Headrest needed and interior questions

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

>Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 18:09:21 -0500
>From: "TM" <mizutanit@mindspring.com>
>Subject: Headrest needed and interior questions
>
>Hi listers,
>I need a rear headrest for an '86 5kcstq, preferably in black, but any
>color will do, as I can always get it dyed. I need one that is in basically
>perfect to excellent condition, no rips, tears or loose stitching. If anyone
>has one or knows where one can be found, please let me know.
>


Go to any junkyard and find a FRONT black headrest. The leather is the same
but the mounts are not. On your old headrest, squeeze the soft part until
you can gently work the metal trim ring off, and you'll see what looks like
a plastic zipper holding the halves of the headrest leather together. The
ends of the zipper are tucked into a hole. Find the ends, fish them out of
the hole, and unzip the zipper (pull apart gently, starting at one end),
then remove the leather cover from the foam core.

Now that you know how this comes apart, remove the good leather from the
front headrest you just bought. Find an old pair of jeans, and using a wire
cutter, cut the metal zipper apart - what you want is the slide for the
zipper, and it has to be large enough to fit over the plastic "zipper" on
the headrest leather. Work the new leather onto the rear headrest foam, get
it smooth, do some fiddling with the zipper slide, and zip the sucker up!
Tuck the ends into the hole, work the trim band back on, and voila! New
rear seat headrest, genuine Audi parts and all - and junkyards seldom get
more than $5 for a headrest.




>Also, what do you all do when you have stitching going on your leather
>seats?
>I talked to an auto upholstery shop and they said don't bother, it will cost
>as much as getting a Recaro. Doh! Now if I break the seat down by myself, is
>there a way I can get a new seat cover made for me at a more reasonable
>price,
>say closer to $200 rather than $1000? I like the factory sport seats and it
>would drive me nuts to put a Recaro or similar seat and leave the rest
>plain,
>as it would look weird (to me) and I would rather not spend that kind of
>money
>on an old car.


Find a less greedy upholstery shop. Take the seatcover off yourself
(finicky job, BTW) and they'll stitch it up for $25 or so. Takes a little
muscle to get the seatcover back onto the bolsters, this is a good time to
Lexol the hell out of it and make the leather a little more supple for when
you put it back together again. Only other gotcha is three or four trim
retainers down on the bottom of the seats: These are tricky - they resemble
plastic pop rivets, and are expanded by pushing a central plastic pin into
them. The pin is the same color as the retainer, and is hard to see - it
looks like a plain, one piece button, but if you look CAREFULLY, you'll see
the pin. Pushing it out releases the retainer, and the trim panel then
comes off easily.

Done both these jobs - no big deal, and you can do it inside where it is
warm, in case y'all are up nawth in the cold.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman