nsogiba

Has anyone ever "swapped" seats from left to right in a C5? I have the usual bolster wear and general poor support on the driver's side, but the passenger side feels brand new as it has rarely been sat in. Plan on one day retrofitting the Evo 8/9 seats, but in the meantime want to make any improvement I can. Don't want to invest in rebuilding the existing seats as they will still be marginal at best when rebuilt with new foam, etc. Is it possible to unbolt the seat cushions (lower and upper) from the power rails and swap over to the other side?

Vetteman Jack

It can be done, but if you have power seats the controls will be on the wrong side and the sides of upper portion of the seats have fabric instead of vinyl on the inside portion of the seat. Moving the seats from passenger to driver will result in the fabric now being on the outside instead of the inside.

nsogiba

The vinyl/fabric switch does not bother me in the least. It's far better than sliding all over the place during turns. The swapped seat controls does bother me, though. How 'bout just switching seatbacks? The left bolster on the driver's side is the one that's sagging.

pmr2000

Upper seat foam looks symmetrical to me, easy to get the upper cover off just 2 zippers and push pins, clip in crack, no hog rings.

nsogiba

Yeah, I'll have to give it a whirl doing just the seat backs. That left waist bolster is just terrible, it feels broken.

dbgoodwin

It probably is broken then. It's just a little fiberglass looking wing.

Tuffguy610

I actually just got finished installing a new set of leather skins, shift boots, and center console cover on my 2000 coupe so I know exactly what can be switched between seats and what cannot. I actually did extensive research on the skins themselves (bought from interior innovations), bulking up the actual seat bottoms, and repairing my seat bladders since I have the sport seats with power lumbar and side bolsters and the stock bags deteriorated due to age.

What I found was that I couldn't switch my seat bottom foams as they have cutouts for the power seat controls on the left side for the drivers and the right side for the passengers. However, I actually did switch the upper foams as the side bolsters had accumulated some wear on each side as they were brushed when people would exit the car. On the sport seats, the center back section appears to be identical as well if you have sport seats and choose to swap them.

I have some links to some good threads for you that may help you beef up your stock seat foams. While some vendors sell "Corvette taxed" (read: "expensive for what they are") repair kits that have pre-cut sized jute backing and foam that is placed on the bottom of each seat bottom, I bought the materials myself and did it. The result is that I now sit at least an inch or 2 higher on both seats now that I've finished the install. The seats now look puffed up like they did originally, and my plastic control trim doesn't flop out like it did previously.

If you don't mind getting in touch with your feminine side , go to Joann fabrics and buy the materials to beef up the foam. See the links below, they should buy you some comfort while you save for your Evo seats. The first link I feel is the most informative, especially where it explains what causes the foam to actually tear when pushed against the 1/4" seat frames, and how to glue the foam back together and prevent it from happening again by putting some rip stop nylon fabric over the re-glued foam. You'll find that this is the majority of the reason why your seats go flat over time, they rip where the foam doesn't have enough strength to support itself over the seat frame and the metal wires. If you fix them, they won't rip again and you won't have to buy replacement seat foam only to have it happen again later on.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...-pictures.html

http://www.101corvetteprojects.com/2...-seat-rebuild/

Lastly, a few pics of my newly completed interior setup:









Mike

73Corvette

VERY nice!