Hello!

I’m looking to restore my 1970 seats. I’m attaching below photos of them. Questions I have:
1. Do you think I need to put new foam? Seat or back or both?
2. Do you think the cover is in good shape? Can I pair it with SEM Color Coat?
3. What is the brown fabric that covers the foam?
4. Do you think the front top bezel looks good?
5. what is the metal black piece with number hanging in the back?

I was thinking of also replacing the fold button, the top bumpers since they looks run down and painting the metal pieces in the back so it looks nicer.

Thank you!

 

Hello,
I'll take a couple of easy ones:
The metal tag is a part number and I believe a date code.
The course fabric is called 'scrim'.
I believe the foam will need to be replaced.
The existing covers are loose and baggy because the foam has been compressed.
Al KNOCH sells very good seat covers.
Regards.....

 

I guess it depends on how nice you want your seats. But I personally think your foam and covers are shot.
I thought my covers didn't look to bad, until I removed them. Rude awaking.

 

The “new foam” issue has been something that everyone thinks they need but you can actually “fix” your original foam for way less then the cost of new foam.

I needed to redo my seats a few years ago. So I started learning and playing around with what to do. I really wanted to restore my original comfortweave seats rather than just put Al Knoch reproduction covers in my 69 but didn’t know where to begin. The seat cover foam (inside the covers themselves) was like powder. So I just used the reproduction covers. And they looked great. Went with new seat frame foam. It was very stiff, but ok.

Then I started messing with how I could actually redo my original covers. In the next few weeks I’m going to start a thread on the forum showing how I restored the original covers. In fact I might start tonight if I can get done early.

But let me get to the new foam question.

As long as your foam is not torn in the areas by where you have to re-hook the cover onto the frames, you can fix the foam. I’ll go into this when I start the resto thread. All you need to do is buy sheets of scrim foam and glue it right on top of your old foam. I’ve done it several times with seats I’ve restored. I’ll also show how I do it when I start the thread on the seats resto. New foam is great, but it’s way too stiff in my opinion. It’s doesn’t feel right when sitting on it. Add to that it’s very hard to get the covers over it because it’s too tight. You might think, but it will get all wrinkles without new foam. Not if you repair the foam with new foam glued on top. Old foam gets compressed from years of sitting on it and from just the nature of the seat cover squeezing it. That’s true. But add an inch of scrim all around and it’s fixed. And the best part. It will cost probably $20 at most for the entire 2 seats. Or you can spend $300+ on repro foam.

But if you use the old foam you DO have to fix the foam. You definitely can not just put it back in and think it will look good.

Ed

 

I'm looking forward to this write up!

 

If the seat foam has not started to turn to dust you can get it back to it’s original form by steaming it. Get a cheap hand held steamer and have at it. Go slow dragging the steamer over the foam. Be careful if your hand is behind the foam because you can get burned. You will be amazed at how much the foam will grow. Now this method will not last as long as if you buy new foam, but it should last a while. I used to do this a lot when customers got sticker shock over how much new foam costs.
Once you get the foam where you want it, wrap it in thin plastic, like painters plastic and use a vacuum to suck the air out of lt. then put the new cover in place before you let the air back in. And you can leave the plastic in place. It won’t hurt anything and will make positioning the cover easier. Not difficult but will be good excersize for your hands.

 

Hello y,
No one has replied about the trim bezel that's at the top front of the seat back.
It looks to me like the one in your photo is installed upside down.
Is that even possible?
Regards ......

Note:
The slit in the seat cover for the shoulder belt wasn't cut yet.

 

My trick was where ever there is a hog ring use a wire tie. I used them instead and made putting on the new covers with the new foam easier. You can leave the ties a little loose and then work the seat how you want it, Get wrinkles out and then tighten them up. 7 years later the seats are perfect and none of the ties broke.

 

Hello Ed,
Well!!!
Sounds like you got serious about the foam sown into the covers.
I'm VERY interested to see what you've done.
Regards......

 

I'm guessing these seats were redone once before. Redoing them more carefully could be the low cost solution.

 

Thank you everyone for you insights! I checked my options and getting new seat covers + foam + new button and screws would be around $1000 Before I take this commitment, I'll open up the back to see what's hiding behind the brown cover and if the foam is disintegrating, and if the foam on the cover has turned into powder. I'll report back to try and decide on next step. Thank you all!!

 

I have restored one seat. Added foam, dyed the vinyl and changed some of the hardware. I think it came out pretty good without replacing the foam and cover. Thanks again for everyone!

 

You got some great advice and put it to good use...now use that $800 you saved to buy shiny stuff!

 

Maybe this will help. Putting on the new covers was a lot of effort. Sore hands for days.