The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 1951 bench seat padding

I'm redoing my bench seat from my 1951. All the padding and upholstery was beyond repair. I've gotten new vinyl for the seats but I'm not sure how thick the padding was on the seat originally. Could anyone tell me the thickness?

Not sure if this will help....I would purchase this kit listed here...

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/ca/full.aspx?Page=52

the bench seat rebuilding kit I think has the parts you need..

MikeC

Maybe Denny will post his experience and suggestions. I recall he has taken very good photos of his seat cushion "restoration".

I think he tried to reproduce the layers of materials and type of materials that were originally used.

Jim Carter sells an installation kit, but I found it to be too soft (cotton batting and burlap) - the tops of the spring coils could be felt and seen. JC's kit includes original-style barrel clips, rather than hog-rings.

A good addition would be layer a short-nap heavy-duty carpet material

It would also be nice to hear from someone who used the LMC kit. It might be better than JC's kit, depending on the density of the "foam seat" and the strength/thickness of the "reinforcement material". This kit has hog-rings.

Here is a grainy-illustration of the layers in an original A-D (1954) seat cushion.

You want to make sure the top layer goes over/beyond all the upper perimeter of the seat-spring.

On my 53, I started with a new piece of short nap carpet cut the size of the springs and used hog rings to attach them. Then one inch medium firm foam, followed by cotton batting and vinyl upholstery. It took two tries however 'cause the first time we used two in. and it is too thick. The second time turned out better than expected, but I confess that my wife did most of it! Steve

How thick was your cotton batting steve? And should I use 1 inch foam and cotton batting or 2 inched of foam and no batting?

The backing and the foam kit from LMC is the worst. I installed the cover the first time with their kit and the installation was so soggy you could feel the springs pushing into you. I changed things up a bit and got a little creative and wow what a difference.

for the bottom seat i removed the thin burlap backing garbage from LMC and installed.......get this...................heavy density cut pile house carpet. The heavy backing on the bottom of the carpet will not stretch or bend as much as the thin stuff and help distribute the [censored] loading. Also when using the thin stuff and transitioning from the horizontal [censored] area to the vertical sides of the seat the wire seat coil frame would show its profile thru the top vinyl looking like garbage. That was even happening thru the sponge that i rolled down the sides to try to help that. The installation of the carpet folded down all around the sides makes for such a nice smooth looking rolled edge around the seat.

The seat back was done the same way but i used no sponge at all. The vinyl cover has a thin padding already sewn to the back side of it for the back so i just installed the carpet the same way and directly applied the vinyl. This was also a nicer sitting position as i always felt pushed too far forward towards the wheel even with the seat rolled all the way back with thicker padding in the seat back. The seat is still nice and comfortable because of the stock coils have a nice give.

Been driving it now for two seasons like this and have no issues.

I always wondered about seat kits. One of the reasons I bought (just bought) my AD was because you can practically build one from a catalog and seats are no exception.

Having said that, I wondered about improvements to the original system. Such as memory foam or adding a touch more foam to the area of the lower back for 'slightly' better lumbar support.

Photos would help a lot on this forum because I can't imagine using carpet but a photo or two would help.

Now, because some of you have used carpet it makes sense because of the weave in carpet which gives it it's strength - resembles the old burlap, and most carpet has a thin layer of "memory" type foam BUT the part I can not picture is WHERE the carpet goes?

From what I gather it's 1. reproduction seat cover over 2. piece of carpet cut to shape over 3. some more foam and then 4. the springs?

I know in the old days, better cars like some Cadillacs had individual wrappings of each coil spring. Wonder how good an AD seat can be made??

I will list is as i installed it.

Start by checking all your seat springs and repair as required first.

Get some heavy cut pile carpet and cut it about 4" larger on all sides. This overlap will be the section that you roll over and down the sides. Install Carpet backing side down on springs. NO under carpet cushion is required. The rolled carpet provided a nice soft edge where the thick perimeter seat wire is. It will not allow the wire to show thru the seat cover.

Hog ring the carpet down all the way around and cut the corners as required to allow for a nice folding around the corners. next i used some high density memory foam from the local fabric store. The LMC one was way too soft and was garbage quality. I cut the foam just 1 inch larger than the seat profile all the way around. Next i just installed the cover and clipped it on.

The back was done the same way but i never added any foam at all. The seat cover already has a padding installed and with the carpet behind it feels nice. The foam in the back pushed me so far forward i was sitting too straight up.

Great detail Wolffcub in you descriptions. Still having a hard time picturing what you did to the corners with the carpet. Do you have any pictures of the process when you completed your seat?

just the info I was looking for, My 59 had individual wires ran through the burlap backing, and I was hoping there was a newer product available The cut pile carpet is a great idea.

Same

Gosh, this would be helpful. We have a multi-layer seat tech tips in the works now. Everything from adjusting the cable moving it up and back, to taking out the frame. Might as well throw in the cushion.

Oh, and we already have a goodie about how to clean the fabric cushions. Oh, it's great!

Peg