just wondering?

[sl7710]

Hi guys and girls ( lady's )
    I've been looking at your site for awhile, lots of good info, thanks!
anyways, i have a question for all of you, who may have any experience with this.
Has anyone ever installed aftermarket seat covers on a 2008 GMC Arcadia?
I just did, a friend of mine wanted leather, instead of cloth. I bought the cover kit from Roadwire, the covers were well made. After being in this business for 38 plus years......how hard would it be to swap out seat covers? Well gang, after spending nearly 34 hrs!!!!!!! i finished. I have NEVER seen such a engineering disaster! these were the worst seats i EVER took apart! Over the years I've done everything from Fords to Rolls Royce's and everything in between. My normal work is cut and sew, on classic, or restoration vehicles, with a few show cars thrown in. If any of you have done anything close to this, how in Gods name do you charge!!!!! Thanks Skip

[TimsTrim]

Well, it wasn't a 2008 but I done a 2010 recently and I'd imagine they are close enough to count. I do the  trim work for the local GM dealer. They had gotten involved some time back with a company here who claims to do some restyling and tinting. Anyway the GM dealer was taking cars to them for leather kits. Katzkin kits. Then someone at the dealership got the idea to save some money by buying the kits off the Internet and taking them to the restyler for an install. Now here's the back story to all this-- Once upon a time I done a few kits for the restyler because he knew nothing about interior work.But he thought I was charging too much for the installs and decided to do them himself. You know how it is  "anyone can do that". About 3 months ago I get a call from the GM dealer asking me to look at some seats a customer was complaning about. Sure enough it was a leather kit the dealer had bought and taken to the restyler. A brief synopsis of the installation-- the rear cushion was not ringed down in the top inserts, and the bolster had one hog ring in each end. The front cushions were not on the correct seat. ie: the driver cushion was on the passenger side and vice versa. All the headrests were on backwards. I corrected everything including having to do an insert job on the two cushions because the bolsters were cut out for switches. I charged the dealer $300 and advised them I was helping them out.

Now back to your Acadia.I took about 14 hours on mine.By my count there was 26 seperate covers in the kit. It is an engineering nightmare.A lot of the covers I could get off the seats while in the car.

(this post is getting long, I'll do a Part 2)

[TimsTrim]

I ended up charging the dealer $400 for the install but told them straight up, the next one would be about 800 dollars. They didn't know what a job it was and neither did I. But they are a very good customer of mine and they deserve the break on the job. I'll make it back on future work.
At this point I need to be honest on my feelings about these leather kits. I put my first one on back in the mid 90's. Done a lot of them for  large Toyota dealer and the kits included door panels. What a treat those are !! Anyway I think the new car dealers are doing their customers a disservice selling kits for new cars. The covers in the kits are no way the quality of OEM covers. Who's going to warranty them ? GM? The leather kit maker ? What happens when the replacement covers need an insert job ? Where do you get the leather ? It sure won't be in the Detroit books and who is going to pasy me to research and contact the kit company to see if they have or will sell me the leather ? The quality of the leather is not nearly as good as OEM and some of the ways they install make no sense at all. While GM used plastic interocking connectors on the bottom of the backrest covers on the Acadia the kits used zippers.Cheap zippers, I broke two trying to zip them up and had to repair that. Just not a fan of the leather kits.

[stitcher_guy]

I've not run into the quality issue with Katzkin. Never used Roadwire to have a comparison. But if a kit ever came back for repair, Katzkin sells flat leather. And the other leather suppliers (Coast to Coast, Miami Corp, DLT) have tons of color choices. What I have done in the past is clip a small sample and mail it off. Then the rep at the supplier actually does a hard comparison for what I need.

Also regarding color, when you purchase a Katzkin kit, I always state the color I had decided to use, and then ask what they recommend. One time, matching a Toyota Sienna, I state the color, the rep said "welllll, we can do that one. It would be the only one we've done. But with XXXX color, we've sold 3,000." lol. I go with their recommendation.

I've done several Katzkin installs. One reason for the zipper is shipping. You can't fold down the J-channel lockers. I"ve yet to break a zipper. Just put some pressure on the foam bun and compress it as you zip, and it closes right up. Once it's zipped, those things can take a ton of pressure. All of the velcroes are always spot on, and the covers go on nice and tight.

I've never done an Arcadia. Sounds like a challenge. HOpefully I'll get one sometime and I can give it a whirl.

[sl7710]

thanks for the reply s...... in retrospect. i could have done some of the seats in the vehicle , but i figured it would be easier on the bench.  Anyways, live and learn, i learned 1 thing.....don't do another one. Theres to much work out there to to, that i can be proud to do and not screwing around, with a soccer mobile!........Skip