[Bobalong]

Long time ago I had a seat cover made of wood beads strung together with nylon line. It worked great but didn't last very long. Once the line holding all the beads broke it was done.
Yes I have air conditioning but vinyl just doesn't breathe.

Anybody found a suitable seat cover ?
Not to reupholster with but to sit on.

[TedRamAirII]

https://www.walmart.com/ip/10928417?...&wl13=&veh=sem

[Formulajones]

You know what I've done for decades Bob? Since we daily drive our classics and also enjoy putting them in local shows and cruises, we never wanted to put a more permanent seat cover on that would detract from the cars appearance and be difficult to remove at shows.

Our solution was cheap and simple. I bought some beach towels that matched the interior color, my wife would sew the tops of them so they would drape over the tops of the buckets and hold themselves in place. So we drive the cars with beach towels. At a show I simply just lift them up and off and toss them in the trunk. Also protects the seats from the UV rays during use. Much more comfortable to sit on.

The 69 Z has Houndstooth with factory cloth inserts so I don't find it necessary on that car. My SCJ has deluxe comfortweave, and even though the comfortweave is still made of vinyl I find that it actually breaths pretty well and isn't bad in the summer, much better than standard vinyl.
My Firebird has standard vinyl so the beach towels work for that application. I've often thought of converting the car to deluxe comfortweave available in the 70 firebird (wife wants me to) I've just never done it.

None of these cars have AC by the way and are very tolerable in the AZ summer heat.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by TedRamAirII

https://www.walmart.com/ip/10928417?...&wl13=&veh=sem

OMG!!! I remember those things in stores back in the 70's and 80's. I never could stand to sit on those things. Was like sitting or laying on a gravel driveway, lol.

[STEELCITYFIREBIRD]

You need a car with assconditioning! The new cars have it.
I have a black car with black vinyl seats, you need a towel to sit on to prevent skin burns with shorts when the car has been in the sun.
The municipal fleet I use to maintain, the experienced truck drivers and cops had what we called ass pads. Woven nylon seat cushions that I guess allowed air flow. They retained the dis-stink "8 hour swamp ass smell" well! And everyone bitched about how bad the other guys ass pad smelled....they were all nasty swamp ass sachets.

Nasty memories, sorry.

[Formulajones]

Oh ya forgot about that cure too, the beach towels stop the skin burns, always an added bonus

[1968GTO421]

Beach towels----great idea and they should start appearing in stores soon! And internet. And they are machine washable (no ass pad odor )

[Formulajones]

Yeah I pull then out to wash occasionally but they have never really seemed to get an odor or soak and wet.

Depending on the type of bucket seat you have, my wife sews the top of the towel accordingly. Either to wrap it around a head rest and hold in place, or without a head rest she'll fold about a foot of it over itself and sew up the sides so it will slip down over the seat back, the rest of the towel just lays along the seat. So it's very easy to slip off when you want to.

[1968GTO421]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

Yeah I pull then out to wash occasionally but they have never really seemed to get an odor or soak and wet.

Depending on the type of bucket seat you have, my wife sews the top of the towel accordingly. Either to wrap it around a head rest and hold in place, or without a head rest she'll fold about a foot of it over itself and sew up the sides so it will slip down over the seat back, the rest of the towel just lays along the seat. So it's very easy to slip off when you want to.

Thanks..this is great idea and with summer almost on us, it's a necessity with our vinyl GTO seats. Appreciate it.

[Nitebird]

Thats why I like the cloth interiors. My 1979 TA/SE has the black hobnail cloth interior and it never gets hot.

[Formulajones]

Oddly some of these Pontiacs never came with cloth as an option.

[mrrat1]

I use the beach towel trick also. Works great esp with white leather seats!
The velour soaks up the sweat and will stinky poo years down the road.

[unruhjonny]

I used to run those older fuzzy seat covers (thing, Cookie monster's fur, but black)...

I then started using towels after re-covering the seats (the fuzzy eat covers were covering the rips in the original covers).

Originally Posted by Formulajones

Oddly some of these Pontiacs never came with cloth as an option.

Sure they did - it just changed from year to year.

The '73 Formula that I had was a cloth interior car;
I think cloth normally came in as an option when the 'comfortweave' was no longer used...

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

I used to run those older fuzzy seat covers (thing, Cookie monster's fur, but black)...

I then started using towels after re-covering the seats (the fuzzy eat covers were covering the rips in the original covers).



Sure they did - it just changed from year to year.

The '73 Formula that I had was a cloth interior car;
I think cloth normally came in as an option when the 'comfortweave' was no longer used...

Not all of them did. My 70 for instance was only available with comfortweave, which isn't bad, but it's not cloth either. Don't believe it was available on 69 birds either, just comfortweave, which I find odd because my 69 Z28, the birds close relative, has houndstooth, which is cloth inserts on the seat of deluxe interior. Odd that Pontiac didn't offer this, as their deluxe option only included comfortweave, Chevrolet had comfortweave, with houndstooth cloth an additional extra cost option.
Couldn't get cloth inserts on bucket seats of a 69 GTO either. I'd guess other year bucket seat Pontiac cars from that era as well.

I think what you are referring to is true by 72-73 things started changing among all manufactures and you started to see more cloth bucket seat choices as the deluxe interior options changed. Most of our muscle cars here are pre-72 when you had deluxe interior options with comfortweave, but as far as Pontiacs go, there wasn't a cloth option then, you had to jump over to the chevy camp to find that, and not on all of their models either. So on our cars that couldn't get cloth, we resort to the beach towels for a little added comfort.

[unruhjonny]

You've got me thinking...

I have a fantastic spare set of '70 seats;
I wonder if there is some way to do a nice subtle cloth cover...
I mean they are spare seats...

[Blued and Painted]

many of the new cars are equipped with a$$ Heaters and fans in the seat.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Blued and Painted

many of the new cars are equipped with a$$ Heaters.

I don't think I need one of those, lol

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

You've got me thinking...

I have a fantastic spare set of '70 seats;
I wonder if there is some way to do a nice subtle cloth cover...
I mean they are spare seats...

I'm sure a custom insert sewn in to mimic a houndstooth can be done. Used to see custom seats done all the time in the 70's with various cloth/button/diamond pattern inserts back when that was the thing.

I'm more of a purist when it comes to my own stuff so I tend to stick with what was available for that particular model. So I suffer with vinyl in the 70, and it's black at that, lol. Wish it was white.

[Will]

Originally Posted by Blued and Painted

many of the new cars are equipped with a$$ Heaters and fans in the seat.

My WRX had heaters. Boy was that nice after a day of hiking or skiing in the winter, or on a cold winter morning driving to work.

Would love to get the seats in my Formula re-covered with perforated leather and have heaters installed.

[HWYSTR455]

You can get seat heaters, they are available. Have to make sure the covers and foam will handle the heat though, not sure how you could verify that.

Many of the cover manufacturers will also make covers for your car in any available material, PUI and Legendary do that. You could get hobnail cut & sewn for a 70-76 seat if you wanted.


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