To get the samples I had to ask. They have online colors you can pick from with pictures. Thats often enough. But, with the messing up on first materials, I wanted to see the fabrics so I wasn't making a sight-unseen choice.

It's unlikely they'd do that for eBay. And, it doesn't mean they have the fabric either (weird approach).

 

I like the look of the black vinyl but I know that vinyle looks worse in person, I should get a sample of it first.

 

Just an update. Talked with the guys at that place again, and it seems thta when selecting fabric, it *is* possible to mix materials for come color variations. So a pattern on the sitting part and solid elsewhere may be one chance. Better than their "standard" run-o-the-mill colors.

 

LOL. Sounds like torture.

Find yourself a jo-ann fabrics, buy some seat cushion material, and stuff your existing seats to your satisfaction. Cut indentations as necessary with a sharp knife for basic shaping, then wander the store to find fabric of your choosing. Everything from black denim to red chinese silk and everything in between. They have velour and broadcloth too.

Take your old seat covers off and using a knife, rip the stitching apart so you have seperate pieces, and use that has a pattern for your new seat covers. PITA, but then you have more choices in fabric.

 

No can do. Old Ford seats are totally shot (not just the cloth). Just getting into the truck ends up giving me serious bruising from the seat. Hence I'm going to get new aftermarket seat set.

 

The seats finally came. There was a huge mixup when it comes to mounting brackets. The seats looks pretty good, and in the words of the guy doing our body work, look like Ford seats from a newer model. Very close match.

My F350 Extended Cab had buckets (factory original). The bolt pattern on the floor is very very different than for benches, so it took 3 tries to get the right bracket. Fortunately they all came for free. If anyone wants pictures of the 3 bracket types, I can put those up too.

In any case, once installed, the seats are very comfortable and quite solid.

The saga itself took 5 months to work through. Pretty well everything that could go wrong did (wrong brackets twice, fabric discontinuation twice, no hardware for mounting, 3 different reps plus original factory guy). I often wonder why I just didnt cancel and try elsewhere, but I stuck it out and I'm happy with the result. Just in time for vacation.

Picture of the seats are as follows:

http://www.user.dccnet.com/middleton...50%20Seats.jpg

http://www.user.dccnet.com/middleton...0Seats%20B.jpg

Normally they don't send fabric samples. It took 4 tries to get those too, but I'm glad I did as it ended up with a super match.

Hope you can view the images. If not, I'll try another way.

In any case, I've done the full meal deal and if you have questions now I have all the answers for my case.

 

Just checking up on past posts and I see that I need to close this topic off cleanly.

First, I asked the company for fabric samples because I wanted to be sure they matched. It took a while, but they did send them.

Now the saga and whining tale, until the happy ending......

The company eventually got their top guy on this and put a rush on the order. They did an upgrade so it was 2 fabrics (vinyl+fabric) that I was ok with. In the end, this was a smart move - more breathable, comfortable, and durable on the seat backing.

Any way the shipment arrived and I hauled it home filled with enthusiasm to install it. Now where were those mounting bolts - off to the hardware store.... But then, for some reason the floor adapter mounts that I got didnt seem to fit. Solution - whoops, wrong mounts - here are the right ones. Two weeks later and.... these didnt match either.

So I measured carefully, checked 6 other F-series trucks, and found a huge variation between vehicles. We went back and forth on it, until they finally asked - ummm, do you have a bench in that truck? I said "no, I have buckets". Ta-da! Solution. 3rd set of mounting brackets arrived and it fit with a bit of elbow-grease. Seems they don't offer bucket brackets on the website.

Boy-o-boy,once these were in, they are soooooo comfortable. Even when running the F350 without a load (bouncy bouncy), the seats take a lot of the nastiness out of the ride. With a load, it's like driving a luxury car. Mmmmmm.....

So in the end the seats turned out great. Only thing I would have liked was a bit more forward/backward movement of the center seat/console, but I'll address that next time when and if I take the seats out again. That may happen too, as I'm considering more floor insulation to cut the noise levels down.