New seat foams

[cass3958]

I mentioned in a previous post about my rear wing repair that when I removed the rear seat to do the welding that I found the foam seat pads were old, crusty and basically shot. I knew that the front passengers seat foam was bad as well so I started another job.

I started with the rear seat back section as the foam was falling out of this part. The seat cover ( mine are Ambla vinyl but I would assume the leather covers are the same) is held on to the frame with a combination of Hog rings and metal clips which are easily removed with a pair of slim nosed pliers and a small pointed bradawl. I would suggest that if you do not have a set of Hog ring pliers and some hog rings that you purchase some before you start.

With all the clips and hog rings removed from the bottom edge and the sides the vinyl peels back exposing the foam which is held in two pockets left and right of the centre armrest. The original foam had lost all of its spring and 50% of its content which had fallen out down the back of the seat. Covering the the frame at the back is a hessian cover which was also rotten so that was removed to be replaced.

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I went to a haberdashery and bought a good length of hessian fabric and a couple of blocks of foam 21 inch x 21 inch x 4 inch thick for £10 each. New foams for the S type rear seat backs are £188 pre cut?

I removed the remnants of foam from the seat pockets and used them as a template to cut out two new pads. I found the best way to cut the foam was by using an electric carving knife. Not only was the foam cut to size with the knife but I also had to shape the lumbar region to give it some shape. The original foam as you can see from the photos has a lot of dimple type holes in the back presumably to make it softer to sit in. My new foam is solid but I think having sat on it a lot firmer which I prefer.

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I decided not to try and replace the foam that forms the outside edge of the seats as this appeared to be in good order, certainly better than the back pads which had been sat on and destroyed over the last 50 years.

A new hessian backing was applied and fixed into place with hog rings and a little sewing to the metal frame.

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The new foam was inserted into the pockets.

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The vinyl was pulled tight at the sides and fixed in place using the metal clips.
The material that pulled the bottom tight to give the lumbar area its shape was rotten and had to be replaced.

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Several years ago I had bought a new drivers seat cover and this had a fleece type material for fixing the base so back to the haberdashery and I bought a length of black fleece material. Very strong and looks very neat. Although I had a sewing machine I found the area where this material had to be attached was too difficult to get to so it had to be hand sewn into place with some strong thread to the vinyl. Once sewn into place the material was pulled tight around the base and clipped into place.

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New back foams looking and feeling good, lots more support.


I now have to do the back bases but before I do that I need to do the front seat pads as these are completely shot especially the passengers side.

[cass3958]

New rear seat foams all inserted ready to go back in the car.

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[Glyn Ruck]

Great write up Rob. Moquette is the commonly used material below the leather/vinyl to pull down & clip.

For the lazy. John Skinner can provide precut & shaped seat foams but as Rob points out at a price.

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[Glyn Ruck]

Out of interest. A job done by a chap in Slovakia from blank hides that I corresponded with. A skill set way beyond mine but obviously similar to my upholstery guy. Like his my seat foam was starting to granulate.

Both this chap in Slovakia & I started from scratch & had our seat frames & spring sets re powder coated in Dove Grey as original. We both rechromed all armrest mechanisms & re-riveted. I used Skinner seat foams & padding. The Slovakia chap cut & shaped his own like Rob did.

His original:

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Progress:

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[cass3958]

Way beyond my skill set Glyn and puts my effort to shame but at least my seats still look like good 50 year old original seats which I prefer to the brand new look this guy has achieved by fitting brand new seat covers as well.
If I put these seats in my car I would then have to buy new door cards, new carpets and new wood otherwise they would look out of place and would not match. Never ending, once you start putting in new you just get carried away.
Finished my front seats and will get the write up on here soonest. On to the back seat base today.

[RollyTG]

A very timely and thorough contribution. I will certainly have to do that, or have it done sometime. Thanks.

[Glyn Ruck]

Way beyond my skill set Glyn and puts my effort to shame but at least my seats still look like good 50 year old original seats which I prefer to the brand new look this guy has achieved by fitting brand new seat covers as well.
If I put these seats in my car I would then have to buy new door cards, new carpets and new wood otherwise they would look out of place and would not match. Never ending, once you start putting in new you just get carried away.
Finished my front seats and will get the write up on here soonest. On to the back seat base today.

Yes Rob. I understand your desired balance between restoration & preservation.

This chap remade all his own cards/boards. He obviously had access to a friction/heat seamer like Skinner has. Funnily enough nowhere did he photograph his new rear parcel shelf.

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[cass3958]

Following on from the rear uprights I have now completed the rear seat base.
This one is a little more challenging and the complete rear cover has to come off. It is only held on with hog rings which are easily removed. This revealed a very messy foam base which in places was coming apart in my fingers and in others had gone hard and crusty.

1. The original base foam in appalling condition.JPG (5.15 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

I also noticed a couple of areas where there had been repairs in the past. I had assumed that the rear seat covers were original and hardly used as they were in such good condition. I had no receipts to show the covers had been changed but under the covers in the foam there had been repairs and a couple of new foam block repairs had been inserted. I could see no reason why this new foam had been put in and could not understand how the foam could have been damaged without the outer vinyl seat cover being damaged. Still my gain.

