What to do with cracked 69 headrest

[Michael L.]

Guys,

one of of the headrests on my 69 is cracked. Is it possible to repair this? If not does anyone make good repos for these? See below pic for extent of crack.

Mike

[Jack C.]

Re: What to do with cracked 69 headrest

I've seen leather and vinyl repair shops as well as a mobile service that claim to be able to fix almost any issue. No recommendations, just a thought.

[Joel S.]

Re: What to do with cracked 69 headrest

The following was taken from the Corvetteforum C3 Technical section (I'm going to need to do this also):

hoping this will help close out the question. I just removed mine a couple of minutes ago. I'm completely rebuilding my seats. Standing behind the seat (it's on the ground), pull the headrest out until you hit the stop, tilt the headrest to the right, it will only move a degree or two. This will allow a tab at the right bottom of the chrome shaft to drop into the rail that the chrome shaft slides in. You're compressing a piece of spring steel in the rail that pushes the chrome shaft to the right that keeps the tab at the bottom right of the chrome shaft from dropping into the rail. Once the tab clears the opening in the rail it was previouly sticking out of, the headrest assembly will slide out

I hope this helps. If not your going to have to remove the seat back to see this more clearly. BTW, nothing on Youtube so if you figure this out, it would be helpful for many. :-)

Joel

[Joe L.]

Re: What to do with cracked 69 headrest

Guys,

one of of the headrests on my 69 is cracked. Is it possible to repair this? If not does anyone make good repos for these? See below pic for extent of crack.

Mike

Mike------


As Jack mentioned, there are vinyl repair services that can fix this type of problem. Often, they do work for automotive dealers that are detailing used cars. They also do work for retail establishments like restaurants that have vinyl seating, especially with booths. As Jack also mentioned, many are mobile and will come to you. You should be able to find one locally. The repair probably won't be 100% undetectable but I've seen these come out pretty good.

Here's the problem: often times vinyl like that used on headrests and door panels will become extremely brittle with age and especially if exposed to a lot of heat over the years. In that case, it will break like an egg shell. So, you have to determine if the headrests have sufficient pliability to be worth repairing. If not, you're fighting a losing battle (unless the car is destined to be only a "trailer queen" type car).

[Ron G.]

RgodutiLT1@yahoo.com. - Ron