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Topic: Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ... (Read 20282 times) previous topic - next topic

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #75
Alright, seat back time ... a lot of the same princilpes will apply.  Start at the bottom of the seat back and open up the zipper.  Roll the bottom of the upholstery up and you will reveal left and right "L" rods that are held in place by hog rings.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #76
Cut the hog rings on both the left and right "L" rods to free them.  Once freed, slide the "L" rods straight out and set them aside.  With the rods removed, this will allow you to be able to roll the upholstery up off of the foam and frame ... but ... before you can do that, you'll need to flip the seat over and remove the seat back locking  and surround.  The plastic  will just pull off with a little force and removing the single screw will allow you to free the surround.


Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #78
Quote from: jcassity;463294
whacha doing with your old seat covers?

Right now, everything for the complete front seats is boxed up.  I'll probably look to sell them as I have no plans to use them.  They are a little faded, but I've definitely seen much worse.  All in all, they are actually in pretty nice shape with no rips or tears.  Seat back covers, seat bottom covers, knee bolsters, head rest covers, seat belt shoulder holders, and rear seat latch s and surrounds as a complete set.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #79
Start rolling the seat back upholstery up from the bottom.  You'll eventually get a little past the half way point where you will encounter the first pull rod.  This one is not attached by hog rings.  Simply slide it out and set it aside to be reused doing the install of the new upholstery.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #80
Continue rolling the upholstery up and you will get to the top attaching rod.  This one is secured with three hog rings.  Cut them, remove the rod, and set it aside to be reused later.  At this point, the seat back upholstery is essentially free.  You'll just have to remove the head rest and shoulder area seat belt holder in order to pull the upholstery off.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #81
while you are at this project,,
verify your back rest pivot hing parts are not worn,, the gangster lean is a pita on our cars.

I really dont have any great pics of the hinge area to dospoogeent a proper repair.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #82
Quote from: jcassity;463317
while you are at this project,,
verify your back rest pivot hing parts are not worn,, the gangster lean is a pita on our cars.

I really dont have any great pics of the hinge area to dospoogeent a proper repair.

Ha!  Yeah, I hear ya.  The driver's Mustang seat that I pulled out had a little bit of that prior to me installing it in the Cougar.  The blue Turbo Coupe seats that I am converting seemed to be straight and true.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #83
I've seen some bad leans on the driver's seat. Fortunately the original owner of my car was a 5'3" petite woman and I'm only 5'9" and 160lbs, so the seats haven't seen a lot of stress :hick:.

The project is going along nicely. I think it's going to look great when you're done. Are you recovering the rear seats yourself or is the shop making the covers and installing them?
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #84
Quote from: thunderjet302;463333
The project is going along nicely. I think it's going to look great when you're done. Are you recovering the rear seats yourself or is the shop making the covers and installing them?

Thanks!  I bought fabric from the same company and had a local upholstery shop recover the Turbo Coupe rear seat.  I'll get some pics of it up soon.  I'm keeping my stock rear seat and just storing it.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #85
Flip the seat back over to access the headrest.  It will pull out so far and then will "catch" on a latch.  My picture isn't that great, but you can pry the latch up slightly by inserting a flat head screwdriver.  Pull on the headrest some more and it should come free.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #86
I removed the seat belt shoulder bracket earlier, but you'll need to remove this and the black plastic guide that the headrest slides down into on the top part of the seat back.  This will pull right out with a little tug.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #87
With everything now removed, the seat back upholstery should be free to pull off.  Once that is removed, undo the small plastic clip on the back of the seat frame.  This wraps around the bottom of the frame and holds the foam in place.  With the clip undone, the foam will lift off of the frame from the top.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #88
I cleaned the seat back frames up and lubricated all of the pivot points.  The seat backs are pretty much ready to be reassembled at this point, but before jumping into that, I decided to remove the upholstery from the headrests.  Pretty easy ... you sort of have to "peel" the seam open and the clips on the headrest upholstery will come undone.  From there, you just have to gently work the cover off of the foam.

Seat upgrade ... attempt #2 ...

Reply #89
Since it's easy enough to knock out the headrests, I just decided to finish them at this point.  Similar to the knee bolsters, wrapping the foam in a lightweight plastic bag is helpful when trying to install the new cover ... this helps it slide around a little by reducing the friction between the foam and underside of the upholstery.  You have to compress the foam in spots and just gently work it into the cover while making sure you get everything lined up and snug.  Once you have it in place, you can just cut or tear away the excess plastic.