2. Seat foam base previous repairs..JPG (4.48 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

The original foam was not pleasant so it all had to go apart from the top rim which was salvageable and gives the base of the seat its shape.
Cutting and shaping the foam was easy and sticking it together only required some spray on adhesive. The top layer was one inch slabs cut to shape and glued together with the original top shaped foam glued on top.

5. New one inch foam pads with original salvaged top shape foam..JPG (2.8 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

To blend the whole shape in I also covered the top of the foam with a thin layer of wadding.

6. Foam with overlay of wadding material.JPG (1.98 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

New hessian was added fixed in place with hog rings as was the vinyl seat cover. Once again the material which you need to pull tight and attach to the frame was rotten so more of the new fleece material was sewn in to place.

3. The old rotten tiedown material.JPG (3.56 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

4. New fleece material sewn in place..JPG (3.02 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

The only difficulty came when trying to get the correct shape of the bottom section as this fits into two recesses in the chassis and the prop tunnel sits in the middle. The original had been destroyed so trying to copy it was not easy. What I did was made the foam base larger than required with 4 inch blocks and then offered the base up to the car. At first the foam did not fit in the recesses but after 30 mins and several sculpturing cuts with the electric knife I got the right shape so it sat nicely.

7. 4 inch foam cut to shape..JPG (2.68 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

Two inch blocks would possibly been better but I only had 4 inch blocks which I basically cut in half and then shaped with the electric knife. To complete it I put the new hessian over the base of the foam but when I offered the seat up again with the back section bolted in place I found I could not get the seat base to sit in the recesses correctly. Out it came again the hessian was removed and the foam re cut and sculptured some more so it sat correctly with some room for the hessian to fit.

8. Base completed with hessian covering foam.JPG (4.25 MiB) Viewed 1664 times

Once the back seat was back in place and secured I tried it out and boy was it comfortable. The seat is so much firmer on the base which unfortunately has taken away some of the headroom in the back but is probably back to factory head height rather than 50 years old saggy head height.
Now on to the front seat bases.

[cass3958]

The main reason why I decided to do the seat foams was that my wife had complained that the front passengers seat which I have never sat in was uncomfortable plus I had noticed a lot of dry foam on the carpet below the seat whenever I vacuumed the car.
The front seat base comes out just by lifting it off the frame and once on the bench upside down it was plain to see the reason why it was uncomfortable. The seat basically has a set of springs which are covered in a single layer of hessian, then a one inch foam pad with the seat cover on top of that. Pulling my seat cover off I found that the springs had cut holes in the hessian and that the one inch foam was no longer there. Gone apart from some crumbs. Ouch.

1. Seat foam gone completely.JPG (4.23 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

4. Hessiam cover with springs cutting through..JPG (3.96 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

The tie down material was rotten again so this was replaced with the new fleece material as per the other bases.

2. Tie down material rotten.JPG (3.1 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

Just in case some of you were not aware but attached to the springs was a paper tag which had the details of the car printed on to it. The Jaguar S Type was originally known pre production as the Utah 3 (the Mk2 was known as Utah 2) and during production as the XJ3. I assume the 420 was known as the XJ4 or 5 before we ended up with the XJ6.

3. XJ3 tag on seat base.JPG (1.88 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

The securing material at the back of the seat cover was again like all the others completely rotten and was replaced with my fleece material. The seat base vinyl was in good condition so was retained.
The springs were covered with a double layer of hessian and hog ring secured in place.

5. New hessian material fitted.JPG (5.2 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

The foam was renewed with one inch foam and I used the original front raised foam section that I was able to salvage which was glued on to the top of the new foam.

6. New 1 inch foam with front support.JPG (938.76 KiB) Viewed 1658 times

All the hessian around the front of the seat base was replaced and a wadding material used to pad it out.

9. New foam and hessian on drivers seat..JPG (3.08 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

Once completed I repeated the procedure with the driver’s seat although I knew that this was in better condition than the passenger’s seat having had a new seat cover professionally fitted five years ago during my rebuild the foam felt weak so I stripped it out. I was disappointed to find that although the new seat cover I had supplied the upholsterer had been fitted he had not bothered to replace any of the old foam or hessian material that was rotten.

7. drivers seat with old hessian left by upholsterer.JPG (3.16 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

8. drivers seat with old hessian left by upholsterer.JPG (4.21 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

So it all came out and what I had done to the passenger’s seat was repeated on the driver’s seat. Seat bases put back in and what a difference new foam and hessian makes. The double layer of hessian correctly hog tied down gives support to the springs and the foam makes it soft to sit on. With the correct support on the driver’s seat I feel as if I am at least an inch higher up in the seat. Good result.

10. Front bases completed with new fleece material.JPG (2.98 MiB) Viewed 1658 times

The driver and passengers seat backs both appear to be in good order. To remove these would require stripping the front seat frames out of the car and major dismantling and I can’t see the point in doing that if the seats appear to be ok. I will leave them until something is obviously wrong before I start work on them.

[Glyn Ruck]

Great job Rob. My seat foams were crumbling & granulating like that.

Yes ~ Pressed Steel still called the S Type Utah Mk3 but Jaguar had internally moved to XJ (eXperimental Jaguar) & thus XJ3.

XJ4 was used for early XJ6 mock ups that did not make the grade of what finally became the XJ6