I just installed a set of leather seats into my V6 Mustang. They were GT Take offs and fit like a dream. So I thought I would do a how to on it. These directions are for those seats WITHOUT Side-impact air bags and are meant to be used in conjunction with the Ford Tech documents from this forum located here http://www.mustangforums.com/m_1019059/tm.htm (http://www.mustangforums.com/m_1019059/tm.htm.%C2%A0) (Thanks to JJ_Stang for them) These directions can be used with aftermarket leather seating surfaces as well. My digital camera was on the fritz, so no pics, sorry. If anyone has any, feel free to add them.

Tools needed:
Needle-nosed pliers
Linesman Pliers
15mm Socket (starndard and Deep Well)
13mm Socket
10mm Socket
30 hog rings (at a minimum)
#2 Philips head screw driver
T15 Torx driver
A small Allen wrench
A small flat head screw driver
Zip ties or plastic rivet fasteners.
Utility Knife or a realy sharp set of scisors
A HUGE amount of Patience!!!!

Optional items:
Hog Ring Pliers - These make the attachment of the hog rings much easier, but a good set of needle-nose pliers will work as well.
Hair drier - This can be used to gently soften the material to ease installation.
Replacement Seating trim to match your new seats (rear release switch, headrest inserts, adjustment handles, and bottom seat trim plates) - I used my existing trim to provide contrast and flow.

First off, use a 10mm socket to disconnect your negative terminal on your battery. Then wait about 5 minutes. This will deactivate the Occupancy sensors in the seat bottoms. These sensors not only tell the car to tell you to put your seatbelt on, they also turn off the airbag. If you do not power them down, you risk having them permenently having your air-bags turned off, and then you will have to go to your Ford dealer to have them re-calibrated!

Remove Front Seats and Rear Seat Bottom from the car
Now move your front seat all the way back and use a 13mm socket to remove the bolts holding the front of the seat to the floor pan. Now move the seat all the way forward. This will give you access to the rear floor trim. Lightly pull the two pieces off them end of the seating rails, and use a 15mm Deep Well socket to remove the retaining nut. Carefully tilt the seat back and unhook the 2 sensor plugs. Now carefully lift the seat out of the car. Repeat these steps with the other front seat. To remove the lower rear seat is easy, just push in the tabs located just under the front lip, and carefully lift out. Leave your rear seat backs in place. They can be done in the car.

Rear Seat Back
Fold down one of your rear seat backs. You will notice that there is a seam there. This seam is made by a short J hook and a Long J hook. Care fully seperate the seam. On the side closest to the exterior of your car there is a velcro flap, undo this flap. Once the seam is open, undo the velcro strap. Now carefully peal the upholstry off the seat back. The best way is to turn it inside out. You will notice that the foam pad has some hooked strips on it. Carefully seperate the fabric from these strips as you peal the upholstry off.

To put your new cover on, reverse the take off proceedure. Make sure that your new cover is on straight. I found it was easier to have the new cover inside out and peal it on. Here is where the hairdrier is helpfull. When it comes to reattaching the J hooks together to make the seam, gently heat the material to ease the stretching of the material togther. Repeat these steps for the other side. NOTE: Your release straps fit through the side of your covers. Ensure that the whole for these straps are facing twoards the outside of your vehicle, failure to do this will cause the holes for the seat latch will not line up, and this will cause them to malfunction.

Rear Seat Bottom
Start as the top of the piece and undo the J hooks from the seating frame. You will see those same hooked strips from earlier. Treat them the same way as before. Here is where a choice has to be made. If you are going to sell your old covers, you need to carefully remove the long christmas trees from the plastic seat shell (it is very hard, so be warned!). I was not going to sell my old interior so I cut my long christmas trees. Keep moving twoards twoards the bottom. There will be 2 round christmas trees in the middle of the seat near the openings for the seat belt, carefully pull them out using your needle nosed pliers you will need to reuse them. Once you reach the bottom of the seat, carefully remove the final J hooks. Now install your new material by starting at the bottom and work you way to the top. Before you attach the side J hooks, attach all of the straps that are around the holes for you seatbelts and child seat anchors. Once your seat is recovered, re-install it into your car. NOTE: I took a break here and set on my newly covered seats. This allowed the material to settle and ensured that those hooked strips were holding properly.

Front Seat
Carefully remove the center cover from the manual height adjustment handle, and remove the two screws that is covers with your torx driver. Now remove that handle. Tip the seat on its side and follow the reclining handle. You will see that this handle has a retaining clip. Carefully remove this clip and then remove the handle. I removed the clip by hooking it with my small allen wrench. Once the handle is removed, you can put the clip back into its slot on the handle. This handle will press back on with the clip inside it. On the back side of your seat trim panel is a single philips head screw, remove this. Notice how it retains not only the trim panel but a flap from the seat material as well. Now care fully remove your trim panel. This panel is attached to the frame with 2 retaining clip and a round christmas tree. Care is needed not to break them. Now you need to seperate the seat back from the seat bottom. Part of the seat bottom's fabric wraps around the seat back and attaches to it. You need to unhook this piece of fabric before proceeding. You will see that the seat back's hing is attached by 2 screws on each side. Use your 15mm socket to remove them. Their nuts a welded to the seat bottom's frame so they will not come loose. Once the back is seperated from the seat bottom, set it aside.

