The Imperial had been re-upholstered at some point. While the upholstery fit fairly well it was made with non-Imperial quality materials. To be frank, it was ugly! Not to mention worn, dirty, and tearing in several places. There are springs poking through the rear seat and the drivers seat is sagging and uncomfortable.
The first step in re-doing the back seat was to take off these seat covers. Where I found that the covers were installed over the original seats. Good news, as I should be able to use the original factory covers to make templates and do a better job of fitting the new covers.
The factory material was in amazingly good shape. If all of the seats were like this all that would be needed is a good cleaning!
Of course not all of the seats will be like this. But it gives me a good starting point.
Interestingly, the seats have a significantly deeper yellow tinge than the side trim. They are a richer gold color than shows in this picture, while the leather side trim is close to the door cards. I still think that the new color choice is good – we will find out for sure when the new seats are installed
The next step is to remove the factory seat covers and separate them into their component parts. These are in good enough shape that I will use them to make templates for the new seat covers.
