That sounds like the OEM upholstery, a woven tweed look vinyl. MF offeres their kits in a wide range of materials and styles. They offer the reproduction of the OEM for the purist restorer, but it is super $$$.

 

It took about four hours to get the covers on. I wish I was happier than I am with the results.
I bought a seat cover from Mid-Fifties stitched togerther in a pattern that is reminiscent of the stock seat. Since I'm painting my 53 F-100 Glacier Blue, I based my vinyl color selection on this 53 which is one of those "stored in a barn for 40 years" deals that come along once in a lifetime. Here's a photo from the gallery photos right here at FTE:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...=51193&width=0

If anything I say here is construed as griping, I want to say tight from the start that I have no problem with Mid-Fifties. I think they are great. That being said, the seat cover they offer for sale comes out of a place called Seatz Mfg. out of Anaheim, CA. (seatzmfg.com). I bought the whole kit which includes the two core foams for the bench and back, a 5' x 5' piece of thinner, less dense foam, two pieces of burlap, a bag of hog rings and the world's cheapest hog-ring pliers. The kit cost about $140. I chose the three-inch bench core foam beacause Mid-Fifties says that is closest to stock. A two-inch core is also available. Also available is a five-inch core.
The instructions (as they relate to an F-100 bench seat) are pretty simple: place the burlap over the metal frame so no metal rubs on the core foam or the inside of the vinyle cover. Place the core foam over the burlap. Place the thinner foam over the core foam to smooth things out a bit. Then secure the sides of the seat cover to the frame with the hog rings. When the sides are done, slap and push and otherwise get the foam where you want it and then secure the front and back. Keeping the two layers of foam and burlap in place where you want them while trying to fit the cover on is an unpleasant task for the inexperienced (me). It took multiple attempts. When positioning the cover, it's necessary to lay the cover out over the foam with the corners turned inside out, and then unfold them over the foam. This isn't just a tip...it is probably impossible to do it any other way, in that there is alot of friction between the cover and the foam and slipping the foam in under the cover just can't be done without the foam getting all distorted.
I kind of got it to fit at the sides after alot of slapping of the seat cover and hard rubbing of the cover so that the faom appearred centered under the cover and on the frame. There is a vinyl bead sewn into the mounting edges of the cover and it is this bead which is grabbed by the hog rings and attatched to the wires on the stock metal seat frame. This made it pretty easy to tell where to attach the hog rings. Alignment, once the cover is kind of in place takes acre of itself. It's just a matter of making sure that there aren't any major wrinkles. The seat back was alot easier, but I could not make the cover fit without trimming the foam at the upper corners to follow the general outline if the seat back frame.
So, I got it on. No wrinkles. No torn covers. Alignment is okay.
The seat seems very puffy. I think too puffy. My original seat was so beat, I do not know what it's really supposed to feel like, but it all seems a little to soft and squishy for truck from the early fifties. It's so puffy that it is going to be a pain in the butt to get the back attached with those two hinge pins. And, once that's done, I doubt I'll be able to tilt the seat back forward because of the friction between the back and the bench. Also, I took it out for test sit and discovered that it makes alot more noise than most seats do. Honestly, I guess it's the two foams rubbing together, or the foam against the inside of the cover, but it is quite noisy.
I regret not going with the tweedy vinyl cover. I am pretty sure that the vinyl I have is going to be hot and sticky on summer days. Lastly, if I could...I'd change the three-inch seat foam core for a two-inch.
I had to snip off a bunch of hogrings with wire cutters where I saw that the alignment needed to be adjusted. I reused the same holes on the cover, so this didn't particularly distress the cover, but I did have to go out and buy a box of 50 more hog-rings. Lastly, the incredibly funky and cheap hogring pliers which came with the kit are up the task. They are hard on the palm of the hand, but the rings never slipped out and the pivot pin never snapped.

 

My first post addressed all the problems you experienced and how to solve them.

 

Another trick that I've used when recovering seats (and this works very good on bucket seats) is to cover the seat with a plastic garbage bag before sliding on the upholstery cover. It goes on smoother that way and I've never heard of the plastic wrinkling in the seat once the seat is in use. It also doesn't affect the seat in any harmful way. Matter of fact, it protects the seat if you spill something (especially when you have a porous fabric, i.e. tweed, velour, etc.) because it keeps the liquid from penetrating further into the seat and foam, etc. Easier clean up and maintenance.

Luckily, I still have "connections" at the upholstery shop where I worked. So, it would cost me very little to reupholster the bucket seats in my Panel truck.

Ilya

 

Just a final note on this subject. Mid-Fifties claims that 3" is cushion thickness for a stock seat. LMC says 2" is right for stock. Based on what I experienced, I'd say 2' would be a better fit.