RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,746
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
My RTV wasn't in the best of shape when I purchased it, and at first I focused on the mechanical issues (tires, u-joints, coolant leaks). I'm only now getting around to the cosmetic stuff, and the seat was a good place to start. The back rest was ripped in several spots, and this summer the vinyl got so brittle it started cracking. Somebody had recovered the bottom with a piece of canvas, better than nothing but not much. I looked around for a replacement covers, but the ones I found were expensive and there were complaints about fit. When I started looking into upholstery material, I found it affordable, and even though I'm not much of a seamstress, I had an old Consew industrial machine that would work. I ended up purchasinga nice dark gray shade from Amazon, for about $8.00/yard. I ordered about twice what I'd need, as I've never done any upholstery work before and figured it might take more than one try to get something useful.
I started with the back, and the first thing I ran into were bolts that were rusted solidly into the T-nuts in the seat base. The plywood base itself was also rotten in places. I ended up cutting the heads off the bolts with an angle grinder, and making up new bases for both pieces from a scrap of 7 ply cabinet plywood I'd squirreled away twenty years ago (never throw anything away!). The cover came off by removing the staples that held it to the base and using an Xacto knife to cut the stitching. That left me with four pieces I could use as patterns for new ones.
I used a fine line Sharpie to trace the outlines of each piece onto the cloth backing of my vinyl. Then I went around the outside of the outline 5/16" away to give myself some seam allowance. Regular freebie Harbor Freight scissors worked fine for cutting them out. The band in the middle was longer than my vinyl width, so I ended up cutting two pieces and seaming them together.
I started by attaching the center band to the top, and learned that it's better to use two parallel seams, starting with the one closest to the edge to just get the pieces stuck together. That made it easier to run a straight seam inboard, and once the material was reversed, that's the one that would control the shape of the cover. I followed the original outline of the old pieces with the needle as best I could, and having the line there was a big help. The inner edges of the two back pieces should have been hemmed before they were attached to the middle band, but that's not how I did it and it still worked out fine. I had the usual struggle figuring out how to rerun the thread after the bobbin ran out, but after I experimented a bit and looked up some old pictures that showed the correct way, I got going again. If I did more sewing I'd remember, but it's more like a once every couple year kind of thing for me.
The old plywood was glued to the foam, so I used a scraper blade to cut it loose. That gave me a pattern for the new base, and a hand held saber saw made quick work of cutting out a new one. I used the old base as a pattern for drilling new mounting holes in the new ones, then found some self tapping 5/16x18 bolts to replace the ones I'd cut. I didn't bother with new T-nuts and just screwed the bolts into the holes. Probably won't last forever, but the T-nuts didn't work very well either.
In an attempt to keep the new plywood from rotting, I wrapped it in a couple lawn'n'leaf bags, one from each end. I used clear shipping tape to take up the slack and to seal the seam where the bags overlapped. The bags also made it a lot easier to slip the pad and back into the new cover, and it wasn't hard at all to align the seams with the edges of the base and pull the cover tight in the back. I used 1/4" staples on inch and a half centers to attach the cover to the base, starting in the middle and working out toward the ends.
The seat bottom was made from one large piece of canvas with no seams, so I used the design from the back. I made a tracing of the seat base onto some paper and used that to size the two new back pieces. Before I cut the paper for the two pieces, I draped it onto the seat foam to see where the edges would fall. They were over the rolled edges on all sides, and since there were no real sharp corners on the top of the seat, I figured it didn't matter too much were the seam ended up as long as I didn't end up sitting on it. So I traced the pattern onto the vinyl, then divided it roughly 1/3 for the upper and 2/3 for the lower portions of the back and cut it along lines similar to what had been used on the seat back. Those two patterns were then traced onto the vinyl, along with another set of 5/16" outlines. I then measured the seat thickness and found it varied between 5 and 6 inches. The foam wasn't in very good shape, with the seating areas compressed quite a bit and patches of newer foam glued in at some places. It was going to be alright for the RTV though. Then I made a pair of marks on a piece of scrap vinyl to gauge how far I could easily stretch it. It turned out that 25% wasn't difficult to achieve, so I set my middle band width to 4 1/2 inches and called it good. I'd need two pieces of vinyl, plus another few inches, to get all the way around.
Like with the back, I began by sewing the top to the middle band, and following the inner size line as best I could with the needle. I started at the center seam of the band, which I centered at the front of the seat. From there I worked toward the back, returning to the front to sew the other side. I'd left the middle band long on purpose and just cut it to size after the top seam was completed. Then, before I forgot, I hemmed the upper and lower edges of the two back pieces. They went on next and soon I was finished sewing.
This is the finished cover as it came off the machine.
This is what it looked like after it was turned inside out.
And here's the underside.
Back at the new seat bottom and foam, they got double bagged and tape sealed, then the new cover was slipped on. Again I used staples to attach the cover.
The seat bottom mounts with two hinge pins, so I had to find the drilled and "tapped" holes under all that plastic and vinyl. I used the old base as a guide, then the end of a pliers handle to feel for the holes themselves. An awl made quick work of making the hole.
