Thanks, guys. ::thumb::
By "tweaking" I meant, put 'em in the sun (to let the seat cover material itself warm up) and massage the covers around to smooth out some of the smaller wrinkles along the seams. Also, if I may use the term "spanking" the cushions and bolsters (as most of the articles I've read liked using it) to break the tension between the cover and seat foam in the places where they're really tight on each other. Pushing the bolsters inward toward the center of the seat seemed to help as well. Those little wrinkles and puckers formed as the seams drug across the seat foam and some got stuck in-place before they should've (we're only talking millimeters here). Every time you spank, squeeze, or compress the seat foam inside the covers, a little bit of that tension will release, allowing the covers to "relax" and slip just a little bit more into the position they naturally want to be in.
Between the massaging, spanking, squeezing, and relaxing the puckers, this process almost sounds a little dirty. rofl
A couple of other thoughts:
Oddly enough, the rear seat back (upper portion) was the toughest to do. It's pretty much just a flat piece of metal frame, with a rectangular piece of foam, which looks deceptively simple... whereas the fronts and rear seat bottom parts were formed into the overall shape of the seats themselves. Getting the rear seat upper cover on turned out to be the toughest I think because being just a flat piece... there was less leverage to be had when pulling the seat cover over and around the foam. What I eventually had to do was get something (or someone) heavy enough to smash the seat foam thin enough to get the stubborn sections around the frame far enough to engage the hog rings.
There will also be some times when you run out of hands to hold the piece you're working on in the right position to get the hog ring pliers into the best places to fasten things.
The rear seat lower part is the most complex-looking, because of the center piece of foam going over the "hump" part, but it's not that bad - there's just no place to secure it like with the others having their listing rods. Once both outer cushions are in-place, tuck the center foam into place and work the seat cover itself from the inside out (get the center piece between the cushions fastened, then the center/tops of the cushions themselves, the wrap the sides around and fasten just like with the front bottom seat cushions). Make sure not to get the seat belt pass-thrus wrapped up inside of the frame and accidentally stuck down to something - it's easy to do while fussing with the center piece of foam.
I had ordered two burlap kits (they're cheap) because I wanted to make sure I had plenty in case I messed something up... yeah, I only used about half of what they recommended. I actually doubled up on the bottom cushions for the fronts. The biggest PITA with the burlap is getting the hog rings through them for the seat foam listing wires in securing the seat foam to the seat frames. What I did in attempt to help with this was to pick where I wanted to push the hog rings through, and made sure the foam was separated on either side of the listing wires. I used the burlap as a 'template,' to figure out where the hog rings and listing wires would intersect for good anchor points (there are not hard frame mounts for the listing wires, in other words - they mount wherever the listing wires would intersect the 'spring' pieces on the frame). Take the burlap, lay in on the bottom of the upside down cushion, and using a Sharpie draw the lines of the listing wires onto the burlap. When you lay it over the frame, you should be able to see where the springs will intersect with the listing wires (without having to hassle with the bulky foam) - having the lines will also help keep the burlap aligned if it shifts while you're playing with the foam. Since the burlap goes between the foam and the seat frame, make sure you make some slits through the burlap for ease of getting the hog rings and pliers through.
For every time I had to use the hog rings and pliers, I also used a sturdy hook to poke through the foam and burlap to draw both the mounting point of the seat springs and the listing wires in the foam as close together as possible. I figure I had about a 85% success rate doing this... after I'd gone 1 for 8 trying to do the same thing without using the hook and just feeling around with the hog ring pliers.
You also want the hog ring pliers that "spring closed" to help hold the hog rings in the tool until you're ready to compress them (I don't even know if they sell "spring open" hog ring pliers, but I don't recommend using them, as it was tough enough to get the technique down without having to keep tension on the hog ring while in the pliers as well).
When you pull your seats apart, make sure you keep and mark/indicate which positions your listing wires need to go back into the new covers - they don't come with new listing wires for the covers themselves. The foam pieces have them molded into the foam, so that's helpful. If some of your original listing wires are corroded or weak, just get some wire coat hangers, and cut new ones - cut enough fold the ends over, to prevent having sharp edges that can poke through the seat covers if they shift (but they won't once in-place and fastened... they'll be under some tension at that point).
When you have listing wires running through a flap/loop that needs to be fastened, find the appropriate attachment points on the frame, and make a couple of slits over the edge of the flap/loop so the hog ring can engage the listing wire directly. I wasted a handful of hog rings because of trying to do it "blind" (with the listing wire "somewhere" inside the flap/loop) and missing the listing wire altogether - having it exposed takes one more thing out of the complication. Not to mention, punching through the flap/loop in addition to the engaging the listing wire AND the frame fastening point [while keeping tension on the seat cover & foam and holding other things in-place] takes some doing as well. I made small "diamond" cuts at the fold of the flap/loop, so when you removed the material, you had a small square of material and a nice "triangle" window of exposed listing wire.
When engaging a hog ring, remember it will be under tension... even more so when someone sits in the seat. Always try to put it in a place where either a listing wire, plastic piping, or a finished edge/seam where more than one layer of material is engaged... to prevent ripping the material itself. The material is pretty tough, but any time you can get more than just the fabric itself to bear the tension, it's always better.
Wow... I didn't think that many thoughts would just come flooding out, but I kind of just went through one of those "re-living the process in my head" moments.
If I can think of anything else, I'll post it up as it comes.
... but I did them myself, dammit.
And that, Sir, is one of the defining statements regarding this website. Don't get me wrong - having things done at a shop is an option (or sometimes necessity) that must be considered. But the support and information that is provided on this site allows us to, more often than not, make it an option, rather than a necessity. Thanks for the pics and post, Eric!
No problem, Doc - thanks for the kind words.
In all honesty, some of the other guys who've done their own seats most likely spent a little more time researching, and were possibly a little less rushed and frustrated as I was, so their seats came out even better. But like I said, I'm happy with mine, I'd never done upholstery before after all - knowing now what I didn't know then, I'll do better next time, I'm sure.