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Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
http://www.4g61t.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=40309		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  92 gsr-4 [ Mon Aug 17, 2015 8:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
I lurk, but thought for once I should post and contribute to the goodness of this forum!

After visiting a local upholstery shop to see if they can re-sew the seams on these turbo seats, after the guy questioning why I would even want to save them, after explaining I wanted to keep the car original and him trying to run me off with a $75/hr quote, I decided to try to save these seats myself.

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Not in terrible shape, but the seat needs cleaning and the seams sewn. The fabric still seems strong so why not?

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The seat brackets come off easy, 2x 12mm bolts on each, plus some torx-style bolts (3x total) to mount the bottom and top cushions to the pivoting hinge brackets.

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Removing all the hog rings was a pain, but doable as long as you've got a set of cutters to cut them off with. The hardest part for me was removing the headrest "mounts" or whatever they are called. It's the pieces that the headrest slides into. To remove them you have to remove the seat cover almost all the way, and reach underneath the foam up into the seat with a screwdriver or whatever tool to get in there and push 2 little tabs down. This releases the mounts and lets them be removed from the top of the seat.

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Next step is to re-sew the seams and put them back on the seats after I clean the seat frames up. I was told not to wash the cloth covers yet because it could cause them to shrink, so I'll get them back on first and then clean them with plenty of water, cleaner and my shop vac.

More to come!
Author:  Flying Eagle [ Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
Wash them, soap them and scrub the buggers. I used laundry detergent, that may have even been the granular type at the time, but I didn't dry them in a high heat situation. I did this and it worked out fine, no pulling or struggling, no tighter than used condition.

3M super77 spray glue in now your best friend for foam re-attachment, and you can even glue a small facecloth or similar material over the split in your side leg bolster foam to keep the odds of separation from occurring.

Fishing line can do wonders for "sewing thread strength" when re-doing the tear away portions of material where the threads let go due to age/stress.

I redid my seats and they came out looking like new.

A little rust converter on your metal seat base and maybe a little primer and paint could keep them from ever giving you rusty fingers as you reach for things under your seat.

I used these pliers to make the hog ring installation go in a proper fashion: Kd Tools 2 piece hog ring plier set

Guaran-dang-teed Harbor Freight will have them on their shelf in the same tool, very same tool with no KD /lithograph labelling. Canada's Princess Auto's tools did, and they are $9-10 each that way, not $25+.

I like what you are doing here!
Author:  92 gsr-4 [ Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
Thanks for the advice. Yes I am planning to recondition all the metal. The foam did split on the side lower bolster and I'm glad you mentioned the remedy.

So you used fishing line to re sew the seams? I am going to use some burlap cloth as a wear buffer in some areas. Care to post some pics of what you did?
Author:  Flying Eagle [ Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
Here is what I did to a Mazda 6 (?) seat. Any other foam seat is nearly identical in this regard.

The seat in question had side bolster foam separated and the metal support could be directly touched with manipulation of your shoulder blades.
LF seat, inner bolster was the worst. Very common for some cars in the entry level.

The issue:
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Super77 spray glued the split foam back together, after letting it tack according to the instructions - you spray both parts to be mated together.
After you close the "seam", it needs some support to "smooth" things over and create a background of like color and keep things from digging into the seam again also. In this case the cover was split, not ideal but good luck finding another cover and delivering the car within a week of intake.
Gm presents a Grand Am production ... I cut up the covers from a Grand Am, because they conformed perfectly! Hurray for a spare seat in our upstairs off camera break room.
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This was the final look, up close. If I could have used an iron on patch from the backside of the cloth, I would have.
There was a little waviness felt under the repair areas, but only because a small percentage of foam was missing or deformed from wear and this could not be avoided.

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I sat in quikgt's re-foamed seats (denser material used - any upholstery shop will have access to the various densities), and it was night and day, a big difference in support and comfort - for the shape of the seat. This is not a racing inspired seat by any means. But at least Recaro got in on the Mitsu thing!
Author:  92 gsr-4 [ Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Let's Save Some Turbo Seats
So, a bit of a wimpy update but it's good for anyone who intends to do this in the future. The seat covers have some wire-type pieces in them that add rigidity and tie-down points to the seat cloths. Mine were rusting away in there, so I went to Lowe's thinking I could get some type of steel wire and bend it in the same fashion. I realized it was probably easier to sand them down to get all the rust off, and then use Rustoleum primer/paint (all-in-one).

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I think this will work and prevent the rust from ever being a problem.
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