Mounted on the RTV, the new seat was a huge improvement.
No, it's not exactly concourse quality, but it's more than good enough for knocking around the property. It'll be interesting to see how well the material holds up to the sun and the rain (the RTV lives outside all the time), and how easy it is to keep clean. But for now, with only twenty bux and a few hours invested, I'm deligh
I started with the back, and the first thing I ran into were bolts that were rusted solidly into the T-nuts in the seat base. The plywood base itself was also rotten in places. I ended up cutting the heads off the bolts with an angle grinder, and making up new bases for both pieces from a scrap of 7 ply cabinet plywood I'd squirreled away twenty years ago (never throw anything away!). The cover came off by removing the staples that held it to the base and using an Xacto knife to cut the stitching. That left me with four pieces I could use as patterns for new ones.
I used a fine line Sharpie to trace the outlines of each piece onto the cloth backing of my vinyl. Then I went around the outside of the outline 5/16" away to give myself some seam allowance. Regular freebie Harbor Freight scissors worked fine for cutting them out. The band in the middle was longer than my vinyl width, so I ended up cutting two pieces and seaming them together.
I started by attaching the center band to the top, and learned that it's better to use two parallel seams, starting with the one closest to the edge to just get the pieces stuck together. That made it easier to run a straight seam inboard, and once the material was reversed, that's the one that would control the shape of the cover. I followed the original outline of the old pieces with the needle as best I could, and having the line there was a big help. The inner edges of the two back pieces should have been hemmed before they were attached to the middle band, but that's not how I did it and it still worked out fine. I had the usual struggle figuring out how to rerun the thread after the bobbin ran out, but after I experimented a bit and looked up some old pictures that showed the correct way, I got going again. If I did more sewing I'd remember, but it's more like a once every couple year kind of thing for me.
The old plywood was glued to the foam, so I used a scraper blade to cut it loose. That gave me a pattern for the new base, and a hand held saber saw made quick work of cutting out a new one. I used the old base as a pattern for drilling new mounting holes in the new ones, then found some self tapping 5/16x18 bolts to replace the ones I'd cut. I didn't bother with new T-nuts and just screwed the bolts into the holes. Probably won't last forever, but the T-nuts didn't work very well either.
In an attempt to keep the new plywood from rotting, I wrapped it in a couple lawn'n'leaf bags, one from each end. I used clear shipping tape to take up the slack and to seal the seam where the bags overlapped. The bags also made it a lot easier to slip the pad and back into the new cover, and it wasn't hard at all to align the seams with the edges of the base and pull the cover tight in the back. I used 1/4" staples on inch and a half centers to attach the cover to the base, starting in the middle and working out toward the ends.
The seat bottom was made from one large piece of canvas with no seams, so I used the design from the back. I made a tracing of the seat base onto some paper and used that to size the two new back pieces. Before I cut the paper for the two pieces, I draped it onto the seat foam to see where the edges would fall. They were over the rolled edges on all sides, and since there were no real sharp corners on the top of the seat, I figured it didn't matter too much were the seam ended up as long as I didn't end up sitting on it. So I traced the pattern onto the vinyl, then divided it roughly 1/3 for the upper and 2/3 for the lower portions of the back and cut it along lines similar to what had been used on the seat back. Those two patterns were then traced onto the vinyl, along with another set of 5/16" outlines. I then measured the seat thickness and found it varied between 5 and 6 inches. The foam wasn't in very good shape, with the seating areas compressed quite a bit and patches of newer foam glued in at some places. It was going to be alright for the RTV though. Then I made a pair of marks on a piece of scrap vinyl to gauge how far I could easily stretch it. It turned out that 25% wasn't difficult to achieve, so I set my middle band width to 4 1/2 inches and called it good. I'd need two pieces of vinyl, plus another few inches, to get all the way around.
Like with the back, I began by sewing the top to the middle band, and following the inner size line as best I could with the needle. I started at the center seam of the band, which I centered at the front of the seat. From there I worked toward the back, returning to the front to sew the other side. I'd left the middle band long on purpose and just cut it to size after the top seam was completed. Then, before I forgot, I hemmed the upper and lower edges of the two back pieces. They went on next and soon I was finished sewing.
This is the finished cover as it came off the machine.
This is what it looked like after it was turned inside out.
And here's the underside.
Back at the new seat bottom and foam, they got double bagged and tape sealed, then the new cover was slipped on. Again I used staples to attach the cover.
The seat bottom mounts with two hinge pins, so I had to find the drilled and "tapped" holes under all that plastic and vinyl. I used the old base as a guide, then the end of a pliers handle to feel for the holes themselves. An awl made quick work of making the hole.
Mounted on the RTV, the new seat was a huge improvement.
No, it's not exactly concourse quality, but it's more than good enough for knocking around the property. It'll be interesting to see how well the material holds up to the sun and the rain (the RTV lives outside all the time), and how easy it is to keep clean. But for now, with only twenty bux and a few hours invested, I'm deligh
