Captain's Chairs Reupholster or Replace?

[wagonmaster2]

Originally Posted by almatthews

I can help you with seat re-upholstery, however the real issue is getting the seat schematic to restore power after re-upholstery

Does this mean it would be hard finding someone to remove then re-install the seats after repairs without screwing up the electrical operations? I was looking under the 2 front seats and at all the electrical connections running all the movements of the seats. Was making me wonder if a upholstery shop could do all that.

[PanJH]

I just stopped at a local upholstery shop 2 days ago to get see what he would charge to redo the seats plus one of the sofas( the other will be replaced with theater seats) and the dinette. He had just finished up a pair of captains chairs from a coach and had them sitting on his bench. He said $600 each for redo. I'll be taking the coach over next week to get the estimate on the other work.
Too bad Newmar used such cheap material ( it's not Flexsteels issue, Newmar spec'd the coverings) and put the onus on us to correct their problem.

[scbwr]

I have a quote of $700 to $800 per chair to get our Flexsteel chairs redone. The job includes replacing and upgrading all the foam and automotive grade vinyl or fabric of our choice. Based on our use, it's a better choice than spending additional money for replacement seats as we only travel about 300 miles per day and our rig is for recreational use i.e. we are not full timers.

[e4services]

I went through this, home here in Boulder Colorado i got those kind of numbers. I go to Tucson, so I started called/Emailing down there. Now I wanted something specific in the material, Ultraleather and original colors. I bought a bunch of remnants A furniture company had on Ebay 3 or 4 yards at a time for the seats are in small panels anyway and gave the material to the guy in Tucson who copied the patterns
$350/seat

[wmw0166]

We have a 2012 Tiffin Open road, I was told that there was a bad batch of upholstery "Pleather" with that being said my next question to them was why was I not notified? I got the blah-blah-blah no real answer BS. Finally threw such a fit they sold me the material at cost for $25 per yard, I ordered 10 yards off the bat. Luckily I am a seamstress by trade and have worked my magic on many prom & evening gowns etc. I thought what the heck If I can alter and make gowns I can do this as well. Well I'm now about 2 weeks in and I have recovered the, Dinette, all of the flex steel sofa cushions, made new "head rest" overlays and I'm here to tell you any one that does this as a profession is worth their weight in gold!! This has been a LOT of work!! I'm very pleased with the outcome, but man oh man what a ton of work!! For our free standing chair I actually found a car seat cover that was stretchy and looked fantastic, I just had to alter the top so it wasn't so pointy. As far as the captains chairs go, for now... we bought some covers on Amazon, they are ok, not a perfect fit, but I'm running out of warm days so that will be a project for next year. Ours looked like snake skin, it's pitiful to me that they did not notify owners of this defect, and left it to our own resources to figure it out, Tiffin has such a great reputation, but they dropped the ball on this one! As someone that sews, just to give anyone a range on prices, now granted this is for Gowns, I charge $40 per hour plus materials. There is a gentleman around the way from me and he does upholstery work, and he charges around $100 per hour plus fabric & supplies. I may be paying him to do my captains chairs, because this has been a total PITA!!

[weighit]

Originally Posted by wagonmaster2

Does this mean it would be hard finding someone to remove then re-install the seats after repairs without screwing up the electrical operations? I was looking under the 2 front seats and at all the electrical connections running all the movements of the seats. Was making me wonder if a upholstery shop could do all that.

I pulled my seats and left the power seat racks in place. Just removed the seat from the metal mounts, 4 bolts each seat. Had to reinstall the power connectors once the seats were covered. That was not a huge job and something you can probably do if your a bit handy.

[TomD55]

check with a local re-upholstery company. We had some home chairs that needed to be done. Interior designer quoted about $800 per chair. I found a local guy that would do them for a little over $200 per chair. (This wasn't leather). What if you went with a non-leather product?

[PackratFXR]

I found the same costs to recover my FlexSteel seats. I shopped around and found Suburban Seating which had some really nice (https://www.suburbanseats.com/p/nati...categoryid=203) seats, brand new, on sale for about $1200.00 each with the options we wanted. I will be mounting them during Christmas when I do the new floor.
There is a big truck accessory store in Joplin MO that has a selection of about 20 seats set up in a lounge/TV area you can try them on "for size".

