Seat Straps

I carried on working on the seats this week. One of the first jobs has been to tackle the sagging rubbery seat straps that run across the seat back. These are basically a length of rubbery webbing that is folded over onto itself at each end to trap the seat clip and then stapled into itself with a couple of small plates to dissipate the load. I thought these would be pretty cheap so imagine my surprise when I found out a strap kit was nearly £40! That's for one side too, so £80 to do both seats!



Clearly that was ridiculous, so I set about trying to find a cheaper way. After a bit of research, it turns out that the rubber strapping stuff is called 'Pirelli webbing'. This is available by the metre from upholstery suppliers and is very cheap. I bought mine from a company called 'Skiddaw Upholstery' and it arrived pretty much next day. The stuff they sent was a bit thicker and looked better quality than the original Triumph issue. It was a different colour but then who really cares when it's inside a seat!

The staples and plates can easily be bent out and removed from the old straps and fitted to the new ones. It's really easy and quick and the results are very good. Just remember that the old straps will have stretched a bit, so make the replacements a bit shorter. And that's it - dead easy! About 5m should do both seats and will cost a much more reasonable £11.25 + postage!