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[IvanD]

Hello,

I would like to get some clarification on which foam and where do you use in your automotive upholstery.

What thickness? What density?
I need to reupholster car seat. What kind of foam would you use? It's a sport seats (Recaro) for older BMW. So it need to be on a more firm side.

Is there special automotive foam which will not degrade/disintegrate?
Should I do anything special if I foam-back Ultrasuede? Like additional layer?

Do you glue this foam to leather?

Where do you put heating element? In existing seats it's between leather and batting. If those sections will be Ultrasuede should I just put heating element below Ultrasuede?

I have million questions, so if you can explain how and where you apply foam I will appreciate it :)

P.S. 25 year old seats don't have foam backing, they have batting material and fabric on top. Is that something they did 25 years ago or it's better way to do things?

[John]

What your looking for is scrim foam to back the pieces that make up your seat cover before you sew it together. I suggest using a similar thickness to what was on you seat before. Pink scrim is really good. I typically use headliner backed or tshirt backed scrim. Just a personal preference
https://www.albrightssupply.com/searchr ... Click=3957

I don't know where to put aftermarket heating elements. I have never installed one. Let us know if you find any info on that.

[BigRig]

@IvanD ,

Hey Ivan welcome to the forum. Have you seen any of Johns seat videos yet? Many of those questions will be answered for you. It looks like you are working on some great projects. If your working on seats that have those heating elements you may be dealing with air bag issues as well. You might want to look into this before doing those seats up. Some of my 25 year old seats had foam backing the batting material may have had something to do with the individual manufacture of those seats for that model. Most inserts are going to have a pattern sewn through the leather into the sew foam so the only adhesive (glue) would be temp tack for doing those. The remainder of the seat panels wont usually be adhered with glue to the foam seat.

[Cody]

@IvanD I use to install aftermarket heating elements on car for the dealers in Minnesota. For these cars, the proper way was to just remove the cover and glue the element directly to the seat foam. If there is a listing or Velcro to help hold the seat cover down you have to cut the element accordingly so you can still reuse these. The elements are stings of carbon fiber inside a cloth. If you cut any of the strings the element is junk. So sometimes you have to get create on how you cut. Another thing to remember is if the seat has contour or valleys don’t just set the element over that. It has to form to the peaks and valleys too or your cover won’t sit right. You may have to add a hole to the foam to pull the wiring through or make a channel in the foam for it to sit into. This way you won’t have a bundle of wires showing through. Think about your switch placement in the car so it’s easy. Often in the plastic on the side of the seat hiding the seat rails. Them wire from a source usually in the dash and hide that wire under the carpet leading to the seats.

[BigRig]

I liked the old days

[Cody]

@BigRig its not terrible once you get the hang of it. Back in 06-07 when I did this with a buddy, thenPrius was the hot item for people to buy. Toyota would bring them in and they couldn’t keep up. Book time was 6hrs for a cloth to leather swap and seat heaters. Between the 2 of us we could get one out the door in an hr. Got to the point that we didn’t even take the front seats out anymore and I could get them done while he did the wiring. Anymore today I don’t think I’d do it. No interest really no other reason. Other cars weren’t so easy. Often Toyota SUV we lost money on. FJ cruisers were super easy too. Sorry to take this on a tangent.

[IvanD]

Hi guys! Thanks a lot for all this info.

So clarifications: Those are "sport" seats from early 90s BMW. Not very special, but not too common either.
I'm glad I found this forum as I can read/watch as much as I can but without feedback it's hard.

Se attached pic of padding. Hard to tell but it's one side bolster. They don't have any padding on side but they do have batting and fabric (ripped) on seating area. I'm just trying to understand WHY they did it like this. Was it just era thing or there is something different about batting vs foam.

Foam: Yes, I saw lot of videos where it's suggested to not glue. Just little tack glue and then secondary seam around perimiter to hold foam. This is, of course, unless you do diamonds, etc.

Heating: Those seats already have heating, so I just need to reinstall it back. Disregard question, it was my brain fart. Heating pad goes between batting and seat foam. No between leather and batting. So, it's all good here.
BTW, those heaters is wire, no fiber. It's a thin wire embedded between 2 fabric layers. And I fixed some of those before. You just find burnt spot, re-solder wire, cover it and it works again :)

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[Cody]

@IvanD i don’t know I’m just taking a guess but saying it was an era thing. I would think a sew foam replacement would work just fine. Unless you’re wanting original or close too.

[IvanD]

@IvanD i don’t know I’m just taking a guess but saying it was an era thing. I would think a sew foam replacement would work just fine. Unless you’re wanting original or close too.

Today noone will be able to tell what "original" is
I am thinking from at least looking at videos/etc - scrim foam will be much easier to do that batting like it is on original.

I'm going slightly different design (with ultrasuede) so no originality will be there..

This was more curiosity thing.

[BigRig]

@IvanD

BMW seating has really been puzzzling to me. I have seen some seriously different ways they build their seats, the scrim foam tends to be different than some other manufactures and in some cases have found rubber mat type material in the seat. Where are you from? Are you sure you want to dig into those seats right away?

[IvanD]

I'm in St Louis. Seats already apart. I bought those sprot seats separately, with intention to restore. Have nothing to lose, will practice with vinyl first. I honestly think they are easier in a way because each seat is 7 pieces. 4 bolsters, bottom, top and headrest. If I scew up one piece - can always redo.

And this whole car is just a practice piece for me. Not too expensive to screw up. Whole this thing is just a hobby. But so far I recovered door cards, headliner and pillars and all came out OK for first time. I have hight hopes :)

P.S. First $150 order in (Albright) Got some practice vinyl, scrim foam (pink 1/2 and 1/4), other small stuff/samples.

[BigRig]

@IvanD,

Ok now you are on the right track! Your sewing machine is going to rule! It is probably 10 steps above what I run and it works out just fine for now. It is important to let us know what brand vinyl you decided to go with,. If we see what you are cutting and sewing then we can actually visualize the feel of the material you are working with.

[IvanD]

Right now I got "Xtreme Automotive Vinyl Cool Gray" from Albright to practice with(automotive but cheap). I will try to make everything with it (templates first of course)

But thinking about it, if I get it right with vinyl - I will probably go with leather. Especially that I want to do centers with ultrasuede one hide will be enough for whole interior and I can probably afford it.

I did some research and learned that Vinyl is not necessarily "vinyl". It's confusing because they all called "vinyl". Actual vinyl is the cheapest material. Better ones is "polyester"? I wonder if it's a good topic for post. How to make difference, etc.

However, for myself knowing how much good vinyl costs this days - I tend to jump into leather as soon as I learn sewing. This is my hobby and if I make things I'd like them to be nice :)

[John]

Yeah German manufactures use some different supplies than we are used to seeing here in the us. You will be fine using scrim foam instead. Thats what I would do. Also Im sure you can try to source that stuff from somewhere or make your own. Up to you.

[AdamH]

If you're UK based, this place stocks scrim foam. Used the website for other projects in the past and they're good.