Seat cushion repairs

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

86k10

Newbie
Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Messages
48
Reaction score
28
Location
Colorado
I have a new to me 1998 GMC K1500 and the driver seat kinda sags. Looks like the springs/frame is starting to cut into the cushion

What would you use to reinforce the cushion? I have seen some glue on patches in other seats that the upholstery shop have done.
 

mariodave

Newbie
Joined
Sep 9, 2018
Messages
42
Reaction score
17
Location
Pueblo West Co.
I have a new to me 1998 GMC K1500 and the driver seat kinda sags. Looks like the springs/frame is starting to cut into the cushion

What would you use to reinforce the cushion? I have seen some glue on patches in other seats that the upholstery shop have done.

I have a 98 Z71 Ext cab with the same problem. Seat foam and frame are shot. New seat cushions are available for about 100 bucks. Does anyone know if it is possible to get the factory cover off to put it on a new foam cushion. Leather covers are not glued. This truck has cloth seats. Has anyone ever done This?
 

sewlow

Bitchin' Stitchin'
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
12,422
Reaction score
5,754
Location
Abbotsford B.C., Canada.
These seats don't have springs. Stamped metal pans with a molded foam cushion.
86K10. Without seeing the seat, this is an edumacated guess. Sounds like the foam itself is dead. Compressed over the years to where it no longer has the memory to return to it's original form. Not only that, but due to the shape of the pan, as the foam has compressed, the outside edge has been broken down & cut by the outer formed metal edge.
The foam on the outer edge can be repaired, but it will always be a repair. It'll never quite as good as new, & certainly more susceptible to breaking down again.
No repair is going to last another 20+ years. Not even 1/2 of that. Be lucky to last 5 years. Maybe. Could be even shorter depending on the driver's size & how the seat's taken care of, along with how a person gets in-n-out of the truck.
Anyways, the seat has to be removed from the truck.
Undo the front bolts first. Slide the seat forward & remove the rears. This will allow the seat to stand upright on the bench by itself. Do that procedure in reverse & the seat will be flipping & falling all over the bench, fighting you the whole job. If it's electric, raise the seat up to it's highest position.
Flip the seat over. Around the perimeter are some long plastic clips sewn to the cover. Get a long flat screwdriver & flip them off of the frame's edge. The clips have little hooks molded in there that can be a PitA to get off of the frame's edge. Pushing down on the seat will compress the foam, giving you a bit of slack in the cover, allowing for a bit of an easier time to get it off.
Start from one side & work around to the other.
There's some velcro tags on the rear corners of the cushion cover.
Remove the rear edge of the cover last. That may or may not be attached with another plastic clip. IIRC, some are attached with Hog Rings. Twist the hog rings with a pair of side cutters to remove them. Cutting them is a last resort. If you have to do that, wear eye protection.
Pull the cover & the foam off as one.
Flip the cover's band off the foam so that cover is inside out. The faces are attached with velcro. Don't just yank the velcro apart. More than likely, doing that will also remove the one side of the velcro glued to the foam. Inch it off.
Now that you're down to just the foam bun, you'll be able to see where the frame has cut into the foam's outer edge.
Get that part of the foam that's broken down held apart with something. Couple pieces of wood or plastic.
Use yelow 'Automotive Trim Adhesive' (3M) to glue it back together. Spread as light of a coating of that as possible. Putty knives work well to smear it around. A light coat, as it will be absorbed by the foam. Let it dry without letting the parts being glued to touch. Hence the plastic/wood. 20 minutes to an hour. Need the glue to dry & form a skin so that a second coat of glue won't sink into the foam. Let the second layer of glue to dry about 5 minutes. You want it to be slightly tacky.
Slowly push the foam together so that it aligns as it was when new.
Now, inside that formed indented part of the foam where the frame cut into it, glue in some kind of tough material. Vinyl works well. Smear some glue in there. Some more on the fabric side of the vinyl. Stick the 2 together while still wet. Give it a good rub. This ensures that the glue mates to glue. Pull the vinyl off & let it dry. When dry, give a light coat to the vinyl & let dry till tacky. Roll that into that indent from one side to the other, forming it as you go. Give it a snip where there's wrinkles.
This ^^^ is to prevent the frame from cutting the foam again.
To build up the foam where it's collapsed, you're going to need a piece of foam slightly larger than the cushion. I'd say 1" thick of a medium/firm density. What's known in the trade as 4 pound foam. That's just the way the density is measured, not how much it weighs. Has to do with compression rates.
Set that on the underside of the foam cushion & trim it to the general shape. Better too big than too small. It can always be cut down some more. Kinda hard to make it bigger.
Place that on the seat pan. Put the foam cushion on top. Sit on the seat.
Trim and adjust the foam until you feel comfortable. You'll probably have to taper that added foam towards the rear of the cushion. An electric carving knife works well, but it can also be down with an exacto.
You may have to do several adjustments of that foam. Small ones at a time.
You're butt will tell when it's right. Do this as many times as you need to get the feel right. That new foam may be the size of the whole cushion, just the center or maybe just the edges. Take your time with this.
When that's done, glue that new foam onto the cushion underside. Don't need a complete coating. Just a few spots to tack it in place.
Put the foam back onto the frame. Attach the inside out cover to the velcro.
Pull that rear cover attachment through & under the backrest & attach it to the frame. If a plastic clip was used, no prob. If hog rings, where those were, you can use zip-ties. Doing the back first, ensures that the cover will be in the right spot for the next procedure.
Reach inside the inside out corner of the cover & while holding in place on the corner of the foam, flip the cover right-side-out, rolling it right down & over the frame. Do the other corner.
Turn the seat upside down. Pushing down on the frame compresses the foam & will give you enough slack in the cover to be able to snap those long plastic clips on the cover back onto the frame's edge. Re-attach the velcro at the bottom rear corners of the cover. (They wrap around to hide the hinges)
After all this, like I said, this is a repair. It'll never be the same as original. Close is as good as it gets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

