Thread: Seat covers availability - OEM or aftermarket, 2001 GTP?

My son and I have maintained his old 2001 GTP in order to keep it alive for his college years, so easily another 4 years as this is his first semester. While the car is very good mechanically thanks to the venerable 3.8L Buick and rebuild/replacement of anything that needs attention, the driver's seat is an absolute wreck after nearly 20 years and 180K miles.

I would be willing to hire a good upholstery mechanic I know to rebuild the seat, but this is a far more practical exercise if the original seat covers can be sourced. Or even a decent aftermarket fit. It starts to get pretty expensive if they have to be hand-sewn from purchased leather swaths. The seats are black leather, BTW.

Is a cost effective, decent-quality set of seat covers (upper and lower) available? It was a common care, maybe there is aftermarket support?

you might look on carid.com and look for covers specific to the vehicle. I got some for a different vehicle a couple years back and they fit like a glove. MUCH better than the universal fit garbage you normally find. I believe they were like $200 for both front seats and they have a lot of different styles and fabrics to choose from. Just make sure you get vehicle specific.

Originally Posted by 05GPBase

you might look on carid.com and look for covers specific to the vehicle. I got some for a different vehicle a couple years back and they fit like a glove. MUCH better than the universal fit garbage you normally find. I believe they were like $200 for both front seats and they have a lot of different styles and fabrics to choose from. Just make sure you get vehicle specific.

A cover won't do anything for the disintegrated foam. I'm afraid at this point the only real fix is a seat rebuild, painful as it is for a worthless old car. And at $200, it may be possible to do it for not a while lot more, I'm guessing maybe $400 if my son pulls the seat out himself and delivers it to the shop. No leather at that price either . . .

Originally Posted by Lifespeed

A cover won't do anything for the disintegrated foam. I'm afraid at this point the only real fix is a seat rebuild, painful as it is for a worthless old car. And at $200, it may be possible to do it for not a while lot more, I'm guessing maybe $400 if my son pulls the seat out himself and delivers it to the shop. No leather at that price either . . .

Agreed. I didn't know your foam was that far gone. Have you look at theseatshop.com? Not sure if they have anything for a Grand Prix but they might and would be worth a shot to take a look.

Getting newer seats from an 04-08 is also an option and junkyards sell seats pretty cheap. Front's are a direct bolt in and some minor wiring will get the power and heat working if you go that route. Rears are easy too if you wanted to do those.

3rd vote on the 04+ seats. I just did mine and I love them.. you sit alil higher in the car.

If your son is 6'4" it may be a issue. As stated by other posters they are way more comfortable.

If your on a budget and cant find leather the cloth ones are pretty nice to but not heated

I waited 4 years to find a primo set of seats.. Best comes to those who wait

If you do opt to replace the seats the carpet isnt much more of a stretch to take out.. well worth cleaning. Taking 22 years of crap out of my carpet has left my car smelling nice and fresh

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by FordMan77

I vote 04+ swap. Way more comfortable and will be in better shape. Maybe even the GXP seats if you want to go all out as they came in black so it won't be noticeable. The stock 97-03 seats aren't worth the $$ to try and redo since they sucked when new. I swapped full 06 GXP leather/suede seats in my 00 GT and they're great, and I have a heated drivers seat to boot!

Please describe what wiring modifications are required in the donor is '06 power and the recipient is '01 power. Are the connectors different, must splice both ends of the donor connector, etc?

Seat Swap: 04+ to 97-03[*]

Post #21 has the wire swap.

Also is the passenger heat wiring is in there somewhere if you want to go all in

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Lifespeed

LOL, I wish I got the seats for $100. The passenger wiring is only for the heater I think, it's a manual seat. I may skip wiring the heater, just wiring the airbag switch.

Gotta love U-Pull-It!

I think they all had manual passenger seats, which does make wiring a lot simpler at least. I didn't do anything with the airbag switches in the seats, I haven't found anything on what to do with that wiring. I also didn't realize that the seat-side buckles aren't compatible with the belt-side buckles, so I had to swap out the seat buckles from the old seats.

The 97-03 cars didn't have pretensioner belts so you don't need to do anything with the wiring for the air bag stuff. There's nothing for the wiring to connect to on the car side. Just need to wire up power and ground for the power seat to work and the the two heat wires if you want the heat to work.

Easy to do. I got my set of seats at pick n pull for 120 bucks on a discount weekend. Full price in my area is is 160.00. If i can do it you can to. Bring means to power the car and move the seat forward to gain access to the 15mm bolt.

DO IT!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Sweetness. You wont regret it

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by wowitsfast

Sweetness. You wont regret it

Your car looks nice. We only got the front seats, more of a practical concern. My son's GTP has a scraped-up passenger door. Although it is well-maintained mechanically, I'm afraid it won't get the level of cosmetic care yours received. I think my son will buy himself a Mustang or Camaro after college.