Install of interior kit - rip off !

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punchyguy

punchyguy

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I bought a great set of seat skins and door panels from Pro Fit interiors and decided to get a few quotes as to how much to install . One guy was 1500 for install of all seat and door panels as well as headliner , the worst was 4200.00 $ just for labour to install without headliner work from a resto shop ..can you believe ? I tried to keep a straight face but i was pissed off for wasting my time.

Does 1500 sound good or is that also a little steep ?

Thanks

Rob
 
punchyguy said:
I bought a great set of seat skins and door panels from Pro Fit interiors and decided to get a few quotes as to how much to install . One guy was 1500 for install of all seat and door panels as well as headliner , the worst was 4200.00 $ just for labour to install without headliner work from a resto shop ..can you believe ? I tried to keep a straight face but i was pissed off for wasting my time.

Does 1500 sound good or is that also a little steep ?

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

Why don't you do it yourself? It isn't hard if the covers are good quality.
 
punchyguy said:
I bought a great set of seat skins and door panels from Pro Fit interiors and decided to get a few quotes as to how much to install . One guy was 1500 for install of all seat and door panels as well as headliner , the worst was 4200.00 $ just for labour to install without headliner work from a resto shop ..can you believe ? I tried to keep a straight face but i was pissed off for wasting my time.

Does 1500 sound good or is that also a little steep ?

Thanks

Rob
Click to expand...

My headliner guy would do the headliner for $350.00 or less.

The $1500.00 quote may not be too far off. If you were close
I would cover your seats for free.
 
They all sound steep, but that is todays economy. After installing my headliner, I would suggest that if you want a professional finish, it may well be worth hiring it out. Door panels are easy, and I will be attempting the bucket seats myself in a couple weeks. Just food for thought.

Here's a link to a link on headliner installation

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=213498
 
Seat covers are pretty easy from what I've seen, you just need a pair of write cutters, hug ring pliers and new hog rings. Cut the old hog rings off, pull the old seat covers off carefully not to tear up the foam, put the new covers on and pull em right to make sure you get all the wrinkles out, and out in new hog rings
 
Thanks for the feedback -- you guys always have the best advice -

If you knew me the " hey why dont you do it yourself ? " comments would make you laugh your *** off -- if there is a way to ruin a perfectly easy install on something--i'm your guy ! I have to work on that patience thing , i get flustered and end up screwing things up LOL But i'm getting better -- I was blown away by the 4200 quote -- that dude was just a money grabbin A Hole

I got a call from a guy that did my buddies camaro and he was resonable and does good work so i'm gonna go that route
 
Definetly sounds steep to me. I am taking my car in to have my headliner and vinyl top installed in the next couple weeks. I already had the headliner. I called three shops within an hour from me. I got two prices for $500labor and one for $550 labor. I actually talked to the guy again on the $550 price and we negotiated $500labor on both the vinyl top and headliner plus the cost of the vinyl top. The top was purchased from legendary.

I just completed recovering my front splilt bench seat on my 70 swinger. I had very high quality covers from Legendary. I spent about 5to6 hours on the covers trying to get them where i wanted them. You really need two people to stretch them and get them correct. I did it by myself but probley be about half the time with a helper. Shops around here wanted $250 labor to install them. After doing them, im glad i did them myself to save the cash but now understand why they want so much in labor.
 
yall can do all of the work....just sayin....the seatcovers arent that hard...paying attention to which direction the bead meterial lays inside when installed will make the diffrence between an amature job and a proffesional job...if thet need new foam......get it that will also make the job look sloppy or not last. the headliner just seems intimidating..hook the rear hoop and stretch the headliner forward and make a mark then make another mark to show 3/4" less front to rear. add a 3/4" extension to the hook wires for the rear hoopand tuck the headliner under the windshield gasket with some paint paddles to aid in pulling the vinyl ofer the barbs. then remove the extension wires and rehook the headliner bow to the hooks.now tuck the rear headliner under the rear window gasket with the paint paddles using one to tuck the headliner and the other to hook into the barbs this part takes the most patience but isnt all that hard if you tuck everything in till it looks good then strech each section about the same as you go and tucking it onto the barbs from there spray glue the sides and stretch the matierial about the same in each section as you go.I use the 3m 90 . if there are some spots that dont look right you can pull em back up and adjust (look for the loose spots and get them tighter) after checking all that it should look pretty good.....not to worry....a heat gun will straighten and adjust everything if you are patient and dont get in a hurry the seams of the headliner and the seats will need some heat and stretching it's the finishing touch read the material and heat accordingly
 
Think I paid a hundred bucks to get the headliner installed......seat covers were $1100. That was materials (custom seat covers) and labor....foam was included as well....
 
