Many times over the past years I've heard the infamous rumor of some assembly-line folk stuffing the build sheet in between the folds of the rear seat cushion. During my carpet/seat cover replacement this past holiday weekend I came across some 38-year-old history.



Very surprised, I was! It was in between the two layers of fabric, drivers side rear seat cushion. Looks like the previous owner had alot of "activity" back there, as the paper was beaten and weathered like a piece of the dead Sea Scrolls. :p

Tie wrapping the seat covers on? That's a new one on me! Just wait a few years until the heat dries those things out...

Cool find on the build sheet. Now I have to go pull my seats again.

You use the tie-wraps (bundle-ties to us MEN) to set and stretch the new covers just right before clamping them down with the hard wire, silly girl. No upholstery background, eh pretty lady?

I'm scanning the remnants of the build-sheet and will send you a copy for analysis, since I know you are interested in that. The paper is falling apart as we speak! You were one that mentioned this story a long while back, but I didn't really believe it would be there. Most people think if you pull the seat out it'll pop out into your waiting arms. Not so. Gotta dig a little.

Not so sure if I believe you, John, as you neatly snipped off the tails.

I did my driver's seat cover last spring two days before the first big show. I didn't use the ties, maybe I'll try that for the rest of the seats, which are this winter's project. I already have the covers and foam. Thanks for the idea.

And I should have called them cable ties, if you want to play semantics.

To keep the diversity up, I'll call them zip ties. The zip tie thing looks like a slick trick. You don't get any uv exposure, so I don't see why they won't hold up. I have 20 year old zip ties under the hood and under the car, and they are as strong as ever.

My back seat cover is falling apart, so I'm going to see if I can take it apart and re-sew it.

I think I'll use the zip ties too. Good answer!

Great find on the build sheet!
Once you get used to the hog rings they are much quicker and work better. The trick is in having good hog ring pliers and a few different sizes of rings.

Jim

That looks like mine that I found under my seat. Although mine is in a little rougher shape. At some point a mouse took residency up in the rear seat and was starting to chew the build sheet up for padding. I noticed bits of it after a long winter and investigated. I now have the majority of the build sheet and no more mice. I put the sheet on some double-sided tape to hold the pieces together. Parts of it look like a puzzle. But what the hell, it's there.

On both my 68 and 69 Birds thats the exact location of my build sheet as well. Only bad thing was on the 68 it was just a BLANK form. Dang

Interesting. I found the original build sheet for my 69 between the trunk floor and the top of the gas tank. It's not in a gallon zip lock bag SOMEWHERE for safe keeping. I'll have to look for it so I know I cn put my hands on it again after the move.

Mine was stuck up under one of my front seats...I think it was the passenger seat.

Mine (68) was under the rear seat on the underlayment. Stained the heck out of it. If I hold it up to a light, I can barely read it.

I found one in the headliner. It seems the mice took it piece by piece and redeposited it for a nest. What a puzzle that was!

Jim

Well, with all the locations people have found them in, seems to me the document was printed in multi-copy (perforated print-roller edges), so anyone along the line with a copy could have stuffed it wherever they felt it should go. I just really never thought I'd find one in my car.

I've got a buddy who recovered his '68 Bird seats using zip ties instead of hog rings. He's happy with the result. His has been done for about 5 years.

Rossetti, I've used them on all my seat cover replacements, just wanted to poke a bit at Vikki. I'll tip my hat to the folks that can work with the hog-rings, but my first experience with them left my hands bloody and clips zinging all over the garage breaking things and taking visitors eyes out. You know its never good when somebody loses an eye....

It's all in the pliers.

Jim

Jim, you obviously have the patience, and the right pliers.

I was using a pair of $1.49 slip-joints. A disaster just waiting for a volunteer.

I did the one cover with hog rings and pliers from NPD, and they worked fine. The only difficulty was that I bought only one size of hog ring (small) but also needed longer for the seat seams. Instead of running back to NPD I pulled out a roll of mild steel wire that I use to bind rolls of snow fence with in the off season. I bent, poked, pulled and twisted my own wire ties.