Removing the Front Seat Skins

I'm assuming that you are able to remove the seat from car. On the older C900's the driver's seat can be difficult because of the rear mounting system.

The first thing to do is flip the seat so you can see the bottom. There are numerous clips that hold the skin to the seat bottom. Removing them is pretty simple. This is much easier with a third arm, but it can be done by one person. While pushing on the seat from the top, hold onto a clip with a pair of pliers and pull it up over the wire. It takes some effort, but once you get the hang of it, it goes by fast. After removing all of the clips, the bottom skin will slip right off.

 

 

Now for the hard part!
To remove the top skin without damaging it is a delicate procedure, but I think I have found how Saab did it.
The first thing to do is unzip the bottom and pull on the brass clips that hold the skin down. I found that removing the reclining knob made it a little easier.

Remove the release knob and trim plate if your seat has this.

The same clips that were on the bottom section are on the top section, however the access is not as easy. You still need to pull on the clip with one hand and push on the seat with the other. The key is to remove all but the two very top clips, otherwise you will rip the skin away from the seat and you will need to sew it back on again! There should be two rows of 3 clips. You will know if you got them all if you gently put your arm up the front of the seat and pull it away from the cushion. If there is resistance, then there is probably a clip there.

While pulling the skin up, there are two black straps that need to be released.

 

Once you get everything released, you can pull the skin up to the halfway point. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the skin is tight and the wire bars do not allow the front to bend that much. The easiest way to do this is to turn the skin inside out as you pull it up to the middle point.
There are 4 hog rings holding the back to the seat. You need to pull the skin up to this point.

 

Almost done, now you can remove the last two clips. On my seat there were two slits to access the clips.

Now to remove the headrest. I've heard different ways to remove it, so I believe it may vary between years.
On mine, there was one screw in the front which was access through a slit in the cushion and a tab with needed to be pushed in. The headrest should pull out once this is done.

 

Now, pull off the rest of the skin and your done!

Installing the new skin is really just a matter of doing everything in reverse. If you buy the special hog ring pliers with some new hog rings, installation is even easier!
You can buy them www.eastwood.com.