I need to reupholster my back pad. Bought a new core. Will transfer the foam over to my new core. I'm looking at kits and the best deal out there right now is AAAUpholster.com's kit on sale for $129 including shipping and in stock here.

914 Rubber's kit is $217 + shipping here.

Auto Atlanta's kit is $169 + shipping and require 3 weeks (made to order) here.

So my question for the group is ... does anybody have any experiences using AAA Upholster kits? If so, what is your experience fit and quality of the materials?

TIA

I bought the backpad kit from AAA and installed it myself. It was fine, fit well. I think the limiting factor was my lack of installation skills.

I bought 914Rubber seat kits and had those installed = what I should have done with the backpad.

I believe it is in the installation, if not done well it really shows and even a good kit can end up looking like a pro did not do it.

The assumption is that the materials and sewing is very good from both of those vendors.

Bob B

our lady sue is two weeks if black. These are recovering kits made from the original material and patterns from the brand new old stock factory seats we have up stairs. They fit perfectly and we use them in our 914 restoration shop all of the time

Do you also have the black corduroy material that was in some of the later cars?

We're looking to get a kit from AAA as well. Recommended by a friend mechanic. Gonna start the interior mods on the 914 once we installed the shocks from 4Wheelonline onto the Jeep and clear the garage.

In case you've never done the back pad before ... I found this 2016 thread on how to properly reupholster the back pad extremely informative - a step by step how to do it right. I was npt expecting it to be a 17 hour project, but I suppose it takes a lot longer for a non-professional upholsterer (especially going slow and doing it right).

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=278420

I got a spare (trashed) back pad to pull the foam from so that I can work on the reupholster project while keeping my current back pad in the car (as it might take me a few month of chipping away at it here and there before I can finish).

Good luck with your project!

I tend to agree with Bob B. A skilled upholstery guy makes it look easy.
You can watch all the U tubes on the planet and it won’t give you the finesse to make it look like a pro did it. I feel that’s what most of us want.
Still curious which kit is best?

I think the job @Series9 did in the post link I shared above turned out very well (and he admitted he's not a professional upholstery or trim guy).

But he clearly says it's a very tedious job filled with plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. Sounds like you just have to go slow, be careful, have the right tools, and hardware, and plan on spending a minimum of 17 hours.

Sounds like every seemingly "small" 914 project, no?

lol

You want to guess how many hours Dale spent on #41. Best materials every piece leather. Every piece like Porsche does on full leather interiors of modern cars even the sun visors.

Bob B
Click to view attachment

Good luck finding a skilled upholstery guy these days though.


I paid to have kits installed by a local shop, still didnt come out great. Feel like i would have done a better job myself and saved me over 1k.