Hi folks!

As some of you may know, I'm new here. One of my two posts so far is about the seat cover replacement. Since posting that to look for a replacement cover, I learned a lot in a couple days. I am offering some of my solutions based on what I saw in the forum.
What I found upon taking the seat apart to remove the seat bottom cover are a couple things relative to what others have posted about. Number one is, the foam was severely cut on one side from the sharp edges of the aluminum frame. One person suggested to put double-sided foam tape on the edge, covered by duct tape. What I did was to take a Dremel tool with a coarse double-cut burr and round over all the edges. I believe this is a better solution. It did not take long to do and it will last forever. It will never cut the seat base foam again.
The second thing I did was to cover the wires under the seat foam with a piece if inexpensive floor mat cut to size and held on with zip ties. The wires will never cut the underside of the foam padding again!
The third thing I did, based on what I learned from the forum, was to cut foam blocks to fit in the corners under the seat foam where they tend to sag from weight over time. I saved a huge piece of foam from a couch seat cushion that has come in handy for repairs of this type before,on a motorcycle seat.

All this work cost me zero dollars, because I used materials I already had laying around, and I have the tools. All it took above that was a little of my time, but I have lots of that.

So I hope you enjoyed all that and I hope you may find it helpful to use if you work on the seat bottom in the future.

Edges of the aluminum frame cut down and rounded over with a rotary tool.

A piece of a door mat I saved was used to cover the wires to prevent any further cutting of the seat bottom foam.

Another angle of the door mat zip-tied on, and the seat foam support blocks at the corners. I think I will put a sheet of 5 mil polyethylene over the door mat, so the seat foam can easily slide a bit, if it needs to.

 

Good work. Some of us know exactly what you are talking about, as we found out firsthand when installing the seat rebuilt kit offered by forum vendors.
thanks for the great description of how you performed the work.

 

It's been an interesting learning experience, albeit not what I would have wanted, nor so soon. I suppose it was kind of a blessing in disguise to tear the huge hole in the seat with that screwdriver (joke). I could have done without it, and certainly not so soon. I have always seen Corvettes with the sagging seat bottoms. Now I know why, and how to fix them, Getting that seat apart was a bit of a challenge at first. Though I feel like a C6 Corvette seat bottom expert now!
Thank you for the kind words.

 

Everyone with a C6 that hasn't had the seat cushion repaired should do it now. The driver side springs WILL cut into the foam. The sooner you do it the better off you will be.

 

I agree with you. This is my first experience with seeing this. I did not even know it was a problem until I got the car three days ago, and had to remove the seat cover, because of an accidental tear in the leather.. My car has only 25K miles on it and the slices from the wires are a good 3/4 of an inch deep in many areas. I would love to know what GM engineers were thinking when they let this design go in to production.

 

The really bad thing is that they kept on doing it!

 

I never knew about this. Thank you VERY much for the info! This is getting added to my C6 to-do list.

 

The spring wires cutting through the foam only applies to the driver's seat. The passenger side seat belt sensor protects the passenger side.

 

That's interesting. Good to know. Thanks for that info.

 

Good catch and suggestion on rounding the sharp aluminum edge. I'll be putting in the rebuild kit when it warms up enough, so good info to have

 

'09 Convertible Blue with Black/Light gray interior.
Bought new seat foam, be3cause mmy seat looks like a worn baseball glove. Figured 'd find that there was the "springs cutting through the foam issue" so I had a piece of industrial floor mat sitting there ready to go. Here were my surprises:
1. Evidently the previous owner had tried to fix it himself once before. Not knowing how to get the adjuster handle off, he must have buggered it, because it was glued in place. So I quickly went to Ebay and found another one so I could just cut it off.
2. As I cut into it to remove it, I found that he had evidently used some really strong epoxy, and it was a bear to get off. As I cut I soon discovered that the shaft itself is not metal (duh) it is a hard phenolic. So, yep I busted that and now I need to go to the dealer and buy an adjuster mechanism (if they still sell them).
3. Got the back center panel out, and took care of that with only a few glitches. Velcro really?
4. Not going to do the side bolsters- they are fine, and don't want to mess with the air bag crap since they seem quite healthy.
5. Finally go to the seat bottom, and pulled it out. Lo and behold- the whole spring mechanism was a mess. Some wires just hanging and busted. and the front cross-holder wire was shortened so it wasn't really holding the wires in place except in the middle where they were busted. Only three springs along the back side. Fourth is missing. So, now I need to buy a whole new spring set. Found them at Ecklers ($20) and Corvette Central ($9) but neither shows it comes with springs, and I don't know where I'd find that other spring. Going to have to call both places to see which one includes them. Will also be seeing the dealer too, so we'll see what happens.
6. Actually, the seat bottom foam is pretty good- somebody obviously replaced it before, and it had a jute backing glued to it to prevent the springs from cutting. Just busted the support wires is all. But I'm still going to put in the new foam, having gone this far into the repair.

But at least now I know why it looks and feels so bad. Looks like she's going to be down awaiting shopping and shipping. Blew my day. What a crappy design. I guess they were into shaving weight? I'd gladly have the extra pound a decent support would have added. Just curious- if those wires cut all the way to the heater pad, does it short circuit and melt the car down?

 

i just rebuilt drivers seat , had broken wires and installed Ecklers replacement part fits fine. New seat foam and replaced all the leather with OEM except the center back which was fine. Looks new and I sit up a little higher. Huge improvement

 

can I ask how much was the new leather skins and wear you got them?
thank you in advance
lisa

 

The OEM leather was almost $500.00. The passenger seat is in great condition and I didn't want aftermarket covers. No regrets..
I got them here. They will need your Vin to gave you an exact quote. https://www.cultragfactoryparts.com/

 

thanks
lisa