Front Seat Bottom
Start at the back of the seat bottom and undo the J hook. Undo the J hook on the sides of the seat as well. Now peel your material forward until you reach the flap attached to the cushion with hog rings. (Notice more of that %^&# hooked strips) There are 3 hog rings attaching the fabric to the cushion. Cut them and continue to peel the fabric forward. The last J hook should just slide off of the seat frame. To install the leather, I first attached the strip with the Hog rings. Hook one end of the hog ring to the cushion wire, then hook it to the seat strip. You can use your needle nosed pliers to crimp the rings down, or you can use the Hog Ring Pliers. Now attach the front J hook and then attach the rear J hook and finally the sides. Now go to the seat back.

Front Seat Back
Remove your headrest from the seat back. Note: The side of the headrest with out the adjustment nub has a small hole. This hole is where you would stick the small allen wrench to release that side. Pull

Great write-up!!!

great write up dude, perfect timing too since I just ordered the take off leathers

Phoenix: Thanks man, I hope it helps. Let me know if you run into problems. I may be able to help. Enclosed are a couple of pictures that my neighbor took of the final product.


local://upfiles/53869/D38F99CDCF354C12AF62EC8B377E4A7D.jpg

local://upfiles/53869/C9D05EE2F5EB49F6A6760D1592F21E20.jpg

Looks great, can't wait to get mine in now, they should ship Tuesday, so with luck maybe I can have them by next weekend to get them on over the weekend.

Awesome write up and great timing...this was another planned mod for me.

i plan on getting leather seats but having yellow inserts put in. im sure it would be cheaper getting the gt leather seats for 300 then bringing it to a local place and having them do their magic instead of ordering a kit online?

Yes, it can be cheaper, the cheapest set I found for two-tone was around $900. Here are some links to sites that sell leather seats:

http://shop.ayarinc.com/main/product_info.php

http://www.leatherseats.com/default.asp

Those 2 companies sell both front and back seats. There are other companies out there, but most of them only sell just the front and then the rear is an additional cost.

Good Luck!

Where did you buy your GT take-offs?

I bought mine off of eBay for $313.00 shipped. Here is their website listing their non-eBay sale prices. The difference is about $10-15 overall.

http://www.newtakeoff.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=134

Good Luck,

Mark

SOLDSHORT! Sticky this sucker!:D

[edit] NM, already stuck! :)

I'll definitely be paying this thread a visit when I buy my leather seat covers.

You can grab em off Diversified Marketing Solutions, too. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005-2007-OEM-Ford-Mustang-GT-Leather-Seat-Covers-Seats_W0QQitemZ260081559952QQihZ016QQcategoryZ3370 1QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$249.99 plus shipping. Of course, if you call them, you can haggle them down. I've done this twice when buying my bumpers ($480 for both, PAINTED) and my rims/tires ($400 for GT takeoff rims/tires). Since they're in Cerritos, CA. I don't pay shipping. :D

Thanks Spartan VI !!!!!! Let me know how it goes.

Good Luck,

Mark

Hey Mark,

The link posted on the first thread is not accessible, can you let me know how to get it

Thanks,

For some reason the link does not seem to want to go to the page. Try copying and pasting the following into your browser.

http://www.mustangforums.com/m_1019059/tm.htm

I go it to work that way. Also, you can do a search for the thread title: Informational Documents or JJ_Stang in the search option of the forum. If anyone can get the link function to work, feel free to link it. I seem to be slightly slow witted when it comes to utilizing that fumction.

Thanks,

Mark

A couple of question for the ones that have done this already..

- Where to get those Hog rings, if Ford what is the PN ?
- How do you undo those J hook strips, especially under the headrest ?
- How do you remove the Backrest Recliner knob and bezel ?

Thanks,

The Hog Rings can be bought on the internet from http://www.leatherseats.com just navigate to the installation supplies page. You can also do a google search for them, but make sure they come from an upholstry supplier. There is also a part out there called hog rings that are used for attaching chain link fences to their poles. To the best of my knowledge, they are not available from Ford. I got mine from the local upholstry shop. He gave me a handfull for a $1.

The J-Hook strips can be undone slowly folding up the top part of the J-Hook. The 2 pieces should unsnap from each other. You can also push the 2 pieces together carefully and they will unsnap.

The Backrest Recliner knob on the seat back should just pull off. Once you have pulled it off, you will see a T15 Torx screw. Remove that and the bezel lifts out from the top to the bottom. To install, put nub on the bottom of the bezel into its slot (located at the bottom the the bezel hole in the seat back) and then re-instal the T15 Torx screw.

