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Cruiser, you have a few different ways that would work.  You could glue the new fabric down like the original as long as the foam is still smooth.  If the old cover took some foam with it when removed, this may show once the new fabric is glued in place.  A thicker fabric with a busier pattern, kind of like what was on the seat originally, may tend to hide these more.  The larger the inperfections in the foam, the more they may show.  You will need to be patient when you glue the fabric on, making sure the the glue is dry enough in case you need to reposition, but not so dry it won't hold well.  Also need to kind of feed the fabric into the recessed areas, where the design pattern is in the foam, as you go.  You need to have enough material down into the recess, otherwise it may want to lift.  You just need to be in the right frame of mind and at a time when you know no one will be interrupting you for a while.

You might be able to fill the recesses in the foam in with additional foam glued in.  you could then sand it off and make it like they were never there.  I don't remember how much contour these seats have.  If they are somewhat flat, you may be able to come up with a pattern for a cover that doesn't need to be anchored, like a seat in an older pickup.

If you fill the foam in, you could also add your own automotive velcro and sew the fabric onto the selvage edges of your cover, the same as the new style covers you mentioned.  Sometimes when I make custom covers for older cars, I skip the listings and hogs rings and use this instead.  This allows you to anchor the cover to the foam pretty much anywhere you want.  I sew fabric to the backside of the black channel strip, then draw my pattern on the foam where I want the cover anchored.  Then I cut the foam out  just wide enough for the  strip to recess into the foam, usually somewhere around 1/2" deep (depends on what you want it to look like).  I then use hot glue on the foam and on the fabric I sewed to the backside of the strips.  Press it in place, and your ready to anchor your cover to it. 

Depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it.  Hope this helps.

I am so glad there were no cell phones and texting when I was in high school.  It forced us to do very odd things... we actually talked to people face to face, and we actually got on our feet and did something once in a while.

Thanks Chris and Mike.  I appreciate the info.  As far as the amusement park and a lot of the commercial jobs, the thread losing its color doesn't really concern me all that much.  however, I also do quite a lot of automotive work, so that's where more of my concern comes in.  Not so much on, say, a general run of the mill truck seat repair, but more so on custom and collector car interiors.  In general, there should be less chance of a problem on these as the volume of use will be much lower, and they should be better taken care of.  At the same time, I want to be cautious as a customer may invest a good chunk of change in one of the interiors, and if there ever was such a problem, it could be a real headache to get straightened out.  Just trying to be cautious.

When I top stitch instead of using a welting, its probably because of one of two reasons.  If its a high use situation with people sliding sideways a lot, I may leave it off because I feel it will hold up better than with people sliding across the welting, which will be sticking up higher and may wear faster than the rest of the cover.  The other reason is just because it may match the style of interior better than using the welting.  Sometimes, in my opinion, using a topstitch instead of welting gives an updated sort of appearance.  Also, if you use a topstitch, the selvage edge will always behave itself inside the cover, whereas with the welting, you may have to fuss with the selvage to get it where you want it.

So, as far as durability and color stability, in a thread that has a larger color selection, it sounds like sunguard is probably as good as any.  I do need to have a good selection of colors.  Any other opinions, Jump in!  Thanks.

When I upholster both automotive and commercial seats, often times I eliminate the welting and use a top stitch instead.  For nearly all my applications, I have always used sunguard thread.  I've never had any issues with customers when I have used this product.  However, for a number of years I have done work for amusement parks and shuttle buses that get a high volume of use.  This is what I have discovered:  Some of the covers, after heavy use and needing re-upholstery once again, have came back in with virtually white top stitching where there was a lot of sliding on and off of the seat.  I'm  talking about even black thread eventually turning white.   I think I've seen this in green, as well as red before.  I don't think the color really matters.  It seems the tread starts out as white, gets dyed to whatever color its supposed to be, and then the dye sometimes fails under heavy use.  Does anyone have a better suggestion for thread?  I'm generally not looking for the heavier, thicker nylon thread that's being made to really stand out.  Some of the applications are often outdoors as well, and the nylon thread would probably fail prematurely.  Again, haven't had any customer issues yet, just looking to avoid them in the future.  Thanks!

You guys are bringing up a lot of valid points and thoughts, which I appreciate.  The upcoming project that I was considering the recycled leather for looks to have settled in on a nice combination of vinyls, so this issue was side-stepped for now.  However, I am concluding that I will continue to set the recycled leather off to the side.  The patterns make it tempting, but I would  prefer to stay with the types of products that have either worked out well for me in the past, or that folks like you have had success with and can recommend.  If someone has already had cracking problems in an automotive application, that's a good reason to stay away from it.  Never thought about the possible fume / toxic factor.  May or may not be a factor, but how would a person (upholsterer) ever know for sure?  Yep, I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  I'll stay with the types of cloth, leather and vinyls that keep working for me.  Thanks Everyone.

I pass on the air bags seats, too.  Its just not worth the liability.  I've never found anybody, even at the dealerships, that really knows all the ins and outs of airbags in the seats.  Kind of a mystery...

A few years ago I repaired a  section in a chevy truck seat, right about that year.  Yep, that one was definately glued on.  I don't recall it had any velcro on that one at all.  Instead of pleats, the foam was recessed in areas to give the pattern, more like it was sculpted, and it was glued into the recesses.  I think most of the facing was glued.  Its been a while ago, but it did turn out, so its do-able.  If the foam gets beat up, the thin foam layer, as mentioned previously, would be a good idea, cause when you glue it down, alot of those imperfections are gonna show.  Maybe even need to hit it lightly with the sander if the new layer isn't quite smooth.  Just my thoughts, hope it helps.

Sorry for the slow response, its been a little crazy lately.  The books I have are from charlotte fabrics.  I've used quite a bit of certain patterns of theirs, and its always worked out nice.  Never really had any issues with their product, so i guess it does give me a little up front confidence.  The recycled leather doesn't really seem to be much thicker than a medium  vinyl.  Welting, hmmm.  Never gave that much thought.  Usually my style, in a pattern with this type of look and feel,  I tend to leave the welting off and topstitch instead.  With this product, and wear and tear sliding in and out of the vehicle, I would definately be concerned about it holding up.  Thanks for all the great input.  I really appreciate it!

Okay, I've been full time in my own upholstery business for four years now, mostly automotive, some commercial jobs.  About three years ago I covered some bar stools for someone's residence with recycled leather, the only time to date i've used it.  I've never heard anything negative from the customer, and they liked them, so I assume all is well. The particular sample they picked didn't really impress me alot, maybe on account of the color and texture.  I usually have a custom auto interior project I'm thinking about, and I'm always trying to find something a little bit different to make the interior stand out.  Since I did the stools, one of the vendors I use (same one I purchased the recycled leather from before) has came out with more books with the recycled leather, and some of swatches are really cool, and have a really nice feel to them.  In the past, I've pushed the recycled leather aside, but after talking to the vendor, I'm considering throwing them into the mix, primarily on streetrods, etc.  If they were having problems with the product, I don't think they would have added three or so new books to their offering over the last few years.  Any thoughts?  Thanks!