Years ago, when you wanted to lay some new hide in your ride, you headed south of the boarder to Tijuana, Mexico, and checked out many of the custom upholstery shops. There, they would cut, stuff, and stitch your seats, door panels, and headliner for a couple hundred bucks. The pattern selection was either diamond, biscuit, or tuck and roll, and made from Naugahyde vinyl, which was an imitation leather treatment for your seats and door panels.
Katzkin offers its unique seat-color selector, which allows you to construct your own Katz
Today, custom-truck enthusiasts are spoiled with numerous high-quality custom upholstery shops that can really lay down the leather. Another means of custom-seat upholstery are the pre-made seat covers.
When it comes to aftermarket leather interiors, Katzkin Leather is one of the leading companies ready with pre-sewn seat covers. Whether factory seat cover replacement or custom seat covers, door panels, arm rests and sun visors, Katzkin has many available options. Katzkin's superior quality meets the rigorous standards set by the OEM's, and well-known custom builders. Katzkin's moderate or colorful two-tone leather interiors will impress any truck or SUV owner. Katzkin allows you to choose from 250 patterns, 90 different colors, and materials, which include your choice of piping, embroidery, stitching, or perforation. You can pre-design your own custom seat cover by using Katzkin's seat color selection tool on their website. Go to www.katzkin.com.
For this tech article, we followed along as Danny Hentges installed a Katzkin upholstery kit for the front bucket seats and the rear 60/40 seat of an '06 Ford F-150 SuperCrew 4x4
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After removing the '06 Ford SuperCrew front bucket seats, the factory leather was removed
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Danny Hentges began by aligning and slipping one corner of the bottom Katzkin material ove
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A unique feature of all Katzkin seat covers is the super-grip Velcro that helps to secure
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The installation of the hog rings into the leather and foam was made effortless by a pair
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After securing the Katzkin Leather to the bottom seat cushion, it was hand-worked to acqui
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To achieve easier installation of the Katzkin seat back cover, Danny applied cellophane ov
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The Katzkin seat back cover was then given a hand massage to move the soft leather around
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Seat frame grip rails were used to secure the Katzkin leather-grip troughs, which guarante
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After the Katzkin seat cover had been snugly fitted over the seat foam, it was secured by
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After using a razor blade to perforate the leather, Danny inserted the headrest inserts in
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The headrest legs were aligned and placed into the inserts. The adjustable headrests were
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It fits like a glove. The factory '06 Ford F-150 SuperCrew front bucket seats were transfo
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The back cushion of the back seat was stripped down to the bare foam.
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Once again, Danny used a piece of cellophane to aid in slipping over the Katzkin seat back
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Like putting on a sock, the Katzkin seat back cover was turned inside out, and then slippe
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Hog-ring pliers were used to install the hog rings into the leather and foam.
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The Katzkin seat back cover was aligned with the foam cushion Velcro channels, then it was
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Hog-ring pliers were again used to insert and grip the hog rings into the leather and foam
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After the Katzkin seat-back cover was secured, it was zipped up and the corners were tucke
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The rear-seat bottom cushion is the same as the seat-back cushion. The rear seats will not
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From The Driver SeatThe Katzkin Leather seat kit was an effortless installation. After removing the factory covers, it was as simple as slipping the cover over the foam, hog-ringing the leather cover to the seat foam, attaching the securing straps to the frame, then zipping the cover up and tucking the corners down. The cover's panels and seams fit the seats contour like a latex glove. There is nothing like the style, feel, and smell of leather in your ride.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
| Time Spent Working: | 4 Hours |
| Degree of Difficulty: | Beginner |
| Tools Needed: |
| Basic handtools, ratchet, sockets, combination wrenches, and hog-ring pliers. |
| Parts Installed: |
| Katzkin Leather custom seat covers |
| Two front bucket seats |
| One 60/40 split seat, cut down to two 40/40 seats, to accommodate the full-length center-console enclosure with four subwoofers. |
| Katzkin Leather kit |
| Total Cost: | $800 |
| (Not including tax or installation labor) |