mariodave. The glued fabric covers can be removed. S-l-o-w-l-y-!!!
Peel the cover from the foam, using a razor knife where the foam is really stuck, working as if skinning a moose. (Canada here, eh?)
Steam helps a lot. It'll help to soften the glue. If the wife has a steamer for clothing, borrow that. (I won't tell!) Or...a kettle can be used too. Turn the seat upside down & let the steam work it's way in through the cover to the foam base. Don't worry about the foam getting wet. The steam won't saturate it & by the time toy're ready to install the new cover, it'll be dry.
See the previous for the re-n-re of the cover. It's virtually the same for a bench.
 

John Cunningham

I'm Awesome
Joined
Sep 26, 2018
Messages
213
Reaction score
90
Location
vero Beach Florida
These seats don't have springs. Stamped metal pans with a molded foam cushion.
86K10. Without seeing the seat, this is an edumacated guess. Sounds like the foam itself is dead. Compressed over the years to where it no longer has the memory to return to it's original form. Not only that, but due to the shape of the pan, as the foam has compressed, the outside edge has been broken down & cut by the outer formed metal edge.
The foam on the outer edge can be repaired, but it will always be a repair. It'll never quite as good as new, & certainly more susceptible to breaking down again.
No repair is going to last another 20+ years. Not even 1/2 of that. Be lucky to last 5 years. Maybe. Could be even shorter depending on the driver's size & how the seat's taken care of, along with how a person gets in-n-out of the truck.
Anyways, the seat has to be removed from the truck.
Undo the front bolts first. Slide the seat forward & remove the rears. This will allow the seat to stand upright on the bench by itself. Do that procedure in reverse & the seat will be flipping & falling all over the bench, fighting you the whole job. If it's electric, raise the seat up to it's highest position.
Flip the seat over. Around the perimeter are some long plastic clips sewn to the cover. Get a long flat screwdriver & flip them off of the frame's edge. The clips have little hooks molded in there that can be a PitA to get off of the frame's edge. Pushing down on the seat will compress the foam, giving you a bit of slack in the cover, allowing for a bit of an easier time to get it off.
Start from one side & work around to the other.
There's some velcro tags on the rear corners of the cushion cover.
Remove the rear edge of the cover last. That may or may not be attached with another plastic clip. IIRC, some are attached with Hog Rings. Twist the hog rings with a pair of side cutters to remove them. Cutting them is a last resort. If you have to do that, wear eye protection.
Pull the cover & the foam off as one.
Flip the cover's band off the foam so that cover is inside out. The faces are attached with velcro. Don't just yank the velcro apart. More than likely, doing that will also remove the one side of the velcro glued to the foam. Inch it off.
Now that you're down to just the foam bun, you'll be able to see where the frame has cut into the foam's outer edge.
Get that part of the foam that's broken down held apart with something. Couple pieces of wood or plastic.
Use yelow 'Automotive Trim Adhesive' (3M) to glue it back together. Spread as light of a coating of that as possible. Putty knives work well to smear it around. A light coat, as it will be absorbed by the foam. Let it dry without letting the parts being glued to touch. Hence the plastic/wood. 20 minutes to an hour. Need the glue to dry & form a skin so that a second coat of glue won't sink into the foam. Let the second layer of glue to dry about 5 minutes. You want it to be slightly tacky.
Slowly push the foam together so that it aligns as it was when new.
Now, inside that formed indented part of the foam where the frame cut into it, glue in some kind of tough material. Vinyl works well. Smear some glue in there. Some more on the fabric side of the vinyl. Stick the 2 together while still wet. Give it a good rub. This ensures that the glue mates to glue. Pull the vinyl off & let it dry. When dry, give a light coat to the vinyl & let dry till tacky. Roll that into that indent from one side to the other, forming it as you go. Give it a snip where there's wrinkles.
This ^^^ is to prevent the frame from cutting the foam again.
To build up the foam where it's collapsed, you're going to need a piece of foam slightly larger than the cushion. I'd say 1" thick of a medium/firm density. What's known in the trade as 4 pound foam. That's just the way the density is measured, not how much it weighs. Has to do with compression rates.
Set that on the underside of the foam cushion & trim it to the general shape. Better too big than too small. It can always be cut down some more. Kinda hard to make it bigger.
Place that on the seat pan. Put the foam cushion on top. Sit on the seat.
Trim and adjust the foam until you feel comfortable. You'll probably have to taper that added foam towards the rear of the cushion. An electric carving knife works well, but it can also be down with an exacto.
You may have to do several adjustments of that foam. Small ones at a time.
You're butt will tell when it's right. Do this as many times as you need to get the feel right. That new foam may be the size of the whole cushion, just the center or maybe just the edges. Take your time with this.
When that's done, glue that new foam onto the cushion underside. Don't need a complete coating. Just a few spots to tack it in place.
Put the foam back onto the frame. Attach the inside out cover to the velcro.
Pull that rear cover attachment through & under the backrest & attach it to the frame. If a plastic clip was used, no prob. If hog rings, where those were, you can use zip-ties. Doing the back first, ensures that the cover will be in the right spot for the next procedure.
Reach inside the inside out corner of the cover & while holding in place on the corner of the foam, flip the cover right-side-out, rolling it right down & over the frame. Do the other corner.
Turn the seat upside down. Pushing down on the frame compresses the foam & will give you enough slack in the cover to be able to snap those long plastic clips on the cover back onto the frame's edge. Re-attach the velcro at the bottom rear corners of the cover. (They wrap around to hide the hinges)
After all this, like I said, this is a repair. It'll never be the same as original. Close is as good as it gets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

