The Upholstery Forum

This is the latest thing I have been working on. I gutted out a stock seat for my C10 and cleaned up the stock frame and reused it. This is my first one that I junked the springs and replaced them with foam. Now it doesn’t feel like if riding around in a bouncy house like the stock seats do haha. I learned a ton on this one. And the best part is that this one is mine, so I will actually get to enjoy it every time I get in the truck.

That looks nice. How did you shape the foam like that?

I really like that @Mikesimpson you are real close to what I would like to do to the '53 seat.

Great job.

John

You did a great job, looks PRO

@Tom Mann I used a band saw to cut 6” thick pieces of foam to that shape. Then I glued them all together.

@John Long yep that is exactly what I did.

What can you share as far as tips go Mike? Did you have any issues with the foam not being thick enough anywhere?

Sorry for the double post earlier.

John

@John Long I probably could have actually went a little thinner on the foam for my application. It could have given me a little bit more room in the cab. I used a high density foam and there is no chance of bottoming it out. It is a little on the stiff side right now, but I did some kitchen stools with the same foam a while back and the foam will soften some over time. I did find that if you take your time while cutting out the foam and get all the pieces cut to as close to the same as you can that you have to do very little sanding to them after they are glued together. And cutting a channel in your foam to put the seam allowance in where it isn’t top stitched makes it lay out really nice.

Nice job, looks awesome.

Thanks @Mikesimpson. I am looking forward to getting into mine. I cut the foam for the rumble seat in my roadster exactly like you did. It worked really well. I have been afraid the front seat would need webbing to be soft enough. I'm glad to hear you did not find the need to do it.

John

@John Long Ive got a couple longer trips planned for the truck this year so I guess we will see if I need the webbing or not. That was one of the concerns I had when I was putting this together. I figured I could always take it back apart and add the webbing later if I needed too.

Good point. I am wanting to pull my cover in with some listings and I'm afraid the webbing would complicate that.

Please give us an update after you put a few miles on it. I will be very interested in your opinions about it as time goes on. I'm sure others will too.

John

That looks great! I real learning curve I'm sure. Got a question, did you put down a plywood base for the seat? Been wanting to try this but wasn't sure how to approach the base, webbing or plywood.

@DEH Thanks! Yep I just used 3/4” plywood for the base.

@John Long I was thinking about using listing to pull the cover down also. But I talked to a couple of guys that do covers like these regularly and they said they just glue them down with landau top glue and the hold up fine. So I did the same.

I would agree. That should be fine. The design I have in the back of my head will need listings though. I have bought 2555 firm foam for the cushion and a softer medium foam for the back rest.

I have not mentioned it on this forum before but my wife has advanced dementia and the time to work on personal projects is pretty sparse. I have not lost interest in the car but my priorities certainly have to be elsewhere for now.

John

@John Long I'm sorry to hear about your wifes condition. I look forward to seeing your work on the rest of the car as time allows.

Mike that looks awesome!!! Great job! Thanks for sharing the pictures. I agree its so much nicer to get rid of the springs and go full foam.

@John Thanks! When you replace the springs with a wood base and foam do you ever cut out an area in the wood below where you would sit and put webbing in so the foam will have a little more give ?

@Mikesimpson ,

This is a pretty good question and in the case of the bench seat which portion of the plywood base would you cut out and of what size. I thinks it sounds kinda tricky.