repairing side airbag seat fabric

My 04 WRX has a worn seat back on the back of the driver's seat. There's a split in the seam, and the center is wearing out. The car has side airbags, so the first thing I did when I got it home was remove the neoprene seat cover.

What would the hive recommend? The other seats look new.

This is a minor priority for me at the moment; I'm not even driving it yet, but I want to find out what to expect.

Before I can drive it, I have to spend some money on it, so I need to get back to work. I'm planning to start back the first of June. Then I can register it (I have transferred the title), and change the timing belt/water pump, etc., plus the front axles.

Price a new cover. It may not be terrible.

my concern is the airbag. If I just put a cover over the seat, the airbag is confined within the cover. Then what happens if it deploys?

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Check if Subaru sells the seat fabric as a replacement? Some manufacturers do.

I looked it up on my database:  $372.53 for a complete cover. P/N 64151-FE270-OE

I haven't dealt with this exact problem, but found on a Z4 M Roadster that the seat heater was built into the fabric and was crazy expensive.

Most domestic seating was built with a weaker area in the cover (usually stitching in the upholstery seam) to allow the airbags to deploy, so your safest bet would be to replace the cover with an OEM part if it's still available. Or find a complete seat from a junkyard.

I have a similar seat side bolster wear issue on one of my cars. My plan is to pull the split seam and sew it back together. The seams I add will not be as strong as the factory bits, so the airbag should have no problem deploying. What I really need to do is try to find some similar fabric and stitch it in behind the original so the bolster does not look to compressed.

www.car-part.com is a marketplace for JYs so put in your make, model, part and it will shoot out JYs near you that have what you want.  

If you find a seat far away, rather than have the whole seat shipped, have the seller strip the cloth off the frame and just ship the cloth to then add to your frame.  

Via car-part....

$89 in Holly Hill, FL off a car w/ 147k miles

Can not tell from pic if really better than yours.  In the past, I have called yards and they send someone out to the yard to text me over pics of the item.  

Also know that JYs are wheeler dealers.  If the front driver's seat is asking $89 you might get it a little cheaper if you point out its flaws.

If the color is not the exact as yours, you might be able to get all 3 (Dr, Pass, Rear) for $200 or less.  While the seats are out then just pressure wash the heck out of them.  These seats in Holly Hill are from a wagon too.  

Thanks for finding me the wagon in Holly Hill. It's a half hour from my house, and about 10 minutes from the office. I'm not working until June, but I'm going in to drop off some masks (my amazing and wonderful wife made 20 of them for the crew), so I'll give them a call and see if I can check it out.