re upholstering seats with airbags

Scrat

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I have a few questions, I want to get my stock leather seats redone with new bottom foam and possibly going with a better leather or perhaps a soft vinyl. Now my seats come with the side air bags and I heard that upholstery shops may not touch them due to having the air bags. Is this true, and if it is what have you guys with recovered stock seats done in this situation? Would the shops recover if I supplied new covers that were made for the airbags? I never tackled this type of project myself and I rather have a shop do it due to the lack of time I have currently and quality of work.
 

skwerl

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Any shop that won't touch a car seat with airbags is probably not a shop you want working on your seats. 90% of cars seats today have air bags so any good shop will be able to work on them.
 

07TGGT

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Any good shop should have no issues with airbags.

I just installed new seat skins on my seats and I was able to correctly install the airbag ribbon and clip with no issues, and I have no prior upholstery experience.

The airbags are built into the seat, not the skins. Find a competent shop and you will be worry free.
 

Scrat

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ok that's good to hear. personally I thought that it shouldn't be an issue for shops to deal with, maybe it was an issue when they first became available in the seats.
 

Scrat

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gonna get the shop cut the foam, I figured ill get them to do everything that way its all done at once
 

05gtowner

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Just an FYI the seam on the airbag side is made with a particular type of thread that is designed to tear away upon deployment of the airbag. Most upholstery shops don't carry this type of thread so be prepared to pay a premium for it. There is a lot of liability associated with working on these seats as if they don't deploy with your custom upholstery the shops doing them could be held liable. This is why shops don't want to touch airbag seats when they are making the covers. It isn't because they are hard to do. I would replace the foam and the cover with a factory takeoff units and be done with it. If you supply the covers they will throw them on no problem.
 

Scrat

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Just an FYI the seam on the airbag side is made with a particular type of thread that is designed to tear away upon deployment of the airbag. Most upholstery shops don't carry this type of thread so be prepared to pay a premium for it. There is a lot of liability associated with working on these seats as if they don't deploy with your custom upholstery the shops doing them could be held liable. This is why shops don't want to touch airbag seats when they are making the covers. It isn't because they are hard to do. I would replace the foam and the cover with a factory takeoff units and be done with it. If you supply the covers they will throw them on no problem.

that's what I was afraid of. but worse comes to worse ill just do factory covers again if they wont do custom.
 

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