Seats and weatherstrip for a 74L

I think they all should be considered aftermarket now since original production for US cars is long, long gone.

Hall and Precision Proformance both use the same upholstery shop so the covers should be the same but I wouldn't be surprised if they all vary slightly from cover to cover since they are hand made and copied from patterns made off of an original cover at one time or another.

On "original" Pantera parts Wilkinson really is the sole importer. He works with Detomaso's son on getting parts from the original suppliers in Europe if they are still in business.

Many are not.

MOST other specialty shops here in the US buy from Wilkinson and mark the price up accordingly.

Some like P-P, aka, the Byer brothers, fabricate quite a few items themselves.

I would think that the seat foam probably is sourced from Wilkinson but do not know this as a fact.

If it were me and the criteria was to keep it original, I wouldn't get to crazy about small variations in details.

It is questionable whether "original Panteras" will ever be held in great esteem and yield premium values, but that's your call entirely.

The original seats are not what you want for comfort and make the car difficult to live with.
The vinyl covers are hard and do not stretch to fit your body well.

Neither do the European leather seat covers. Those are hard as a rock.

If you want to drive this car there are much better alternatives to the original seats. Of course if you are just building it as a restoration project and are just going to look at it, that's a different story altogether.

I think I can safely speculate that most owners have stored away the original seats and used alternatives to them.

Ironically when the original seats come up for sale they are not popular and people usually are only looking at them as "rebuild cores" for their frames.

There was a time when people were just throwing them away as useless and unwanted. That has changed, but not by much.

Of course you are going to get varying opinions on this. I would store the seats and put something in the car that I could live with.

Well said Doug. I would have said pretty much the same thing but you save me a lot of typing.

I'm guessing Steve is going for the unmodified look so comfort may be less of a concern.

Mark

I would like to thank you Doug for that reply.
As I have not found my seats yet (still buried), but might now consider altrnatives if they need ANY work.

THANKS

SACC Restorations has excellent upholstery and foam for our stock seats.

SACC restorations

Jake

quote:

Originally posted by JFB #05177:
I would like to thank you Doug for that reply.
As I have not found my seats yet (still buried), but might now consider altrnatives if they need ANY work.

THANKS

The stock covers have a strong tendency to split along the sewn seams as well. They compress the foam, rather than you compressing the foam and as a result you sit on top of them rather than in them.

They really, really are not worth the effort.

OK, While Dougs long post was informative and somewhat accurate, he is off on some of the points he made...

SACC Restorations is the only manufacturer that makes true EXACT reproductions of the stock seat foam. Other Vendors, make foam made from blocks of foam, glued together and then cut to shape.

SACC Restorations took the BEST stock foam available at the time and made a mold from it. We have been making EXACT reproductions of the stock seat foam for years. Distinctive Industries is the manufacturer and the company that SACC Restorations partnered with for this project. Distinctive also makes ALL of our seat upholstery.

As far as the upholstery being hand made and having variations... Distinctive makes all our upholstery using CNC laser guided cutters. EVERY seat is an EXACT copy of the originals. It is true that they are hand sewn together by humans. If that makes them hand made, ok, they are hand made.

Nobody is importing upholstery from Italy. For stock original reproduction upholstery, SACC Restorations can stand with any other manufacturer. BUT, we are the only ones with original molded seat foam.

I will have samples at the fun rally this year!

Scott

My 2 cents..... SACC is the way to go. I cant tell them from original and believe me I seen 1000 of them..mike

sorry, it should of said Ive seen a 1000 of them. TYPO

Thank you Jake and Mike!!!!!

Thanks so much for the input. I'm sure you are right about the original seats but my car is pretty close to a survivor. Low miles, original paint,bone stock original motor with egr, original carb and air cleaner but has the 17 inch wheels with brake,suspension and a/c upgrades. The seats are in good shape except for the seam split problem mentioned above. My plan is to fix a couple of little things and then just drive the car for a while and get to know it first,(and learn how to drive it!),and then decide which things to change.

As you probably know, '71-74 U.S. Panteras have two very different seats. '71-72s got seats in which the backs bolt on. '73-74s got seats in which the entire frame was a single tubular weldment. These seats are infamous for cracking the welds between the back and seat pan- something to look for during seat rebuilding. Quite a few later Panteras now have early seats for this reason. Early seats can also be subtly tweeked to increase service-ability and driving comfort while maintaining a stock silhouette.

For instance, the backside straps bracing the seat backa can have the bolt-holes slotted, allowing some rake adjustment. My wife sits more upright so for her, the rake is adjusted out and during rebuild, the rear seatbase crossmember was bent into a shallow 'U' rather than being straight across. This gave more tailbone clearance with the rather thin stock seatbase padding. Finally, the two rearmost bolts retaining each seatback can be removed, allowing the backs to lean forward. This allows easier access to the service door in the rear firewall, behind the big upholstering panel. Some '73-74s may need at least one seat completely removed from the car to allow the firewall upholstery panel to be removed without damage. Behind the panel is access to fan belts, thermostat etc. that cannot practically be otherwise serviced.

Lots can be done with the '71-72 version seats while retaining a stock look. The all-welded later seats- not so much and prices reflect this reality. Also not sure whether the same seat covers fit both models.

Finally, Euro Panteras got a 3rd type of seat, completely different from both the U.S models. They had chrome Ferrari-like rake adjustments built into the sides, factory leather etc. They were also much thicker padded in seat and back, so if you are tall, there may be issues between the roof and your head, even if the back is fully raked. Some owners then install a dropped floorpan for their thicker seats- which include the popular aftermarket Recaros. Good luck- J DeRyke

Great advice. I am going to order covers from SACCR and will take a close look at the frames after I get the old covers off. I am still wondering about about the door opening weatherstrip. During previous projects restoring an older Corvette and a Pontiac GTO, I replaced weatherstripping and with one vendor, had a heck of a time getting the doors to shut right; the weatherstripping was just too stiff. Is this a problem with Panteras as well? My doors shut really well and I don't want to mess them up. Are all vendor weather strips the same or is the bulb softer on some?

All we can do is tell or show you what we know so that you can make an educated decision for your own situation.

That is the reason I post information that I know or have experienced.

It would have saved me a lot of wasted motion, energy and money if I had it in the beginning.

quote:

During previous projects restoring an older Corvette and a Pontiac GTO, I replaced weatherstripping and with one vendor, had a heck of a time getting the doors to shut right; the weatherstripping was just too stiff. Is this a problem with Panteras as well?

Yes. During one ground-up Nor-Cal restoration some 25 years ago when NOS stuff was still available, a friend who ran a paint/body shop used three different sizes of generic door weatherstrips all glued together to get a good seal without having to slam the door to close it. The other option is lots of tricky bodywork to closely align the pinch-welds the weatherstrips fasten to. Do NOT expect current repro seals to fit any better than NOS stuff.