mariodave. The glued fabric covers can be removed. S-l-o-w-l-y-!!!
Peel the cover from the foam, using a razor knife where the foam is really stuck, working as if skinning a moose. (Canada here, eh?)
Steam helps a lot. It'll help to soften the glue. If the wife has a steamer for clothing, borrow that. (I won't tell!) Or...a kettle can be used too. Turn the seat upside down & let the steam work it's way in through the cover to the foam base. Don't worry about the foam getting wet. The steam won't saturate it & by the time toy're ready to install the new cover, it'll be dry.
See the previous for the re-n-re of the cover. It's virtually the same for a bench.
I just added some foam for lumbar and side supports. The shop just went right over the old fabric. You cannot tell it, and you dont have to screw with removal of old upholstery.
 

sewlow

Bitchin' Stitchin'
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
12,422
Reaction score
5,754
Location
Abbotsford B.C., Canada.
That makes both my brain & my teeth hurt.
I would never do that.
Not even for Chester & Fester Bestertestor's Used Car Lot, Laundromat & Pinball Emporium. It's a 'pride-in-my-workmanship' thing. I have to sleep at night.
Making those covers. It's virtually the same job to do it right, except for the savings of about 15 minutes to pull the original covers off, & maybe 1/2 an hour to re-install.
These seats are one of the simplest designs ever, & certainly one of the easiest to re-n-re the covers on.
In my point of view, my opinion, that's a unnessecary short-cut.
 
Last edited:

garkahn60

Newbie
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Messages
13
Reaction score
23
My 40/60 bench driver side seat cushion is pretty saggy. They are cloth seats, 250,000 miles on the truck. The cloth/ upholstery is in pretty good shape considering the age and mileage. I was hoping to replace the cushion with new but cannot find anything for the 40/60, only for a single bucket. So i bought the bucket cushion thinking I could cut the bad area out of the bench cushion and glue it to the bucket cushion i bought.
Now that I understand that the fabric is glued to the foam I am not to sure my idea will work.
Any thoughts?
 

sewlow

Bitchin' Stitchin'
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
12,422
Reaction score
5,754
Location
Abbotsford B.C., Canada.
Got pix of both? I know what the seats look like, but I see a lot of different seats & try as I might, can't always remember the exact details of each.
That would maybe work. IIRC (...uhmmm...) the seats do look similar. ?

I've actually got a really nice rear seat out of an SUV in the stash that I've held onto just for the foam. Need to fix the driver side of my buckets in the '98.
Think I may be able to get away with just some inner edge reshaping.
Rear seats are always in better shape than the fronts. ...and they're usually cheap in the wreckers too.
Could be an option for you too, if the seats are similar.
Once I see a pic, we can go from there.
 

garkahn60

Newbie
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
Messages
13
Reaction score
23
Will see how this going. This is my seat (hopefully picture attached)

You must be registered for see images attach
 
Top