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56 Dodge - Towards Improvements to the Seats
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56D500boy
Posted 2017-10-31 9:05 PM (#551430)
Subject: 56 Dodge - Towards Improvements to the Seats



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Posts: 9855
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Location: Lower Mainland BC
This is yet another can of worms that I just can't stop myself from opening.

I've had the rear seat bottom out of the car (56 Dodge Custom Royal 4 dr sedan) many times. Each time I do, I discover an yellow "snowstorm" of crumbled urethane (or whatever it was) foam on the floor. Since I am moving towards installing new carpet, I don't want that mess on the carpet.

Today after sanding off the second coat of high build primer on the dark part of my hood and then applying the first coat of dark paint, I had some time on my hands. I decided to strip off the rear seat bottom cover and figure out the foam that I need to buy and install.

About 100 hog rings cut off later (I used small bolt cutters to do that), I started to slowly peel off the cover, taking care not to force things too much and split the vinyl. That went pretty good until I hit the seam between the seat eage fake roll and tuck vinyl and the seat fabric, i.e. at the chrome mylar welt line. The mylar welt, the vinyl, the fabric and the under layer (sisal??) are all sewn together. WHAAATT!!?? I thought about cutting something to release the mylar welt but decided that really would be a new can of worms. So I stopped and just focused on removal of as much of the crispy crumbly foam as possible.

All of the foam in the seating area was crispy and crumbly. That was removed. Most of the foam at the front edge, under the fake roll and tuck, is still soft, supple and compliant. It might stay.

I plan on attempting to clean the fabric while I have access to both sides. There is some strange "stain" so who knows how successful I might be.

(I think if I had good after market seat covers, I would just pad these OE covers up and the install the aftermarket seat covers - where is the old school JC Whitney when you need it?)

Enough of that for today. I've got trick or treaters at the door.



Edited by 56D500boy 2017-11-01 12:52 PM




(DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatWithCoverPartWayOff.jpg)



(DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatWithCoverPartWayOff_2.jpg)



(DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatShowingRemainingFoamOverSisal.jpg)



(DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatShowingFrontEdgeFoamSoftAndNotCrumbling.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatWithCoverPartWayOff.jpg (209KB - 177 downloads)
Attachments DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatWithCoverPartWayOff_2.jpg (215KB - 172 downloads)
Attachments DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatShowingRemainingFoamOverSisal.jpg (229KB - 176 downloads)
Attachments DaveFs56DodgeCRCode541RearSeatShowingFrontEdgeFoamSoftAndNotCrumbling.jpg (163KB - 182 downloads)
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56D500boy
Posted 2018-08-07 1:29 AM (#567961 - in reply to #551430)
Subject: RE: 56 Dodge - Towards Improvements to the Seats



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Posts: 9855
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Location: Lower Mainland BC
Well, lets count the months: Nov to July = 9 months and really only three things happened:

1. I cleaned and painted the seat frame with Tremclad (Rustoleum) semi-gloss black.
2. I cleaned the upholstery fabric (in March): http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=65218&...
3. I bought some upholstery foam: 1/2" for the front thigh (vinyl) bolster and 1.5" for the rear butt (cloth) area
4. I procrastinated more trying to figure out how to deal with the cloth covered wire edge reinforcing that had ripped away from the vinyl back in the fall.

Fast forward to the end of July and visit from my younger sister who is known to be handy with a needle and thread. After several days visiting and seeing the sights, I asked if she would help me with the rear seat of the old Dodge. She said "Sure". So the next day, we set up a big table in the back yard and got out the seat, the foam, some strong thread and a curved needle that I had bought for my carpet install (I had to cut and sew a "dart").

