A Not-So-Cheap Repair – New Upholstery

Your correspondent has been gearing up for a long drive in the Alfetta, and part of that effort has been to attend to the disintegrating seats. Suffering from many years of sun and heat, they were actually remarkably intact, particularly (oddly enough) the driver’s seat. However, the passenger seat covering was falling apart, and the back seat seams were splitting every time something was set on them. Have a look at our worst offender:

Alfetta passenger seat

Luckily the carpet is in pretty good shape, as is the headliner, and the dash, while cracked on top, is reasonably clean. You can see the carpet in all its glory in this shot, after the seats were removed.

Alfetta front interior

Barren passenger compartment. You never know what you’ll find under the seats of an old car – I found this Makita drill!

Alfetta rear interior

And here’s a 9-seater Jetta TDI wagon. Back seats folded down, and the Alfetta’s seats fit right in for the ride to Jesus Angulo’s shop in Oakland.

9-seater Jetta wagon

And here is the finished product. Looks good, doesn’t it? He didn’t get some of the details perfect, like the missing piping on the rear edge of the seatbacks, seat height adjuster on the driver’s side, the plastic trim on the seat adjusters (now cracked), and the seatbacks were reversed. The latter he resolved, and the rest I can live with. For $550 all told, I can live with the rest for now… the verdict? Good job, but if you’re a stickler for detail, take him some precise instructions and give him loose seat bottoms and backrests, with any hardware removed.

new Alfetta interior

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