Seat style

[Charles H Jacobus]

I have seen two different seat styles in 356 cars where one has a stitched line at the base of the seat and is pulled down from the front of the seat to the base of the seat and the other is not (as shown in the pictures). I believe the tan seat is not correct because mine were one stitch across, not two, but assume it has one stitch. Both my prior 356s were pulled down. Are there two different seat styles or is one incorrect?

ChuckJ

[Chuck House]

Chuck,

I think you are referring to the pleat/crease on the bottom cushion of the seat, correct? If so, they all had a crease (I'm not sure about extremely early cars). There was no stitching across the crease. The crease was made by tying the upholstery underside and corners of the crease inside the bottom seat cushion in a specific way. The gray seat in your photos looks like it had the crease, but the string inside the bottom cushion breaks after time and the crease relaxes making it look flat. My pet peeve is that upholstery shops usually make this a very sharp, crisp crease and that is not how it was done at the factory. It was a soft, somewhat wrinkled crease. See photos of low mileage original seats (first is the larger T1 seats, second T2).

[Alan Hall]

[quote="Chuck House"]

My pet peeve is that upholstery shops usually make this a very sharp, crisp crease and that is not how it was done at the factory. It was a soft, somewhat wrinkled crease.


+1!!!

[Charles H Jacobus]

Thank you Chuck and Alan! I made Leather seat covers for my S90 in the early 70s and I remember the string but I couldn't remember how the string was attached. That string was also mostly broken and I remember it was a challenge replacing it. I thought they should all have a crease, so thanks for confirming.

ChuckJ

[Joris Koning]

My pet peeve is that upholstery shops usually make this a very sharp, crisp crease and that is not how it was done at the factory. It was a soft, somewhat wrinkled crease.


+1!!!

+1, very few places are able to correct this detail. Real shame

[Max Handley]

Original 32K mi.,1959 T2 coupe seats.

[Charles H Jacobus]

Thanks, guys! I'm going to take my seat apart and see if I can't set it straight. If anyone of you have done that recently I'd love some pointers. It's been 43 years since I did mine on the S90.

ChuckJ

[Jim Alton]

By the way, your second seat--the one with the basketweave inserts--may be a 911 or 912 seat. The basketweave inserts arrived roughly in the 1966 model year; before that leatherette inserts had little perforations.

[Jim Alton]

If it helps any, here are some period photos from brochures.

These are from a February 1959 Accessories brochure but show T-1 or earlier seats. The crease is further forward than in T-2 or later seats.

T-1 or earlier seats from a 1959 Accessories brochure.

T-1 or earlier bench seat from a 1959 Accessories brochure.

This is from an April 1965 911 brochure. These seats have six pleats--a feature peculiar to very early 1965 911s. Otherwise, the crease should be fairly representative of T-2 and later seats.

Seat from an April 1965 911 brochure.

Seat base from an April 1965 911 brochure.

[Charles H Jacobus]

That last one is exactly what I was looking for, Jim. Thanks much!

When I take the seat apart there's probably evidence of where the crease was also.

ChuckJ