Has anyone replaced their seat covers themselves?

Looking for any tips/advice on how to replace the OEM seat covers. I got a full original set in way better shape than mine for a very reasonable price. I have hog ring pliers fwiw.

 

changed my 2002 sequoia whole set about 10 years ago.... and added seat heaters to my 2015 tundra, its pretty easy hardest part is disassembling the seats.... its time consuming...you definitely need to remove the seat from car... a nice work bench is helpful on your back... working on floor sucks...

disconnect battery when disconnecting and reconnecting the airbag connector its (YELLOW)

need a good cutter for the old rings on the seat covers... heavy duty... regular dykes will be a beating.... just buy a good cutter..

its not a hard job, just labor intensive.... i pretty much did one seat a weekend to avoid burnout....

 

Thanks. Was just looking that the Klein D248 diagonal cutters. Good call on a work bench.

 

I did mine. Sawhorses and a half sheet of plywood for a work surface.

There are some good tutorial threads on here you can follow that are really helpful.

I did mine over a weekend and spent another Monday evening after work finishing up.

Heres that thread I followed and he was right on. Thanks again @AlmightyCrash!

https://www.tundras.com/threads/leather-heated-seat-front-and-rear-installation-write-up.35837/

 

Thank you. Was reinstalling the hog rings difficult? I don't see exactly how this is done-it may be obvious once I am removing the old covers.

 

Yeah this is relatively easy once you’re looking at it. Hardest part for me was prying all the little plastic bits free. Just very work intensive.

 

Cut the old hog rings off and use new ones on the installation.
The pliers just crimp the rings into a circle.

I did my seat heaters in my 2014 and it wasn't hard, just a little time-consuming.


https://youtu.be/ABRUo6a_ZXc

 

No, it’s tedious, not difficult, and you want to be consistent. Yes, it’ll be more obvious when you actually start.

Within the seatfoam grooves on each seat, you can reach in and palpate the anchoring rods that you’ll be using the hog rings to anchor the seat covers to. The seat covers have corresponding rods, and you’ll be laying those rods down into the grooves and using the hog rings to basically bundle the 2 rods together with the steel rings. You’ll have to push the hog rings down into the seat material to do this, and if you push hard on some and don’t push hard on others, the seams on your finished seats can look wavy or uneven. Not a tough job though, and you can always snip them off and try again.

 

So I tackled replacing the covers on the rear 60 bench seat on my Tundra. The hog ring portion once I got the hang of it was not bad at all. A good snipper is a must. I used linesman pliers to twist them loose which was harder but manageable. The biggest PITA was removing the plastic pieces that cover the hinges on both sides of the seat. There are multiple screws that are partially hidden by the cushion. Once the screws are removed the one side is held together by two clips which are near impossible to release.

But the biggest issue to a perfect reinstall was that two tabs on this handle area are stapled to the plastic trim at the factory-once you remove that I have no idea how to re-attach(re-staple) the new covers tabs back.

 

That’s surprising. I just don’t remember that being a problem at all. Were you following one of the installation threads on here?

 

Yes, watched a few videos as well. Maybe the Katskin covers don't have this tab at the lift handle(circled) that I had trouble with-I should have taken a picture. I will on the next seat for others.

 

I did the install on my rear DC seat myself without hog ring pliers. Just a set of Husky needle nose and regular pliers. I reused my old rings.

No the Katskinz do not have the need-to-staple part that goes around the handle.

 

Ah, that's what I thought. Thanks for confirming. I am hoping it's not too critical as I couldn't see a good way to reattach it.

 

My Kats are still lookin good without a sign of coming loose around those paddle handles

 

Finished the rear seats and the driver front seat this weekend. Driver seat had more tasks required but wasn't difficult. Also, around rear seat release lever, here is the tab that is stapled to the black plastic frame at the factory. No way other than maybe double sided tape to reattach it but I don't thinks it's super critical and only applies when reinstalling OEM covers.

Driver seat had old frankenstein sewing job I did when I first got the truck.

Just have front passenger seat left.