Installing Your Katzkin Interior

[tim888tim]

Ok, I just received my Katzkin leather interior package and have started to DIY install. I figure that since there were several of us who were involved in the GB here, I would post some of the things that I have learned. Please feel free to add on your own comments.

Items used:
Hog rings (I did not get the installation kit but purchased these from a local auto upholstery store. I did try Home Depot but they did not have the right size.)

Needle-nose plyers (these are needed to get into the really tight places)

Vise-grip plyers

Dikes (or wire cutters)

Scissors or modeling knife

Black marker

Band-aids (the rings are sharp so be careful )

First thing I did was pulled out the back seats. The tutorial can be found on a different post so I won't go into that here.

Once the seats are removed, you will see that the cloth is held onto the seat by little metal clips (these are called hog rings). Try to cut the ring in the middle with the dikes. Use the needle-nose plyers to get the pieces out of the seat. After you pull out each ring, mark the hole with the black marker. This is so you know where to put the rings when you put on your new seats. Do the entire outsides first. For the internal rings on the bottom half, start with the outside rings and work inside so that the last rings to come off are the center two rings. These rings are when the needle-nose plyers really come in handy.

For installation it is just the opposite. After the leather has been lined up with the seat, start with the two middle rings. The easiest way to put them in is to first push the hog ring through the leather. You will need the vise-grips when doing the outsides since the vinyl is much harder to get the rings through than the other internal material. Once it is through the material, hook the other end through the hole that you previously marked. Make sure that the ring hooks on to the support on the seat. You want to have the sharp sides of the ring facing into the seat and not towards you. Now use the needle-nose plyers to crimp the two ends of the hog ring until they close together. It is best to hook an small section together, look at it on the other side to make sure that it fits and looks good on tops side, and then crimp them all down. After the internal rings are all in and crimped, stretch the leather across the seats. Hook all of the rings through the vinyl and the seat supports but do not crimp them down yet. You want to start with the middle of each side and put it tight so that any slack goes to the corners. The back corners are preferable since they will not be visible. Look at the other side and make sure it looks good and is tight. Once you are satisfied, crimp down all the rings.

The top half is similar to the bottom except that you have a new challenge, the fold down section. (If you have a DE you can disregard this.) The fold down section first needs to be removed. You will need to remove all of the cloth from away from the section so you can see what you are looking at. There is a little black plastic retainer in the holes on both sides of the section that holds in the rods. I ended up ripping them both out but I think that you can get it pull out the section if you open it up all the way. (Someone please try this and let me know.)

Once you have removed this section, peel the cloth until about half way where you will need to remove 3 hog rings. At this time you need to remove the plastic thingy at the top. This is done by removing the locking piece first. This piece should be lift up very carefully so as to not break the ends off. Once this piece is off, the rest will side up off the main section. At this point the rest of the cloth can be removed. Turn the leather piece inside out up to the middle section where the hog rings were on the cloth. You may need to steal the wire from the cloth to use in the leather. Place the leather over the section and pull it tight. Put in the hog rings and then pull it the rest of the way over. You will need to cut some small Xs for the bars to come through. It is better to cut too small than too big. Once the holes are cut and the bars inserted, put in the last few rings. Cut away just enough of the cloth material on the back of the new section to put the plastic thingy back on. It goes on the same way it came off. Put this off to the side until the rest of the back is finished.

The rest of the back is done pretty much the same as the seat. Do the inner rings first. (not the section ones) Pull the leather over the entire back and start hooking the rings. Do the complete outside first and then the ones where the section goes. When everything is crimped and tight, you will need to make 2 more Xs where the bars from the section go into the back of the seat.

The seats will be really tight going back in especially the bottom section. It took two of us 10 minutes of pushing and grunging to get it in but man does it look HOT!

I will add more after I do the front seats tonight.