[mickeysteele]

I have a 2013 Tiffin Red, captain & copilot seats cracked, surface flaked off of Flexsteel seats. Called Tiffin and was told Flexsteel had problems with some seat covers, my unit was out of warranty. The had Flexsteel send me new covers and said I was responsible for install, which I was very happy with, cost me $350 for both seats, very satisfied.

[BroncoBill]

We had our chairs recovered in a high quality fabric (much more comfortable than vinyl) by an outstanding upholstery shop for $500 each.

[BJH]

Had my Flexsteel chairs recovered Aug '20 by local auto/boat/RV shop with total cost of $800 each including labor & materials. We selected Molbern vinyl that very closely matches the sofa "ultra" .......I removed and reinstalled both chairs
Via basically 4 each 5/16" bolts per chair and hauled to shop. Very happy thusfar.

[vincebodie]

If you look in the "Show your vintage ride" thread you will see my '82 Mobile Traveler, "Mobi". Her seats were saggy piles of worn out velour and rotten foam with plain old lap belts when we round tripped from San Diego to Oregon a few years back. Lots of pillow shuffling and butt wiggling for sure!

Before our recent trip to New Mexico I installed the two front bucket seats from a 1993 BMW 740i. She has Captain's Chairs up front, and so I made 3/4" plywood platforms that bolt to the existing turntables and to which the BMW frames also bolt.

(Now that I have succeeded I want to perfect it by making 1/4" steel mounting plates. The wood was never meant to be permanent, and it would be nice to lower the seats a tad as they are now a bit higher than the stock ones.)

By far the most difficult issue was getting the driver's side electrics working. The original wiring on that side included memory functionality, meaning instead of direct connections from the switches to each of the various motors, all wiring went through a "brain" module first. Plus there were extra wires for all of the position sensors required to capture and relay memory readings. There were probably 2.5x or 3x as many wires as the passenger side. I tried to match everything up, and ended up with a hacked up pile of wire spaghetti and my wits at their end.

So I ended up using the switch and wiring from a second passenger side seat. This meant that the switch would now function upside down. Oh well, you get used to it - like driving on the left in the UK! All told I spent about $140 on parts at my local breakers: $60 per seat including three point shoulder belts, plus about $20 for the spare switch and harness. Fair enough! LKQ I love you guys!

Our New Mexico trip was a great success overall, and the seats (plus new flooring, firewall insulation, and door weather stripping) made all the difference in the world. The miles just flew on by and mom was ecstatic! We even survived a blowout at freeway speed. (Another story for another day!)

Anyhow I will do a separate write-up with pictures on my own site when I get a chance, and I can post a link to it here if anyone is interested in the process.

[KingCruzer]

Originally Posted by kcnjc0321

I'm looking for covers for mine. seats aren't cracked but they are flaking...

Mine flakes I have a set of covers. Make an offer !

[KingCruzer]

Originally Posted by Someday Came

Looks like I'm about to join the cracking upholstery club. In my case Captain's Chair seats & armrests. Reupholsters estimate is ~ $1800 per chair using automotive OEM grade vinyl. New seats with power footrests & recline in "Ultraleather" appear to come in between $1200 - $2200 depending on brand of seat.

Some pro's & con's I've been mulling over are:

Recover:
Pro's:
- Automotive vinyl is a known and would expect it to provide significantly more that the 5 years of service I got form the Newmar/Flexsteel material.
- Seat comfort known
- Seat fit in coach known
- No question regarding safety / certifications for seats.

Con: $1800 each to recover

New Seats:
Pro
- Some options have less cost.

Con's
- Seat comfort unknown. Some sources have no show room. Others show room is nowhere near me.
- Material life? Will I have the same cracking issue in 5 years?
- Fit & certifications. May be able to work through these with the manufacturers but need to research.

I'm leaning towards recovering but would like to hear from others that have been through this. What did you do & how did it work out? Good or bad experiences with recover materials, and or new seat providers would be greatly appreciated.

My flex steel captains chairs flaked and I have a set of replacement for sale. Make offer