I hope this helps out,

Mark

Ok I found some Hog rings, but now have anoter question for you:

I got my leather takeoff today from Newtakeoffs.com and there seems to be something funny; The passenger backrest does not have the strap to retain the safety belt like the driver side, it does not seem to have been teared off, it's like it had never been installed. I know I have both side in my 05 and the are made of leather, in this one they are made of material (like safety belts) so the are probably from an 05 or an 07 as I know they had changed this, but is it possible the newer models don't have this strap on the passenger side ?

Ive been thinking about getting the take off leather some time in the future... but I just dont have the skills or time to install it myself..

does anyone know if there are places out there that will do it, will a dealer?

[>:]

Most upholstry shops will install them. Dealerships usually "farm" out this work to local upholstry shops, with the expectation that you buy the parts from the dealership. Expect to pay a premium. My local dealership wanted close to a grand for the leather and then about another $300 to $500 for install. I am of the opinion that they quoted this price to prevent me from doing it. My local upholstry shop gave me an estimate of $250 to install them.

That is what I suggest you do.

Good Luck!!

Mark

cool, I am hoping to be able to do something like this by september/october and definitly want to go the cheeper way heh.

Mine are finally completed, very nice mod and I'm very happy with the result. I have one thing that I have noticed from going through the documentation provided on the Ford PDF files. It says that we need to reset the OCS device after replacing a set cover or seperating the barckrest from the seat cover, which we all did to do this mod. Anyone this thi reset ?

See the extract from the 501-10-01 document:


CAUTION: It is necessary to carry out the occupant classification sensor (OCS)
system reset when a front passenger seat backrest is separated from the seat cushion,
the seat cushion is disassembled, a new trim cover is installed or an OCS service kit is installed.

A scan tool is used to trigger active command to carry out the OCS system reset.

CAUTION: Make sure the seat is completely assembled before carrying out the
OCS system reset.

CAUTION: The following precautions must be taken before carrying out the OCS system reset.

- Make sure the OCS system components are connected and no faults are present.

- Make sure the OCS system is not at a temperature below 0°C (32°F) or above 45°C (113°F) when initiating the OCS system reset process. If the vehicle has
been exposed to extreme cold or hot temperatures, the vehicle must be exposed and kept at a temperature within the limits, 0°C to 45°C (32°F to 113°F) for a minimum of 30 minutes.

- Make sure nothing is present on the passenger seat before carrying out the OCS system reset and nothing is placed on the seat during the process.

- Make sure a minimum 8-second time period has passed after cycling the ignition switch ON before the OCS system reset process.

I am glad you got them installed and are happy with the results. Before I did my seats, and the write-up, I talked to a Ford Technician about this. He told me to diconnect the power from the battery and wait about five minutes, and it deactivates the OCS, and once the battery is reconnected, the OCS will be fine and need to be reset. This is because the OCS will not have a record of it being disconnected. That is why I included the disconnection of the battery as the first step in my write-up. To ensure that I was not passing bum scoop, I had my OCS tested by the same technician and everything was fine. I made doublely sure on this information, because I take my Beagles for rides, and one of them sits in the front seat, and if the airbag did not shut off because the OCS was not set-up properly, the air bag would not de-activate. This would cause it to fire if there was an accident, and the risk of him getting hurt would be greater.

I hope this answers your question.

Mark

Hey, I guess you had all angles covered !!!!

I'm OK than, since my battery was disconeceted for at least...... let me think........ at good 3 months ! Yeap it's in hibernation.

Thanks again !

Cool, glad I was able to set your mind at ease. Enjoy the leather seats!

Awesome write up

Thanks RYD PNY. It has been about 6 months now in the harsh Socal desert and they still look good. One of the best mods I have done.

Dumb question but what size hog rings to get?

Not a problem. The size of the hog rings are as follows: The back is about 3/4" in length and the tines are about 1/2" long. You can buy them online for a very reasonable price here:

http://www.leatherseats.com/section.asp?sid=15

Let me know if you need any more info. Good Luck,

Mark

Thanks for this great "how to" article! I just bought a brand new 07 GT and on the second day of ownership I found a small razor cut in the leather on the passenger seat bottom. I called the dealer and they wanted me to bring it in (65 miles away) and they would inspect it and determine if they would repair or replace it and then they would schedule a time to bring it back to get done. Well, it's a brand new car and I didn't want a "repair" so instead of two trips and a bunch of BS I ordered a new "take off" from New Car Take Off and they only charged me $45.00 for it. It came in 2 days, was a perfect match and I installed it this morning with the help of your post. It only 1-1/2 hours and it looks FANTASTIC. It fits and looks just like it should.

This is a relatively easy job and on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it a 4-5 but that is in part because your post shortened the learning curve.

Thanks again!!!

Cavediver - I am glad I was able to help you out. That sucks that you had to do this on a NEW car. Since doing this write-up, I have done more of these installs than I like. (I am a sucker when it comes to helping peaople out). Enjoy your new seats.

Mark

I'm considering the leather seat kits from newtakeoff.com
Could you tell me how comfortable they are? I'm considering that or getting all new leather seats from a stripped GT or something like that.
Any comments would be appreciated.