Lower seat cushion padding

[2TimingTom]

I was told that the lady who owned my Ex for the longest period of time (I bought it from a co-worker who bought it from his neighbor who I believe owned it since new) was on the large side. As a result, the padding in the driver's lower seat cushion is a little worn- the actual upholstery is fine though. There's a support rod that runs from side-to-side right where the seat back meets the bottom seat cushion. I can feel this rod when I sit in the seat.

All the seats I've come across in the junkyard are either not the right color or are too nasty to even touch (ripped upholstery and foam, gets wet every time it rains because the driver's window is broken/missing...).

Anyone ever had their seat(s) refoamed? I haven't actually looked into having a shop do it.

A full leather conversion would be nice, but I haven't found any of those locally either.

 

[Joe Dirt]

I stuffed my seat with polyfil (pillow batting from WalMart, like $4 per bag- same stuff I put in the sub enclosure), it was awesome. I tried memory foam, but that really wasn't the best thing. All you have to do it pull the seat, pull the seatback off (I also filled the back a bit) and loosen the cover and shove it inside. Not a hard job, I have pics at home...

 

[2TimingTom]

That's thinking outside the box- I like it.

Pics would be a nice.

 

[toypaseo]

My neighbor had his lower driver seat redone. I think he just had padding added to his existing cushion. I remember him telling me the actual cushion is discontinued by Ford, but I cannot remember if he scored one somehow, or if he added additional padding to the new one, or if he just added padding to his existing cushion.

Regardless, it's like sitting on a brand new seat. My driver seat cushion needs some help. I plan to visit a local upholstery shop to see what he can do, or maybe dig on here or online to see if it is a DIY job I can pull off...

 

[Joe Dirt]

No need for a shop- too easy to do.

Pull seat, remove plastic trim...

Remove seatback by removing bolts and unhooking form other side

Unclip bottom of seatback

Cut foam to fit

Shove in

Bottom:

Unclip the grips

Remove the front bolster if applicable, by removing these pins and sliding out (***may not be necessary, I redid mine and did not do this step, just pushed in batting from the back seam)

Put in foam

Close it up

Reinstall seatback, and seat to track frame

Enjoy your new La-Z-Boy

 

[toypaseo]

That does look easy! Thanks Joe Dirt!

 

[2TimingTom]

Thanks Joe. I wouldn't have thought to add that much foam. That's where the pictures come in handy.

On Friday, I sat in the passenger front seat for a comparison- totally different. The passenger seat feels like what I'd expect a seat should feel like. I'm definitely going to have to do this.

 

[Joe Dirt]

That was memory foam, so I added more knowing it would compress. I did take some of that out and added the Poly-Fil batting instead. I would recommend that...


Poly-Fil:

Kind of like:


seat surface
------------
Poly-Fil
------------
Foam
------------
Springs
------------

 

[2TimingTom]

OK,

I did it.

But I did it without removing the lower cushion from the seat frame. It was a little tight but I got 3 pieces of the foam pictured below in. I used a plastic grocery bag to help the foam slide out- unfortunately, when I tried to rip the bag out to remove it, the foam wanted to come with it and would bunch up. So I left it in. It's a little noisy when the interior is quiet, but once underway with all the other noises (radio, engine, tires, wind....).

I didn't actually take pics of my foam going in, but here's what I got (Joe Dirt, avert your eyes from the first pic- I left it like this to save it for the big interior cleaning to come later).

Seat removed:

I used some of that foam used to go on top of mattresses to make them more plush. I used 3 pieces for the bottom cushion and 3 for the seat back:

Here's the seat re-installed after getting the foam job:

Here you can see the "pleats" (I'm horrible with fabric/upholstery terms) that are normally in the lower cushion and seat back are pulled tight:
Bottom:

Back:

The overall result is amazing. Seriously comfortable now.

Thanks Joe for giving me the idea and showing me the pics to get me started.

Very easy to do for those also looking to attempt it.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Nice work Tom-

I actually don't pull the seats anymore if I have to mess with them- there is indeed room to unhook the back clip and fidget with the seam.

 

[93nav]

I had a similar/same problem, it felt like I was sinking down in my front drivers seat (02 Sport cloth). I thought the foam had given out, took it to an upholstery shop, and they said it was common for welds on the springs to break. They took the seat apart and welded the springs up and put in/replaced the foam. First try was a little to much FIRM foam, second time they got it right (up to high and firm).

 

[willzilla]

Old thread resurrection but POS photobucket has nuked all photos spread around the web... Any chance you still have photos of this and can repost via some other method?? Lol.

No need for a shop- too easy to do.

Pull seat, remove plastic trim...

 

[J_C]

Old thread resurrection but POS photobucket has nuked all photos spread around the web... Any chance you still have photos of this and can repost via some other method?? Lol.

These photos are still visible if you have a browser add-on to get around the photobucket block.

For example this is working for me on Firefox:
photobucket embed fix – Add-ons for Firefox

or this for Chrome:
photobucket embed fix

Because it is working I was able to make a 2.8MB PDF of this topic including the pics. You can get that here:

MEGA

 

[willzilla]

Awesome, thank you! I usually surf the site while at work (stuck on internet exploder) but will def add the Chrome fix for my home PC!

These photos are still visible if you have a browser add-on to get around the photobucket block.

For example this is working for me on Firefox:
photobucket embed fix – Add-ons for Firefox

or this for Chrome:
photobucket embed fix

Because it is working I was able to make a 2.8MB PDF of this topic including the pics. You can get that here:

MEGA

 

[Turdle]

Pictures
wire and spring slid off the inboard end of both front seats. This was the root problem causing sore ass.

I bent the rod downward toward the end to prevent the wire from sliding off and releasing the spring.

I used a floor mat between springs and foam to prevent cutting into the foam. Then used a zip tie to help support the cross web rope.

Tell me what you think?

 

[koda2000]

When I recovered the driver's seat in my '01 EB IIRC I found a spring off too.

I think the piece of floor mat will help the seat have a firmer feel.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

The floor mat is genius.

Nice work.

 

[willzilla]

Awesome... Thanks for all the additional info! Glad I bumped this thread "from the dead" lol Hopefully I can pull my seat out and start work on it within the next few weeks.