Hog rings are very acceptable and common in auto upholstery. As an
upholsterer, my Dad spent his whole life in auto upholstery and I cant
remember any other method used in all the different places he worked when he
didnt own the business himself. My 50 3100 has a brand new (but Maroon color
like original) seat cover he made for me and he used hog rings. Since the
seat cover has a corded edge, the hog rings can be pulled as tight as you
can and not tear anything. Hog rings are cheap and you dont have to worry
about using them sparingly.
I thought "original" WAS hog rings since my seat cover was missing when I
got the truck. Now that you mention it, I wouldnt mind seeing what the
original clips look like. My bet is that Jim Carter and anyone else selling
seat covers also uses hog rings, (especially since the metal construction
lends itself to the purpose) but I could be wrong. Marine grade vinyl is the
only way to fly tho if you do it yourself. :)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Thomas" <dthomas@series2000.com>
To: "Chevy Trucks" <oletrucks@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 11, 1999 10:05 AM
Subject: [oletrucks] Seat Cover Kit
> Hi All,
>
> This is just a general message concerning seat cover replacement. I
> ordered a seat cover from Chevy Duty a while back. The kit said it came
>
> with instructions. First, I was disappointed by the quality of the
> vinyl. It was more like thin plasticky stuff, with very little stretch
> to it. Second, the "instructions" were basically: "apply the cover so
> it has a smooth appearance" Duh! Like I would apply the cover so it has
>
> a wrinkly, crappy appearance! Any way, it came with hog rings and
> pliers, so I thought I would give Chevy Duty a call to see if I could
> get some pointers on just exactly what to attach the cover to with the
> hog rings. I figure that it would be pretty irritating to poke a bunch
> of holes in a cover trying to attach it to the wrong things (they
> probably wouldn't take it back at that point), and then still not have a
>
> good installation. When I called, the guy I talked to (Robert) acted
> like I was from Mars, and then insulted my intelligence by saying that
> in all their years of selling the covers, they had _never_ had a call of
>
> this nature. Now, I have rebuilt my truck from the ground up, pretty
> much on my own and figure that I have the intelligence to do what needs
> to be done, but I like to do things the right way and don't like to
> guess about it if I don't have to. Considering that the seat cover was
> held on from the factory in a completely different way, I figured there
> must be some pat way of doing it with the hog rings. As it turns out,
> you clip the thing to the nearest part of the seat frame that you can.
> I think this is cheesy at best. If you pull the vinyl tight enough to
> get a good fit, you take the chance of tearing it with the hog ring.
> Robert's response was "well you sure ain't gonna bounce quarter off of
> it". Well, Robert convinced me by his attitude to return the whole
> $130.00 mess. This is the first time that I got less than satisfactory
> service from Chevy Duty (aside from an exterior rear view mirror that
> rusted almost immediately). Since then, I have learned how to do it
> right. I sewed my own seat cover (in the gray that I wanted) from
> marine grade vinyl (used for boat seats). It was easier than I thought
> and cost about $30.00. I then went to a place here in town that
> specializes in auto finishing fasteners and guess what? They had the
> exact same semi circular clips that the factory used to hold the seat
> cover on (the seat bottom actually uses a little V shaped clip, but the
> new circular ones work just as well) . I can't, for the life of me,
> figure out why you would want to do it any other way. I used about 35
> clips on the seat bottom and about the same on the back. I have the
> cover on very snugly (you CAN bounce a quarter off of it), and did not
> come close to tearing it, since there is only an inch or two between
> clips. The question in my mind is WHY HOG RINGS? You can get the clips
>
> at A&W Auto Upholstery 757-671-7933. The seat cover looks good even
> from the underside (just like the factory installation). If anyone is
> interested, I can post exact directions for making your own seat cover.
>
> Dave Thomas,
> '54 3100
>
>
>
>
> oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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