willy - never seen it, but not to say we don't have it. Current thinking is to remove the covers, dye them with Dylon or something for the fabric portion, then apply vinyl dye - either rub on or spray.

The vinyl may dye somewhat on the first stage, but I don't think that will be a concern. I have some offcuts of red vinyl somewhere to test....


Oggers

How old are the current coverings? What condition are they in? What about the seat foam? All of those are things that I would like to know before making any decision about how to handle the problem. If the seat foams are damaged, they will have to be repaired or replaced if the seat is to be comfortable. If the fabric is starting to get old, coloring it will be but a short term solution. Same thing with the vinyl if it is getting old and hard. (And, I have never seen vinyl coloring that looked good when finished.) The first step is to evaluate what you have and the condition it is in.
Second thing to do is to decide how long you are planning on keeping the seats. I did two vehicle up with new foams and new seat covers from Moss (US) and both sets of covers started to show minor cracking within three years of installation. (Perhaps due to our rather hot summers,) On the next two cars, I was not as concerned with keeping them factory original and took them to an upholstery shop and, for the cost of the Moss seat covers, had custom covers made of better material. The covers were not "factory style" as the Moss covers were, but were based on photos of similar covers that were available for the "home market" cars.
I would recommend that you speak with a competent upholstery shop (perhaps the one already mentioned?), take into account current condition of the covers and how long you intend to keep the car, and then make a decision.
Les
Les Bengtson

This thread was discussed between 23/08/2020 and 24/08/2020

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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