Little Things

It is amazing how the little things are the ones that get you. Take for instance what I did today. Angel had asked me to install her new seat covers that she picked out the other night while out buying items for my component speaker installation. That purchase was on Wednesday. We had company on Thursday and was working on my car last night. Therefore, her anxiousness got the better of her today and wanted to get them installed. Well, I guess it was improper of me to think that this would have been a simple thing to complete.

The whole thing started with installing the new windshield wipers that her car needed. While we were out there and the weather was nice, she decided that she would take it upon herself to install the new seat covers. Well, she quickly learned that she would need my assistance in completing the install. The instructions provided did not line up with the materials provided.

The instructions indicated that there were elastic loops on each of the left & right sides and two in the front. These loops were supposed to reach from the sides of the seat to the rear to thread thru a grommet that would secure the bottom of the seat and then extend forward and link up with the front loops.

There were two major flaws in these instructions. The links to connect the side and front loops were not provided with the installation kit and the loops were not long enough to cover the distance it was indicated that they should. Missing pieces and not enough material posed an interesting quandary. What would we do now?

Well, my first reaction was to go back to the store and buy bungee cords to travel the distance required. Well, this idea was shot down when I realized that he retention loops the affix the cord to the hook would not fit through the grommet. Therefore, it was time to get more creative as to how to deal with this.

Since working on a seat while it is mounted in the car gives you a difficult environment to work in, I decided that I would remove the seat to see if I could convince it to work as the instructions indicated. This was a no-go, even with the seat removed it would not work as advertised. However, now that it was out, it was easier to get more creative in the retention process.

I decided that I could use some 12g solid core wire that I had lying around in the shed to run the route required for proper installation. This was the ticket. Using some pliers and careful consideration for the tensile strength of the materials involved, I was able to successfully get the covers properly installed.

One thing to note during this process is that my car is still in the garage in pieces with the component speaker installation still underway. Therefore, my car is still unable to be driven since the passenger seat is still not installed, instrument cluster missing, driver's side door unable to be closed and so on & so forth. Then today took Angel's seats out of her car. For a time period, neither vehicle was in a state to be used. It was something worth a chuckle when it was brought to my attention.

Have a look at the pictures we took during the process. Sorry, I didn't take detailed installation photos for you, but I think the description is more than enough to get a picture of what I did.