Total time:
Removing covers: 2 hours
Install back seat covers: 4.5 hours

[chibisak]

i tried to put the leather seats on
do u find a problem on the front seat top part, there is no hole how can we put the headrest back ??

thx for any info

[tim888tim]

Day 2:
Ok I have finished it all up and it really looks good. Picts are forthcoming.
First remove the front seats from the car. This is done by unbolting the 4 bolts on each seat (14mm) and then pulling out the seat. The driver's seat does have some electrical wiring for the seatbelt so unplug that too. Once you have the seats out, unbolt the bottom section from the rest of the seat (12mm). The cloth is attached by plastic clips on the outside and four rings on the inside. The driver's side has the knob on the left side with is held on by a retaining ring. This retaining ring can be knock off with a flat-head screwdriver. The leather goes on exactly the same as the cloth came off. It does require some stretching but it fits really nice when it is done.
The back section unclips one the outside and has two rings on the inside. The top two post will be your biggest problem. Remove the headrest. I took an exacto knife and trimmed the corners off the bottoms of the posts so that when I pushed them together, they fit through the holes and pulled the entire unit out.

Another option from missbitchy <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>i didnt take them off...after i made the hole for the headrest i took a flat head screw driver and toucked the leather under the plastic thing ( i had to make the hole a lil bigger to do it but it works out great)</div>

Now the cloth is off completely. The leather needs to be turned inside-out up to the halfway point where you see the loop. The wire is stolen from the cloth seats and put in the leather's loop. Two rings are needed to clamp it to the middle inside section. At this point I went back to the top to feel for holes for the head rests. After finding them, I made two Xs and pushed back in the posts until they clicked and snapped in. The rest of the material is then stretched down to the bottom and zipped up. (For me the zippers were very hard to do and took two of us to complete. One person held it together and the other worked the zipper.)

At this point all that is left is the head rest which just has a few clips holding it together. The leather requires some squeezing to get on. Once it is on, zip it up and then clamp the plastic clips.

Put the seats back in and walaa, beauty.

I will be looking at the inserts this weekend, I will post more here if I do them myself.

[chibisak]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'> I ended up ripping them both out but I think that you can get it pull out the section if you open it up all the way. (Someone please try this and let me know.) Â*
</div>

Just like to take off the paper towel, one side is loger than another side.
also just flip the seats for more then 180degs then it should come out like secs

[tim888tim]

Day 3 and 4: Door inserts
Items used:
Philips Screwdriver
Socket wrench with 11mm socket
Good cloth scissors
Exacto knife
pencil
very thin metal tool
Spray Adhesive; I got mine from Walmart. It was the cheapest kind ($2.49) called Duro. (Added 3/25/03) DON'T use the cheap brand because it does not hold after a few days. Get the higher quality 3M stuff.)
2" wide masking tape
more bandaids
PATIENCE

First remove all the door panels. (You could do them one at a time but I wanted to get them all out at once for reference.)
The back two doors have 3 screws and a bunch of little plastic holders that you can pop out. The screws are located, one in the handle, on in the black cup/garbage holder thing, and one in the top back edge of the door. The front doors have 5 screws; the same as the back except there are an addition 2 door edge screws. Remove the handle covers and then the door cover slides up and off.

Start with one of the back doors. Two reasons, one they are easier, two if you mess up you aren't going to see it all that much. Remove the plastic woodgrain inserts and use the 11mm socket to remove the foam inserts. Remove the top plastic/rubber window trim.

Now match the material up with the doors. Decide where you want the seams to go so that they are all uniform. I put my top seam right at the ridge of the panel. Once the top seam is set, move the vinyl horizontally until the bottom smaller seam looks good. Once you have them where you would like them and you have smoothed out all the wrinkles, tape the top ends of the vinyl to the back of the panel. Make sure that it is taped snug.

Once it is taped you need to start trimming the material. Do NOT cut anything yet! (My only mistakes were cutting off too much material.) Follow the edge of the cloth covering with your finger. With the pencil, mark the vinyl a finger's width distance from where the cloth tucks into the seat. Be especially careful where it curves around the corner at the bottom of the seat. (One place where I cut off too much.) This should leave about 1/2" to be tucked into the panel after you are done cutting. On the bottom where it doesn't tuck in, leave it alone for now. This will be cut once everything is glued. After you are sure that everything lines up and your marks are good, cut off the spare vinyl on the sides and the little bottom section. This will give you a little more managable piece of vinyl to work with.

