TMI Upholstery Interior Restoration - Dress for Success

To install the listing wire into the new upholstery, the listing on the new material usually needs to have the ends cut open to receive the listing wire. Again, a careful cut with a razor blade will open the listing end, and you can install the wire. The large U-shaped listing wire for the seatback is the toughest one to install, but patience and strong hands will see it through. If your seats have been recovered and the listing wires are missing, you can make new ones from wire coat hangers--just be sure to loop the ends with pliers so they do not cut through the seat.

Place the new upholstery on the seat base and start the installation by using a few new retaining rings in the corners. Work your way around, placing a new ring every couple of inches and checking your work to ensure the upholstery is being installed straight and firmly so there are no wrinkles. Once you have the seat base retained, pull down the upholstery around the foam and secure it to the frame. There are more listing wires that go into the end of the upholstery here as well, so don't forget them. We already had a stash of retaining rings (also called pig or hog rings) and installation pliers, but Mustangs Plus carries these as well.

Locate small holes, such as ones for Phillips head screws and trim attachments, with a small pick tool as we are doing here for the seatback stop plate.

Larger protrusions, such as the pivot stud on the seat base, can be trimmed even easier. Simply make a small "X" on the head of the protrusion with a razor blade.

Push down the upholstery to force the stud through the material for a nice, tight, clean fit, as seen here.

Once the seat base is covered, use the same steps to recover the seatback. The seatback uses a fiberboard cover on the rear. There are holes around the perimeter that the seatback cover uses for attachment via panel clips. A simple trick to cut holes in the seat upholstery is to use a large Phillips screwdriver and twist it into the hole.

The Phillips head screwdriver cuts the vinyl cleanly in the process as we show here.

By now you should be an old hand at upholstery replacement, so we won't bore you with the step-by-step on the rear seat. Matter of fact, the rear seat, even the fold-down in a fastback, is much easier than the fronts, as the upholstery is attached only around the outer perimeter, making for simple work.

Before the rear seat goes back into place, the new TMI vinyl-covered package tray is installed. While we're not the concours cops around here, you do want the proper hardware to mount the package tray to prevent rattles and to give it a finished look, since it is easily seen through the rear window.

The rear seat, completely reupholstered, is put back into place. The seatback slides over retaining clips at the top and is secured at the bottom by tapping bolts (in case you forgot). Don't forget to clean, service, or replace the seatbelts while you have the rear seat out.

Though worthy of a whole separate article, to finish off the installation we replaced the headliner, installed new sun visors with TMI replacements, and added new visor hardware from Mustangs Plus.

With the front seats back in place over our new black carpet, the Tunnel Tote was dropped into place. The console is available in all TMI vinyl colors (we opted for a carbon-fiber-look top to accent the seats), and is secured to the carpet via industrial-strength hook-and-loop fasteners. The console comes in handy with its drink holders and has plenty of room for a cell phone, a garage-door opener, paperwork, club fliers, and so on.

Because the carbon-fiber-style door panels are based on the '67 Mustang style and we're using them on a '68 door shell, there is one small modification that needs to be made, which is a new hole made in the trim panel for the armrest spring nut just aft of the door-handle shaft. As shown here, we simply lined up the panel with the spring nut and marked the panel for a small hole, which we cut out with a utility knife.

After making the small modification just mentioned, it was a simple job of installing the door panel retaining clips into the panel and securing the panel to the door shell. Have a helper hold the panel gently against the door shell while you carefully position the retaining clips with your fingers or a pair of needle-nose pliers. This way, once the clips are properly lined up with their holes, they will easily snap into place and not damage the vinyl covering of the door panel.

With the two door panels seated completely, work can commence on finishing the door hardware. New window cranks, inside door handles, and black armrests finish off the door. We considered red armrests for about two seconds, but thought they would stick out too much color-wise, so we stuck with the black.