Here is the sun-baked, broken...
Here is the sun-baked, broken down original seat.
Most C4 owners are faced with the same dilemma of updating the interior of their cars in some way at some point, and many of us have done just that. Many of these cars are now pushing twenty years old and almost all the interiors of this generation need help in some form or fashion. Updating the interior is one of the easiest and most dramatic changes you can make to immediately change the entire look and feel of your C4. Thankfully there are many options when it comes to color and designs to make your car as unique as you want. Since Mid America Motorworks produces many of its own interior products on-site at its Effingham, Illinois, campus under the Performance Choice brand, the company has made ordering your next interior as painless as possible with its excellent online and print catalogs. With these tools, it's easy to choose exactly what interior components will go well with your particular color combination.
When most C4 owners contemplate re-covering their C4's seats (or any other Corvette seats for that matter), they usually develop serious misgivings on whether or not they can pull the job off themselves. Most of us just can't imagine re-covering our own seats, yours truly included. But while it's no easy task, it's not the massive job most people imagine. When it came time to re-cover the seats for Project C4orce, we asked Matt Daniels at Mid America Motorworks to document the step-by-step procedure for Corvette Fever. We decided to send the C4 seats up to Effingham and he performed the seat re-cover up there for us, so let's check out how involved this job really was. We also decided to use a new seat design since Project C4orce is a special car and Mid America Motorworks worked with us very well to develop that new design. Ed Baumgarten of Mid America Motorworks did the great photography you see here and we owe him a great debt of gratitude for all the hard work. I also want to thank Matt Daniels and Nancy Bushur for their help with this article. Let's get to the install.
| Difficulty Index - 2 Wrenches |
| Anyone’s Project: no tools required | 1 Wrench |
| Beginner: basic tools | 2 Wrenches |
| Experienced: special tools | 3 Wrenches |
| Accomplished: special tools and outside help | 4 Wrenches |
| Professionals Only: send this work out | 5 Wrenches |
First, Matt unclips the seat...
First, Matt unclips the seat back cushion from the seat frame.
Next he unclips the wire of...
Next he unclips the wire of the seat frame.
Unattaching clip located on...
Unattaching clip located on the front of seat bottom.
This is the bare seat frame...
This is the bare seat frame with original hardware still in place.
Next, he removes the bolts...
Next, he removes the bolts located in brackets for seat bolsters.
Removing bolts from seat bolsters...
Removing bolts from seat bolsters located in seat back.