Now it is time to glue. Before glueing you will need to cover the areas that you don't want to get sticky. These are mainly the rest of the panel and the edges of the vinyl. If the edges get adhesive on them, they are a pain in the a$$ to get into the door. Fold up the vinyl from off the cloth so the back of the vinyl and the cloth are visable. The easiest thing to do is use the masking tape to cover the edges of the vinyl that will be tucking in and then the edges of the door around the cloth. Have the tape overlap onto the cloth perhaps 1/8" to ensure that no adhesive goes into the crack. Once everything is taped off that you don't want to get sticky it is time to glue. Just follow the instructions on the can. Give both the cloth and the vinyl a good coat of adhesive and then wait about a minute for them to begin to dry. At this time remove the tape and discard. After a minute, take the end of the vinyl begin to fold in slowly back into place. With your other hand, Gently push the vinyl onto the cloth ensuring that no wrinkles or creases form. If one does arise, quick back off and try again. Do not pull it tight. Just make sure it is even.

Now the fun begins. Tuck the vinyl into the panel where the cloth goes in. You can use your hand on the back of the panel and then a very thin metal tool to push it in. If you have a couple metal strips you can put one in and pry that section up and used the other to slide the vinyl in. The seams are also difficult to pry in but they are possible to do. This part requires the most patience. Front doors took me ~2 hours each just to tuck in. Back doors are a lot looser and easier to tuck in.

Use the exacto knife to trim the bottom section that does not fold in. Take the plastic/rubber window trim. On the back doors you can push it on and then used the metal tool to pop the edge over the vinyl and then to pusth the vinyl into the crevice. For the front doors you have to slide it on and all the way across over the vinyl. As it is, if you did that the plastic would snag and rip your vinyl. Use the exacto knife to take the edge off of the inside of the end that is going first. Just put on a nice radius, ie round the edge. As you slide it across, watch for snags and push them under with the metal tool or the back end of the exacto knife. Put the foam and woodgrain inserts back in and you are done. Repeat with the other doors.

Total time: ~10 hours

[tim888tim]

Here are the promised picts:








Actually after looking at a few of the driver's door pictures I noticed that the middle is coming up a little bit. Upon further inspection it seems that all of my inserts aren't sticking too well. I should have used a good 3M adhesive instead of the cheap Walmart brand.

[CallaoNY]

good shit ..thanx I needed the info coz I'm planning on doing the doors myself as soon as the material arrives. the bottom piece of the front passenger seat has a hole from cig brun which I'm taking out myself too.thank u for the info. great work

[Big_Baby2000]

That looks damn good man. :shock: U did a really good job! I think I'm going to go ahead and get the Katskins now, as I don't want to have spent all that time painting my inside trim for nothing.

Very good instructions/explanations too!

[damn-no-$$$]

wow, that looks real nice, matching exterior color and all.

but one thing,

i dont know how much the material costs. but for the front 2 seats, for the $$, why not just get racing bucket seats that match the color??
i mean, personally. i dont think our seats are "bucketed" at all. i slide everywhere on hard turns. they're like $300 for a pair.

sadly, i dont have the $$$ for either parts. :cry:

Then again. thats my personal opinion. Also, i dont know how much all this cost u. And maybe u just prefer leather, i dunno. But it still looks way better than stock. u think that can stick to fabric as well as leather?

[tim888tim]

I had thought about the racing bucket seats but I wanted something for the back as well plus I love the smell and feel of leather. This kit was a little more but definitely well worth it.

[mrjaydeeone]

nice job...nice color pick also

[VINDAGIN]

there is only one word to descrie that interior SICK i love it, wrap that steering wheel homie and u stright i love this fucking site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tim888tim]

Thanks for the compliment. Steering wheel was recently wrapped in black leather.

[spesh]

where do ou buy teh kit from?

[monkeyman]

i was just wondering what your wrap color was. because that seems to be the best match to the galant grey interior.

[SinSere]

Looks good man. funny (or not funny really) is that my driver door did the exact same thing, same spot. Sucks cuz I don't really want to take it apart and re-do. Thought about re-doing in other vinyl instead of the katzkin kit. Colors really look. I love mine.

[pvu_rida]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(monkeyman)</div><div class='quotemain'>i was just wondering what your wrap color was. because that seems to be the best match to the galant grey interior.</div>

the last posted was over 2 years ago..... I don't think he's here anymore