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Hi brickc. The vinyl seats are such an sore spot. In refurbishing the 240's I don't think I've yet to come across one that didn't need at least one seat repaired, if not all of them. I just finished changing out the entire interior in a 1980 245.
My standard practice is to remove and replace the seat covers with good donors either from back East or from passenger seats found intact. Taking off a bottom cover is not that much trouble. In fact, sometimes I'll just unbolt and swap out the entire lower cushion if the webbing is intact. Unfortunately it usually isn't so more rebuilding than just the cushion is in order. Definitely take out the seat and put the back face down on a table with a weight on it to make working on the bottom easier. I can detail you the process for removing the cover if you like.
An easier solution is to patch the tear. Find a good piece of donor vinyl from the back of a seatback or the face of a back seat lower cushion. Believe it or not, super-glue (cyanoacrylate glues) will form an incredibly strong bond between the woven synthetic backing on the vinyl and the vinyl face of your seat. granted it won't be pretty, but if you extend an inch past the tear in all directions, you'll have a very strong patch. Make sure to completely coat the back of your patch with glue. I'm very fond of the Loctite glue sold at Home Depot. Be quick and make sure you rub the patch down very well all over. don't put too much glue on, it'll squeeze out and make a mess. The bonding reaction gets rather hot to the touch, be careful, but don't let it buckle while drying.
As a rule, even after refurbishing seats, I cover them with sheepskins. Depending on the budget for the car I'll get real ones from Saddleman for $75 or synthetics from Seat Covers Unltd. in Arizona ($40?). Might as well protect the repaired or replaced vinyl so it lasts.
Good luck,
DS
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