Photos Of Original Seats

I plan to have my '67's original, molded foam type seats professionally reupholstered at an excellent local shop soon. First, the old aftermarket covers and worn-out foam will be removed from the metal frames (which are fortunately still in good shape). New foam contoured to match the original will be installed on the frames, then covered in marine vinyl.

I'd like to replicate the original seat cover patterns as closely as possible. To help ensure that this happens, I'm searching for photos of factory seats from the 1966-'68(?) time frame. Any such photos that could be posted here would be much appreciated.

Along with the front seats, I'm also going to have an aftermarket (Rugged Ridge) rear seat reupholstered to match, to the extent that's possible. Photos of any original rear seats from the later '60s would likewise be very helpful.

Below are the best photos I've been able to find online to date. The first is a zoomed-in view of this 1966 marketing shot:






I don't know whether the front and rear seats in these photos are factory original or not - but if not, they've been very nicely reupholstered to match the OEM seats:

 

Those look close to oem, but not exact. I'm not sure if I have any photos of my originals before I replaced them. One thing to note is that the horizontal pleats are molded (melted) into the material, rather than stitched. I was told by the upholstery shop that it was unlikely that anyone could recreate that type of pleat.

 

Can't help with pics of early seats but thought I would pass along some info on my seat adventure.I did a pair of front seats about the same as you describe.Peel;ed away all the lower foam (back foam was good) and removed badly rusted springs.Cleaned rust from frames and removed broken bolts and chased threads on mounting holes.sourced like new springs from a spare rear seat.painted frames with por-15 and installed springs.returned seats to upholstery shop and they built up foam and recovered. The rear seat was recovered as well but didn't need any extra work. Very happy with the outcome as I now have the correct seats in my '71 ren II. the cost was about $1000. Good luck on your project . mike

 

You may want to look at the seat covers at Jeepster Guru (do a Google search). The guy has covers for CJs as well as Jeepsters and offers several styles and colors.

 

Maury,

Here is a photo of the original seats in my 6t6 CJ 5 V6.



The seats have since been recovered in Black as the tan doesn't go with the new spruce tip green paint job.



Frank

 

Hi Frank. Congrats on completing your seat project! It looks great. I'm still searching for a back seat for my '55 CJ5.

 

These were in my 67 v6

 

This page is from a Jeep Data Book for the 1967 model year. These books were printed by Kaiser Jeep Corp. for use by the salesmen at the dealerships.



Here's an enlargement of the image of the seat:

 

Not the best picture.........but 1965 original Vinyl 60/40 seating

 

My '67 seats. I can take more pics for you, let me know what you want to see.

 

Here's a pair of original seats reportedly out of a '66:

 

Looks like Mine too, I'd say that's the look your after. As has been said, you may end up with stitched seams if you have a shop do it.

 

Thanks, and yep, that is the plan. The local shop I'm having restore the seats has the replacement foam pieces made and installed now (on and around the parts with original foam that's being reused, since it's cast around the springs). They're about to start work on the covers, and having your and the other photos as examples is very helpful to them in coming up with new (stitched seam) versions to match the originals as closely as possible.

I'll start a new thread including pictures of that process when they're done.

Thanks again!

 

Here's an original set from a '66 Tux in nice condition:

 

Keep us posted Maury - I'd love to know the cost too as I got some estimates from some shops down in Reno to restore my seats (66 CJ5 Tux IV) which are in about the same condition as yours were (under seat covers):

And I think the backseat appears to have been re-upholstered, as the diamond pattern doesn't match any of the above pics.