Tony Fields said:
My headliner guy would do the headliner for $350.00 or less.

The $1500.00 quote may not be too far off. If you were close
I would cover your seats for free.
Click to expand...

Hey Tony, if that's true I'll keep you in mind I need to have my rear seat recovered sometime in the future!!!

Any chance you know a good top guy for a good price?
 
One fault I have seen with do it yourself and some so called profession shops too...
Ignoring the water shields in the side panels. If you replace them as good or better than the originals you will extend the life of the upholstery panel. I replace the original wire clips with newer type sealing clips. So many little details make for addition cost.
What a shop will do or not do isn't a question if you do it all yourself.

The one thing you probably should pay the experienced pro to do is the headliner.
Most recent pic I've seen of a very typical headliner install is a white 67 Barracuda on ebay that was pointed out in a thread here yesterday.
Mine looks only a little better and I've done the job a few times. Enough said
 
For what it's worth, I recently paid ca. $400 (labor only) to have two bucket seats recovered (including new foam) by an auto upholstery shop. Since I could see it taking 4-5 hours total to do this work, I didn't think it was an unreasonable price. I certainly wasn't inclined to try doing it myself and run the risk of ruining several hundred dollars worth of materials and/or having the end result be not right.

Steve
 
I bought the front split bucket/bench seat cover from legendary. Asked a lot of questions got lots of answers and did it myself. The best advice is get the pliers, get the hog to rings, take all kind of pictures while taking apart. Then Lay the covers in the sun and let them soften. It really is kInda easy. Just be patient and take your time.
 
waggin said:
yall can do all of the work....just sayin....the seatcovers arent that hard...paying attention to which direction the bead meterial lays inside when installed will make the diffrence between an amature job and a proffesional job...if thet need new foam......get it that will also make the job look sloppy or not last. the headliner just seems intimidating..hook the rear hoop and stretch the headliner forward and make a mark then make another mark to show 3/4" less front to rear. add a 3/4" extension to the hook wires for the rear hoopand tuck the headliner under the windshield gasket with some paint paddles to aid in pulling the vinyl ofer the barbs. then remove the extension wires and rehook the headliner bow to the hooks.now tuck the rear headliner under the rear window gasket with the paint paddles using one to tuck the headliner and the other to hook into the barbs this part takes the most patience but isnt all that hard if you tuck everything in till it looks good then strech each section about the same as you go and tucking it onto the barbs from there spray glue the sides and stretch the matierial about the same in each section as you go.I use the 3m 90 . if there are some spots that dont look right you can pull em back up and adjust (look for the loose spots and get them tighter) after checking all that it should look pretty good.....not to worry....a heat gun will straighten and adjust everything if you are patient and dont get in a hurry the seams of the headliner and the seats will need some heat and stretching it's the finishing touch read the material and heat accordingly
Click to expand...
My Dad & I recovered the seats in our old 67 Mustang. We bought the covers/foam/rings and pliers from a restoration place. Really was not all that difficult. From what I remember the biggest pita was getting them stretched. We did the headliner as well but being a bow type it was not all that tuff.....
 
Do it yourself or pay your way out and don't complain. You can learn how to do almost anything on the internet (forums like this and youtube). Currently rebuilding my fence, before that I re-layed my roof tiles w/ better underlayment. Sure I could pay a "professional", but that always turns into a big hassle and a large expense. Their goal is to make the sale, then they do whatever. I need exercise anyway.
 
I had an upholstery guy redo my seats with my supplied covers from Legendary. They came out real nice, way better than I could have done it. I also opted to do the headliner myself, it came out only ok, I wish I had farmed it out.
 
I just got a quote for a custom int.Door panels, rear panels, package tray, head liner,carpet. 2500.00 but have to wait till nov.
 
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