[Bella]

I am attempting to install new TMI seat covers front and rear. Plenty of videos about how to handle the fronts. My question is about the rear seat. The "cushions" are not completely gone, but far from being in good shape. The burlap underneath crumbed to dust. I am using vinyl to replace that. Bought 40 oz. jute felt to cover the edges to prevent tears in the cover.

Question is, what have people done for the batting or tick, or whatever you choose to call it? I have 2" thick, dense foam that I have cut to the outline of the batting. Is this the way to go? Should I hold up, and try and buy the cotton stuff?

What has others' experience been?

 

[Bella]

lots of looks at the initial post, but nobody has rebuilt a rear seat and has hints to share?

 

[Fly2xs]

I went to an upholstery shop and they stated for rear seats, if they recovered it for me, they would just add the 2" foam over the old material......so that is what I did and it came out GREAT! I have seen other rear seats recovered, and they come out to thin and do not look right (others may have just covered the old stuff and did not add anything). Only other hint, I recovered mine in the middle of the TX summer, I left the cover out in the TX heat and sun for about an hour, and it streatched and went around corners of the seat like butter!!!!!!!!!! Best of luck!!!!!!

 

[Fitch]

Great job fly2xs! The 2" foam looks like the way to go. The last one I did, I used 1" foam on top of the old stuff. It was OK but still pretty uncomfortable.

 

[myfirstcar66]

I still use burlap like original underneath, and whether I use the batting is determined by its condition. Foam is definitely a longer lasting more comfortable top layer.

 

[Bella]

FLy2xs, in your photo, it looks like that may be multiple layers of something thinner layed up to get 2 inches thick, is that right? (Looks very good by the way.)

 

[Bella]

So, I have been wrestling with this for a few days. Tip One - foam is available in several different densities. Do not go for the most dense, you will not be able to compress it enough to work with the cover. Tip Two - do not over pull the ends of the seat back, or you will end up too narrow and create large gaps between the seat back and the metal quarter cover panels.

Beginning to think I should have just reused the old batting. What a pain. Didn't think it would be simple, but didn't anticipate this much trouble.

 

[fordguy]

where did you guys buy the foam?

 

[Bella]

I got the hog rings, pliers, and the high-density foam from an upholstery supply store here in Nashville. Ended up buying the lower density foam at JoAnn's fabric store because I was too lazy to go all the way to the upholstery shop. 2 inch thick seems about right

 

[Fly2xs]

Bella, it has been a while, but I recall that it is one layer. As for how I got the foam to adhear to the seat shape, I used 3M adhesive glue in a can. I cannot recall how I cut and got the sides to come together so well in the pic. Getting old!!!! Best of luck. As I stated defore, do not know where you are locted, let the cover sit in the sun for a while to make it pliable.