Porkchop's attempt to restore saggy seats

Just bought foam today to fix the blown out and sagging side bolsters on the seats in my LGT. I've never attempted a re-foaming before but I'll be posting a walk through with pics after it's all done in case anybody wants to learn from the mistakes I undoubtedly will make tonight.

 

In the mean time, if anyone has some good techniques for doing this, feel free to chime in. I plan on removing the seat cover, gluing and replacing foam where needed, shaping with files/sanding (it's dense foam), and reassembling. The inboard seat bolster (butt cushion by the center console) looks like it's still in good shape so I'll use it as a guide.

 

If I end up with extra material, I might supplement both sides since that foam was $12+ per square ft.

Well today my seat went under the knife. Results were not perfect, but this is my first time attempting such a repair. Here are some pictures of the saggy-ness before the repair.

http://i.imgur.com/TTrQiUp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Y2S7ZSI.jpg

 

I started by removing the seat from the vehicle. There are some hog rings underneath that you need to cut first. I cut all the rings with diagonal cutters.

http://i.imgur.com/hYUAu8J.jpg

Next I removed the cap for the height adjustment

http://i.imgur.com/2c1eHAI.jpg

The height adjusting lever and seatback must be removed along with the plastic trim piece. 8mm nuts and phillips screws

http://i.imgur.com/etRgVgK.jpg

Now the back of the seat is ready to be removed. Undo the two big bolts.

http://i.imgur.com/BtoMhrZ.jpg

On the other side, remove the one phillips screw. I had to attack it with vice grips because it was so tight.

http://i.imgur.com/RHytFqZ.jpg

Now the seat back should come off. Start undoing the plastic clips that hold the upholstery on.

http://i.imgur.com/qklTCUi.jpg

Immediately noticed why the seat was sagging so bad.

http://i.imgur.com/2Rw7Ir2.jpg

There are hog rings holding the seat upholstery to the foam in the middle too so cut those and make sure not to leave any pointy debris in the cushion.

http://i.imgur.com/K8nst4l.jpg

Here's the fully stripped seat cushion. Look at the difference between the inner and outer bolsters. Over a decade of getting in and out on one side of the seat does a lot of damage.

http://i.imgur.com/GpQF3Ci.jpg

I used industrial spray adhesive in the crack and soaked it pretty well. The instructions said to apply to one side and adhere the two while wet. Through trial and error I found it worked better to apply to both sides and adhere when tacky.

http://i.imgur.com/hHXxS7v.jpg

Tape doesn't stick to these seats so I used mechanics wire to hold things in place while the glue set for about an hour. Just poked a wire through the foam, cinched it around and twisted. This worked really well.

http://i.imgur.com/iim9NcY.jpg

Here's the patch ready to be adhered. The seat cover will help form the foam to the right shape so it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth sculpting. I cut my foam with a razor blade and a hacksaw blade. I've seen this done with power tools but I didn't have access to the appropriate ones. I used a very dense foam that was pretty expensive but most hardware store foam is a lot softer than car seats.

http://i.imgur.com/BK3piL1.jpg

Applied a lot of adhesive, put down the patch, and secured it well with wire while it dried for an hour.

http://i.imgur.com/CPtwCWD.jpg

After it dried, I cut the wire and pulled it out. Seemed to adhere very well.

http://i.imgur.com/QF3uVyA.jpg

For reassembly, you need hog rings and pliers like this. Go through and put rings back through all the places where you cut them off. Start in one corner and work your way outward.

http://i.imgur.com/Ww2ggZg.jpg

The upholstery has wire in it that gets ringed onto the wire frame in the foam padding.

http://i.imgur.com/FLopoym.jpg

Here it is with the cover back on and the seatback in place. Turned out pretty good. The seat feels way better and sportier now that it hugs more.

http://i.imgur.com/YdJwFDq.jpg

Blurry, but here's a side pic. Compare that to the wrinkly, saggy mess at the start.

http://i.imgur.com/Qlb6Az9.jpg

Nice. Yeah mine is the same way but I figure I'll just wait till I find some STI seats. It does bother me as the metal poking into my leg can be annoying. Maybe I'll try the same fix. Btw where did you get the foam from and how much for how big of a piece. The idea I had was to buy a used passenger seat foam, then cut the foam off its left side bolster and afix it to my drivers seat somehow. Lol easier said then done. Usually the inside bolsters don't get a lot of wear unless the person has a very wide bottom.

Nice. Yeah mine is the same way but I figure I'll just wait till I find some STI seats. It does bother me as the metal poking into my leg can be annoying. Maybe I'll try the same fix. Btw where did you get the foam from and how much for how big of a piece. The idea I had was to buy a used passenger seat foam, then cut the foam off its left side bolster and afix it to my drivers seat somehow. Lol easier said then done. Usually the inside bolsters don't get a lot of wear unless the person has a very wide bottom.

 

The foam was $12/sf and I bought it at a local hardware and industrial supply store. I think using a passenger seat bolster could work. I considered the wrx swap too but those seats sit a lot higher than legacy ones.

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5

Looks Great! i was planning on doing the same for the sad foam in my seat till i got a great deal on some 04 wrx seats

If I remember right, the WRX seats have a bar in the middle that adds to the support quite a bit

 

I commend you for the work put into this, my seat was so bad I just ditched it and put in the WRX seat. World of difference and it's cheap when you only buy a passenger's seat, lol.

The joy of a RHD car, nice drivers side seats are easy to find.