[cinemarr]

I am going to remove my 2 front cloth seats and relace them with 2 leather ones I got on ebay. Does anyone have any helpful info regards this operation concerning the seatheating and seatbelt lights?

much appreciated.

 

[woywitka]

very easy to get the seats out, pull the seat all the way foreward and undo the back nuts, then all the way foreward to do the front bolts, remeber to first unplug the seat warmer connectors underneath (very simple) and then repaeat for passenger, reaplce leather ones (reverse of removal) and youre done!

 

[cinemarr]

Love it when things are that simple. Thanks mate.

 

[Matthew]

Only the later (MY90+?) seats are held in with four bolts. Earlier seats have two bolts and two hooks, but are still easily removed.

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[Prawn]

I have leather seats that are split. How hard is it to resew them? Can the leather covers be easily taken off of the seat? I had though of trying to resew them using a curved needle like doctors use for stitches. Would this work?

Preston

 

[cdaly]

If the split is extensive {I presume it's along a seam?}, best option is to take them out and do them properly. If you have a sewing machine, that would be better than by hand. It might be worth giving them to a professional to resew all of the seams for a longer life since, once you sew up one split seam, another may go.

The seats come apart at the base/back joint. Once apart, the back unzips at the bottom and is then hooked through the back at intervals all the way up. Care and attention as you work. The headrest is held in place by a screw which you can only access with the cover pulled up. This can be baffling if you don't know about it.

The base cover is held on by clips at front and rear and retaining wires at the sides. It is also held in the middle by clips coming through the cushion to be spring base. Check out where they are first, unhook and take care undoing stuff.

 

[eggsngrits]

These pictures really help to see the work involved:

http://www.twinsaabs.com/seatskins/intro.html

And, my two seats are different connectors -- the driver's seat has two nuts and two hooks, but the passenger seat has four nuts. Go figure.

 

[ejenner]

And, my two seats are different connectors -- the driver's seat has two nuts and two hooks, but the passenger seat has four nuts. Go figure.

Your car was split down the middle. One side is 1990 and the other side is 1991 :lol:

I've found the easy way to deal with the connectors is to undo the seat bolts (either 4 or 2 of them) and then just lift the seat at the front so it falls back and rests on the rear seats - then you have plenty of room to access the connector and you have both hands available to operate the clips.

 

[eggsngrits]

Your car was split down the middle. One side is 1990 and the other side is 1991 :lol:

LOL!! That would explain the stitching down the middle of the top!

 

[Prawn]

Thanks for all the advice! I am pretty handy with a needle, I may see if I can reinforce the stitching by hand, going through the old holes.

Cheers!

 

[cinemarr]

Got my seats but no easy job

My leather seats just arrived but I've run onto a few snags.

1. they came out of a holden so the prevoius owner has welded some plates on the bottom of the saab tracks. This means a simple bolting in new seats operation is out of the question.

2. the seats have no seat belt section so exchanging my tracks onto the new seats is a no go too, unless I take the seatbelt parts from the old seats and put them on the new ones.

3. which leaves removing the skins. I did go to this page but it seems where they say remove zipper at bottom of back rest, my seats do not have zippers. Instead they have these annoying looking, very sturdy rings.

and a close up

also here at the seat ***

 

[ejenner]

EMERGENCY STOP - I think what you might be able to do... is to get some of the seat-belt anchors that attach to the floor instead of the ones on the side of the seat like you have in your 92.

Cars up to 1990 had seat-belt anchors bolted to the floor. 91' on moved them to the side of the seat. In addition to the seat-belt anchors you will also need the center console with the furry holes in it that the seat-belt anchors fit through.

This would be much eaiser than messing about with the skins. I'll have a quick check on my car to be sure that the belt anchor does indeed bolt to the floor.

 

[ejenner]

my seatbelts do clip into anchors that are bolted to the floor. you could get this type in your car. Then you just need to swap the rails from your old seats to the new ones.

 

[cdaly]

annoying looking, very sturdy rings.

These are apparently known as 'hog rings'. You cut them out with a snips (or try to bend them enough to remove), buy a bunch of new ones and a 'hog ring pliers' (I kid you not ) to refit them...

 

[cinemarr]

where would I find them, in an auto shop or material/fabric/upholstery/sewing shop?

 

[cdaly]

Motor / yacht upholstery at a guess. Maybe ordinary furniture also though, from my experience, they primarily use staples...

 

[cinemarr]

and so what would you suggest I use to cut the exsisting ones?

 

[cinemarr]

well I just had a go at taking off the leather from the seats and it's a real pain in the #%@!. I don't recommend it to anyone. The *** skin is easy but the back skin is sooooo hard to remove. I only got it half way and gave up. I can't imagine how hard it's going to be to put them back on.

I'm at a loss. ;oops:

 

[cdaly]

Use a snips to cut the current hog-rings.

As for getting the skins off and on, make sure they are warm and flexible rather than cold. If the leather is stiff, maybe do a leather treatment before you go trying to remove them. Watch out for front to back ties going through the seat back. These may be giving you grief. There are similar ties from the seat base through the foam to the leather too.

Take your time, if a particular bit is giving you trouble, leave it and come back in 30 minutes. Torn leather due to frustrated wrenching is just the worst thing...

 

[cinemarr]

thanks, I'll try that tomorrow. if the leather seats had the quick release latch I'd just swap the tracks on the bottom but as I have a 3 door combi coupe I can't afford to lose that option otherwise everytime someone wanted to get in the back they'd have to wind the seat back and forth and that could get very tiresome.