New (Looking) Seats

While I was working on the clutch I had 20 minutes of down time per cycle while the heat gun was heating or the cylinder was cooling. I used this down time to start refurbishing/refinishing one of my seats.

I unbolted the seat from the car, slide it off the rails and removed it. I at first thought I was just going to take off the cushions, clean them, clean the vinyl, and clean the fiberglass and just glue it back together. However when I got the cushions off they were falling apart from dry-rot, the foam was almost entirely dust and flat, both the foam and fabric had mildew. Needless to say that would have to be entirely replaced.

While they were off I refinished the rails and supports that go underneath the seat that both support the weight of the passenger but also allow the seat to adjust. Like everything else of the car they had a pretty decent layer of surface rust but it was no match for the Dremel. The rails got sanded severely, WD-40, and a vicious rub down for any burs or imperfections in the slide action. The moment I was content with the smoothness of the rail piece it was clear coated. The rails were aluminum so if you want them to keep their luster from a polishing you have to clear coat them to keep the air from oxidizing the metal. The support member got sanded, wire-brushed and repainted solid black with a top clear coat. Once it was all dry I reassembled the whole bottom assembly, added dabs of grease to lubricate the action and set it aside to wait for the finished chair.

I sat down and for the 2 hours that I was temperature cycling the clutch cylinder I scrubbed the seat vinyl with a toothbrush and a generous amount of Soft Scrub. This worked really really well and after I was done I   sprayed on and rubbed in some leather cleaner/conditioner and the seat looked brand new.

I had already pulled out the cushions so I disassembled them to see how they were put together so we could imitate it. One trip to Joann fabrics yielded enough new foam and upholstery fabric for both seats. I figured since I was replacing the fabric I should do it with a material and color that I liked better than the burgundy/brown color that was there before. I ended up picking a beige/tan color that contrasts well with the brown vinyl on the seats.

My mother sewed the ribbing into the fabric that was one the old cushions to give them a little bit of personality, I will not pretend to have done much for the cushion reupholstering because my mother was much better at it and I wanted the best final product. I cut the foam and backing board to fit the seat, spray adhesive to stick the foam pieces together, scotch guarded and glued on the fabric top. After that dried I sprayed, wrapped, and tightened the fabric around to the bottom of the cushion. Then we glued the backing board on the very top layer of the back of the cushion. Once that dried they were glued into the seat, we added back the three buttons in the top for a little extra flair and the seat was done. I'm very pleased with the finished product, especially since it cost in all about $50 to entirely redo the cushion, clean the vinyl, and clean the rails.