Good Morning.
My seat bun is worn out. I've found what seems like an excellent repro seat cover- complete with the gear and lightning bolt embossment but I can't locate the foam rubber. All the metal springs and such are in good shape.
Can anyone advise? Thanks.
rx

 

Have you checked local upholstry shops. They should have rebuild padding.



John

 

I just went through this last month with my 65. When I got it, it had a saddle blanket over the seat. The saddle blanket and seat cover were ripped and the foam was missing a hole where the driver would sit. On top of that, it sagged, but only on the driver's side. I bought a pre-made seat cover set from MAC's and for the internals I ended up going to a local upholstery shop a guy in the Arizona forum had mentioned. This was going to be my first attempt at auto upholstery so I tried to keep it simple.

When I took my seat apart, it had burlap, a cotton/jute material, some sort of cheese cloth material and foam on the bottom along with something that was two sticks of wood or cardboard with wires between them. On the back it only had burlap, the stick contraption and the cotton/jute material.

Originally I bought a 1" slab of foam, a little softer than the medium density I originally was going to use for the back, 2" high density foam for the bottom, and enough burlap to cover both parts. The 1" foam worked fine for the back. However, the 2" foam ended up not working well on the bottom. It was too stiff and thick to bend around the edges so I went back and bought materials close to what was originally there. I ended up getting 1" of high density foam, enough cotton padding to make about a 1" of padding and some muslin to put between the foam and cotton like the original. To get everything to fit, I just cut all the materials to match the sizes of the originals.

To put them together I put the burlap down on the springs. It kept moving on me so I ended up just putting two hog rings through it on all four sides to keep it in place. For the back, I laid the cut foam on top of the burlap and laid the seat cover over it. Like the burlap, I found the upholstery tended to move a lot too causing the foam to move so I ended up fastening the upholstery down the bottom of the seat back where the seats would meet and worked it over the sides and top of the seat.

The bottom was the same way. I laid all the pieces down as I had taken them off. For the bottom I also fastened the burlap all around and fastened the upholstery at the back where the two seat halves come together and worked my way over the front edge and sides. It was kind of a pain for me working the vinyl since I had no experience; it was quite a fight.

Here is a pic of some of the stuff I pulled out of my seat. It's a shame the foam was ruined on the driver's side; the rest of it was in pretty good shape and the numbers are still there.




Here is what I pulled off the bottom left to right: burplap, cotton/jute, cheese cloth looking stuff and foam.




Here is the stick/wire contraption, not sure what the technical term is for this. They were interwoven within the burlap. My burlap was ripped and disintegrating so I just removed them to save in case I needed them in the future.






I found out this is why the driver's side sagged. Not only were there a few broken springs on the bottom and back that I had to weld up, a whole section of this bracket used to secure the bottom springs was broken off the spot welds and bent to hell. I am talking several inches away from where it should have been (don't ask me...). I ended up using a combination of clamps, hammer and mig welder to get it back attached.







In contrast to the rust belt, around here the floor boards hold up a little better over 50 plus years. (Just a playful dig at those poor unfortunate souls that have to do floor surgery. )




Here is the finished seat right before I put it in the truck. It isn't perfect, but for a first time job I am not that upset.

 

The seat looks good.

 

What seat cover was it that you got I am looking for one (wanted to keep the embossment) SMS quoted me 750 for a seat cover and about 475 for material and embossment ..... A little rich for my blood.
I hear distinctive industries makes one too but I have no idea where to get one from.

 

Thank you Buzz, I appreciate it. I hope my experience helped rexblue out some.

 

smsautofabrics.com is located in Canby OR

 

Available at "Auto Obsessions" for $191.99
Seat Upholstery, 1965-66 Pickup Truck F100/F250 Bench Seat Cover - Front
rx

 

Thanks Rex that's what I was looking for whatever reason I couldn't find it.

 

The seat turned out real nice.