I bought replacement seat leather for the drivers side, and when I went to take the old leather off I noticed it was held on with several circular metal rings, which I had to cut off in order to remove the leather. Now I am confused as to how to attach the new leather?! I thought about zip ties, but don't know if they'd show through. Any suggestions?

 

They actually make tools for this but a good pair of pliers or vise grips in each had can do it too. If you cut them ideally you should replace them. Others have used zip ties but I dont know how long those would last. You could possibly get away with a coat hanger cut into strips and bent around something round. A few possibilities there.

By the way, how much was the leather skin and maybe throw a part number up too.

 

I actually got it off of ebay, some junkyard had a pristine drivers seat and they took the leather off to make it feasible to ship. Only paid $100, well worth it in my opinion! The only downside is it's a slight shade darker, my car has dark grey seats, but this is a little more on the black side. Probably not enough to worry about, but I guess I could always re dye it.

 

If you want to do the job right you'll need hog rings and hog ring pliers... I've done them.. and it is difficult enough to do it right with the right tools. You can buy an inexpensive kit here

http://www.mcmaster.com/#hog-rings/=91sgle

use kit 92305A250 $21.95 it comes with real cheap pliers that if you're willing to sweat, will get the job done. use the smallest hog rings, you need sharp points on the hog rings because they have to pierce the webbing that the rods go in. there are enough small ring in this kit to almost do two seats. I used the bigger copper coated to do the final seam.

This is what I use now http://www.yourautotrim.com/34hogringclips.html
nice sharp points(again, very important)

This job takes patience. The skin should be tight and in order to get the hog rings into the right places you need to force them into position and you need the right pliers to do it. My advice is make sure you put all of the hog rings back in just like they came out or????. Forget about zip ties.

If you'd like to see how mine turned out check them out here

http://elwoodindustries.com/id2.html

Hope this helps

Bob

 

Bobec's the man!