TECH
>>>>
SEAT RE-SEAT
Fox Mustang Restoration
gives our tired, old
interior a retro spin
with a TMI Products
upholstery kit, Part 1
story and photography by Brad Bowling
N
othing makes an interior
look nastier than stained,
saggy, sticky, split,
smelly seats. Yucksville.
Fortunately, it isn’t necessary
to drop a couple of thou for a
pair of stylish, Euro-fabulous,
Asian-built aftermarket buckets.
Matt Highley of Fox Mustang
Restoration in Locust, North
Carolina, told us it was possible
to give any ’79-’93 pony a sexy
interior restyle — that’s two front
seats and both rear seats — for
about $800 in new parts. With a
few simple tools, a free weekend,
and some patience, any moderately
skilled novice can reupholster his
own Fox Mustang seats with quality
components made in the United
States.
We’re covering this job in step-bystep detail so that you can use the
story as your own personal instruction manual. Because of the extra
detail, we’re going to do it in two
installments. Here in Part 1 we’ll
strip the seats all the way down to
the frame, and refresh the seat
frames and mechanism. Few of the
seats’ hard parts are being reproduced, so we’ll restore the frames
carefully. In Part 2 next issue, we’ll
recover and reassemble the seats.
Ready to get to work?
54 FOXMustangMagazine.com
(Left) These cloth sport buckets with adjustable knee bolsters and powered lumbar supports
looked horrible, and the driver’s backrest was badly twisted.
Fox Mustang Restoration supplied everything needed: N.O.S. lumbar bags (PN 3484003), the grid-like
seat springs and helical springs (PN 3479002), hog ring installation kit (PN 3479003), seat latch
bezels (N.O.S.), seat latch knobs, and seat back pivot bushings (PN 2479005).