Rebuilt 2005 GX470 Project - From CO to TX and Back (soon)

Definitely use hog ring pliers and rings. I did the leather in the Tundra DC. Not too bad. Oh, I did give myself a hernia trying to remove the rear bench. Haha

 

There needs to be a ziptie product for this for the DIY install. Easier to manipulate than those dang rings and pliers

 

When I did leather on my Tundra, I used vacuum bags for the headrests. The vacuum compresses the foam enough to slip the leather cover over the it. Cool project you have!

 

Ha! I'm planning a Harbour freight trip to pick some up this week, but I'll let you know.

Thanks

 

The one video I watched said you could use zip ties instead. But I'll go with hog rings first. If there's any stubborn sections I may use one

 

I would be tempted to use zipties to get them held in place and then apply hog rings for the permanent hold. Probably hard to stretch and hog ring at the same time.

 

Going to try and get some of the covers on this weekend. Trying out the steamer trick to plump the foam back up. It's definitely making it softer, for now. You can barely see a difference in the before/after pictures. The steamed one is on the right in second picture.

 

It went really well. It's a little lower pay than I was making, but has a lot more career opportunities to advance than where I was.

The armrest foam plumpt up a lot more than the headrest. I could actually see it happening while steaming. I guess it's a lot more effective on foam that's been matted down over the years.

 

You can see it in action!

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ny_tTABEyfw?si=UWzl5-f6ck35Ip9d

 

One headrest done, and my first ever reupholstered item! I'll see if I can't tighten up the leather or steam the wrinkle out somehow, later.

 

Ok, so on my JK project a while back, I bought a bag of Polyfil to throw in the speaker enclosures. I didn't realize how big a 32oz bag was lol. And forgot I had it stored in the garage.

So I'm using it to push up the arm rests! They're pillow topped now! Feels so good. Kinda taking the seats to the next level. I'll see if I can't do the same for the headrests and seats, where applicable

 

I taped a straw to the provided stuffing tool to reach the end of the armrest. The straw side actually worked a lot better at pushing the stuffing too

 

Headrest plushed

 

New (passenger) vs Old (driver) front headrest. The new ones feel a lot better, but some covers are better fitting than others. Creases should come out over time. I'll go back and add more polyfil as needed. Everything was packed and folded tight into a square box. Honestly not the best packing but did arrive undamaged.

Also the new covers use velcro where OEM covers use a plastic latching system.

 

Actually I just realized I had the wrong headrest covers on lol. Have to swap rear for front headrest covers. They're very slightly different shapes

 

Take two. Much better

 

^^^ mucho better!!! HA!

 

Yup, that one was on backwards also lol. Removed and reinstalled it. Magically didn't need the polyfil anymore...I've triple checked the armrest and it is on correctly. I need still need to do the drivers side armrest that's still attached to the seat.

 

Got the prep work done for the easiest seat to reupholster. The rear single seat. Moved over the long metal rods and cut holes for where the hog rings go. Ordered a hog rig kit off Amazon and should be here tomorrow.

 

I used a cloth batting last time I reupholstered a couch. I wrapped it around the cushions to make up for some of the loss in shape and it worked pretty well.

Also, do yourself a favor and use hog ring pliers. The last couple cars I did with regular pliers. Then a friend let me borrow some hog ring pliers and my god what a difference the right tools for the job make.

 

Waiting for the hog rings and plier set to arrive from Amazon. I have tomorrow off, so I'm going to try and get all the seats done and reinstalled. Will free up some more space in the garage too.

Still waiting on the rear sway bar, but I may just go ahead and reinstall the coil springs and tighten everything up so I can get it back on wheels. Need to move on to cutting the rear quarter panel and quarter extension out.

I've done a little searching and it looks like I can get an inflatable paint booth for under $400. Or some others I could set up temporary in my garage. Paint spray setups around $500 but I'm sure that varies greatly. I don't know how much paint costs...But I'm thinking if I go that route, I could do a custom color again for cheaper than having a shop do it. Just a thought, I'm going to research it more.

 

Old vs New rear double seat leather covers

A bonus with the new panels, maybe, is that it has one less horizontal row to put hog rigs on.

 

My brother setup a pvc pipe with plastic paint booth in his garage. Had a strong box fan with filter for ventilation. All done in his garage.

 

Very nice!! My M3 has also needed a respray for years now and I almost had someone do it for $1300. Between the two vehicles the tools would basically pay for itself. And then I could paint the JK too lol

 

Just have to make a few relief cuts for the headrest and the first seat is done

 

The only issue I had was one of the two side zippers. It popped off. So I gotta figure out how to get it back on.

 

Thank you for learning from our mistakes and getting the hog ring pliers. Always use the right tool for the job if you can.

 

One seat back in. Messed with the cheap zipper but couldn't get it back on. Will have to go back later and deal with that. Probably have a better one sewn on by a pro

 

The rear double seat sucked! A lot more screws and bolts and parts to remove in order to get the leather off and back on. And of course I had to undo and redo it a few times. The seat belt in the middle won't extend much and probably needs to.be replaced, but that will happen later down the line