[jimib]

I am close to completing the upholstery on one front bucket seat bottom. I noticed a split in the seams in two areas as I was rolling the upholstery over the two front corners of the seats. In my opinion, this is the most difficult part of this project. I used the Legendary web site as a guide for this upholstery installation (https://www.legendaryautointeriors.c...lation-videos/). I replaced the broken springs with new ones, placed burlap over the springs, then a layer of cotton, then the ACI seat padding. I don’t think it is too thick. I’ll contact Legendary this Monday and hopefully they will give me a replacement. These splits can only get worse. If these splits are caused by my novice installation, then I will accept my losses and move on. I bought the Legendary upholstery and ACI foam for their known quality.

[tempest1964]

This is not your fault. Defect in manufacture. I am sure Legendary will back their product. Keep us posted.

[tjs72lemans]

I had a similar experience with mine I did last year. Not as bad. But, I figured it was me and lived with it.

[jimib]

Originally Posted by tempest1964

This is not your fault. Defect in manufacture. I am sure Legendary will back their product. Keep us posted.

Thank you "tempest1964", I feel a little better after reading your response. I'll certainly update this thread after I contact Legendary.

I wonder if this could be unique to this bottom seat vinyl stitching or a defective batch. If the latter, I can expect the same stitch separation with this seat's back vinyl cover and the passenger side bottom and back vinyl cover.

[Judges4u]

If the vinyl is cold, more risk of ripping. I use a heat gun to soften the vinyl portions that need stretching no matter what the ambient temperature is in your work area (summer or winter). The pre-heating really does the trick. When the vinyl cools down it shrinks back to the original size; the results are normal looking tight surfaces with no evidence of stretched seams or material. See pics

[vertigto]

Interested to see how Legendary handles this, especially considering the 8 month wait I had to endure for my seat covers.

[jimib]

Originally Posted by Judges4u

If the vinyl is cold, more risk of ripping. I use a heat gun to soften the vinyl portions that need stretching no matter what the ambient temperature is in your work area (summer or winter). The pre-heating really does the trick. When the vinyl cools down it shrinks back to the original size; the results are normal looking tight surfaces with no evidence of stretched seams or material. See pics

I did use a basic hair dyer but I don't think it gets warm or hot enough.

[jimib]

Originally Posted by vertigto

Interested to see how Legendary handles this, especially considering the 8 month wait I had to endure for my seat covers.

I'll keep you updated.

[jimib]

I was working on the passenger side yesterday. Check out this separation at the stitching.

[RFCOLEMAN]

I have done only a few interiors, using Legendary Interior kits, but never had any issues like that. Something is definitely defective. But, I did have issues on the listings on the lower front seat bottoms on 71 T/A covers. I contacted Legendary, and sent then back. They took care of the issue promptly. I hate it when I run into an issue on a long weekend when you are counting on getting a lot of work done on your project. It causes way too much stress, and takes the fun out of it.
Any way, Keep us posted. I would be stunned if you do not get a quick reply and resolution from Legendary.
Bob C.

[ID67goat]

Did that happen from just rolling the seat cover onto the new foam? Wow, it doesn't look like that vinyl is very durable...

I have a set of Legendary seat covers sitting in boxes right now, I will have to look at them more closely and check the stitching.

[jimib]

Originally Posted by RFCOLEMAN

I have done only a few interiors, using Legendary Interior kits, but never had any issues like that. Something is definitely defective. But, I did have issues on the listings on the lower front seat bottoms on 71 T/A covers. I contacted Legendary, and sent then back. They took care of the issue promptly. I hate it when I run into an issue on a long weekend when you are counting on getting a lot of work done on your project. It causes way too much stress, and takes the fun out of it.
Any way, Keep us posted. I would be stunned if you do not get a quick reply and resolution from Legendary.
Bob C.

I received a reply today (Sunday) from the name "Lacy". Said would send to warranty dept but they are closed tomorrow (Monday).

Yes, this took up much of my limited time. Did Legendary send you replacements?

[jimib]

Originally Posted by ID67goat

Did that happen from just rolling the seat cover onto the new foam? Wow, it doesn't look like that vinyl is very durable...

I have a set of Legendary seat covers sitting in boxes right now, I will have to look at them more closely and check the stitching.

Basically yes. After rolling over the two front corners, I pulled on the lower flaps of the seat to eliminate the wrinkles and getting ready to hog ring them, that's when I noticed the separation at the stitching.

I took someone's advice above and applied light heat with a heat gun to make them more playable.

[dataway]

Curious myself since I have a set of front covers on order right now.

Makes me wonder if the long lead time is creating some shortcuts in QC ... or maybe some new people in training.

[RFCOLEMAN]

Yes. Legendary did send replacements after I returned the defective ones. I forget exactly how long it took, but it was fairly quick. They hade to make them. All of their products have a tag sewn in them with a date and persons initials on them.
That's how they can track them. I feel your frustration.
Bob C.

[dataway]

jimi ... check for that tag on your covers and see who made them. Maybe we can spot a trend.

[jimib]

I spoke with Legendary today and will say I don't like where this is going based on my predictions.
Around 12 noon, spoke with Ron and he said to forward him pictures. At 4 PM, no word back so again I called Legendary and transferred to Ron. He said based on what he can see via the pictures, it is an installation problem that caused the separation at the stitching. He said to ship them into Legendary. It's rather obvious where this is going.

[dataway]

I'd guess if the stitch spacing is right, the thread isn't broken, the thread tension looks good and the seam is not stitched too close to the material edge they are going to call it operator error. Maybe a remote possibility of bad batch of vinyl, but they probably would have notice that during fabrication. A lot can go wrong sewing material like that, dull needles, machine out of time, tension adjustment faulty, stitch count set wrong, wrong thread used etc. Most of these things would be noticed on the first seam sewn.

But again, with the pressure they are under right now to get orders out anything can happen.

[burd]

I would have taken them to a trim guy, the Jack of all trades doesn’t work.

[RicksGTO]

I always lay the covers in the sun to warm them up, assuming the area you are in isn't cold. Also cut to fit some portions of black trash bags on the corners/edges of the foam before pulling the seat edges/corners on. Then carefully pull the black trash bag pieces out. It makes getting the covers to slip around the corners much easier on you and the covers.