We tackled the cloth seating area first with the 1.5" foam. After a trial fit, we realized that we would have to shape the leading edge by the dividing point between the cloth and the vinyl. If I had an electric carving knife it might have worked for this. But I didn't so we used scissors to trim a curve to the leading edge. We did this in three stages, with each stage getting less and less cutting, trying to imitate a molded foam curve. Then we stuff the foam under the cloth and with the seat the right way up and working from the center out, we pulled on the back edge of the cloth to an appropriate tension, smoothing the cloth and then attaching the rear most edge to the seat frame with small black zap straps (zip ties). It looked not bad so we moved on to the front thigh vinyl area.

I had previously decided the that OE foam was still supple enough to stay in place but I decided to puff it up with a 1/2" layer of new foam. Initially we thought that the half inch foam wouldn't need trimming at the divide point but after a trial fitment, it was decided to put a curved bevel on it too. With the experience with the 1.5" foam under our belts, the 1/2" foam was trimmed in short order.

Then we started to refit the seat cover over the foam and attach it to the frame. This time I decided to use longer thicker zap straps - which was a good idea because they were easier to pull and use their inherent racheting feature to tighten them up. At one point, I got a little carried away and ripped more of the cloth-covered wire attachment reinforcement from the vinyl because it was so easy to tighten the larger straps. We used the subtle "holes" (actually punched bends) in the seat frame as the target for the straps. I used an awl to create the hole in the cloth to put the strap through.

At that point, my sister took control and started to sew the originally ripped wire reinforcement back to the vinyl. She used my curved carpet needle and the same thick thread that I had used on the carpet "dart". She worked slowly and methodically from the good area towards the worst area, using a strange (to me) doubling-back stitch. She reused to original holes in the vinyl as she did so. Eventually she had to add some new cloth over the wire because the old cloth was rotten. Finally she got that area done.

Having watched her, I sewed the area where I had ripped the cloth-covered wire reinforcing from the vinyl. It was trickier than I thought, hitting those OE holes but somehow I managed to do it without poking myself enough to draw blood even once.

When the sewing was done, I add the remaining missing zap straps.

That was last week. Today, I got back at it and cleaned up the vinyl as much as possible. I used a variety of products and a surgeon's plastic scrub brush but I could not get all the dirt out of the "pores" in the vinyl. Maybe somebody has a perfect solution (???).

Here are the photos that go with the above text:



Edited by 56D500boy 2018-08-07 1:46 AM




(56Dodge4drSedanRearSeatWithHalfInchAndOneAndAHalfInchFoam.jpg)



(TrimmingTheOneAndAHalfInchFoamAtTheDivideEnd.jpg)



(AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStraps.jpg)



(AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStrapsAndRippingOldThread.jpg)



(ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_1.jpg)



(ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_2.jpg)



(ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_3.jpg)



(AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStraps_FinalStage.jpg)



(TheFinalProductAfterSomeAdditionalVinylCleaning_BeforeInstallation.jpg)



(56Dodge4drSedanWithOutboardThreePointSeatBeltsAndCenterLapBelt.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments 56Dodge4drSedanRearSeatWithHalfInchAndOneAndAHalfInchFoam.jpg (236KB - 161 downloads)
Attachments TrimmingTheOneAndAHalfInchFoamAtTheDivideEnd.jpg (176KB - 151 downloads)
Attachments AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStraps.jpg (235KB - 161 downloads)
Attachments AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStrapsAndRippingOldThread.jpg (212KB - 161 downloads)
Attachments ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_1.jpg (207KB - 153 downloads)
Attachments ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_2.jpg (175KB - 157 downloads)
Attachments ReattachingTheClothCoveredWireReinforcedEdgeToTheSeatVinyl_3.jpg (239KB - 148 downloads)
Attachments AttachingTheSeatCoverToTheFrameWithZapStraps_FinalStage.jpg (228KB - 153 downloads)
Attachments TheFinalProductAfterSomeAdditionalVinylCleaning_BeforeInstallation.jpg (153KB - 147 downloads)
Attachments 56Dodge4drSedanWithOutboardThreePointSeatBeltsAndCenterLapBelt.jpg (159KB - 154 downloads)
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