New seat bottom foam vs re-building existing?

[Memaloose]

My 2 cents.
I recently had my seat reupholstered and debated the same thing, seat back as well. The guy that did mine said he'd just add some new foam where it was worn. The repair was as good as new to me. You can't tell it was repaired. He charged me $550 for the works, inspection of springs and frame too. I'm 6'4", 240 pounds, it came out perfect and only cost me an extra $50. The guy I bought the truck from was the original owner since 1975 and he was on about 5'8", 135 pounds so it wasn't worn out hardly at all, just where he climbed in and out on the edges. I suppose if some Mongo drove it for years, I'd replace both cushions.

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[Ken B]

Is that custom upholstery?
Looks good!

 

[Memaloose]

Yep. A guy up the road came by wanting to buy my truck. He said he does upholstery so I asked for a quote. $500 cash, I said do it! While the seat was out, I cleaned the floor pan, primered and painted it, new carpet and reupholstered seat, about $800 total. The upholsterer, Francisco, told me 1-3 weeks turnaround. He never contacted me for 2 months, I had already bought a replacement seat at the local wrecking yard as I thought I'd never see the redone seat again. Francisco said they sent the wrong shade of material then he had "the virus" I would have him do work for me again though, he's great, and cheep!

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[Ken B]

Any feedback on anyone buying upholstery from LMC or the like?

 

[Tank6x2]

Agreed each to their own, I’m all for what what a guy want to do, quite sure a person who’s posting on forum can be open to ideas maybe they have thought of… but maybe more right I should just keep my lower lip closed to upper and not be part of any conversation on here lol

@HotRodPC @Old77

 

[Grit dog]

@Memaloose
Same deal here. Seat isn’t trashed by any means. Drivers side is only a little “softer” than passengers side.
I’ve seen the work done by the feller who I’m taking the seat to and he’s “re-built” much older worse seat foam than mine and it looks good. Not sure he could or would even do much to mine.

My original question was or should have been….
How much stiffer is the new replacement stuff than even a decent condition example of 80s seat cushion?
If theyre still Charmin soft like OE then I won’t bother, but would prefer to have less deformation when my fat @ss sits on it!

(It’s amazing one can tell how “large” the driver of a pre owned vehicle was pretty easy by looking at the condition of the drivers seat!
Bought a used SRT8 several years back. About 60k miles on it. The drivers seat had ZERO wear n tear. Hardly a wrinkle in the leather. Lady who drove it since new was about 110lbs tops.
Bought a Tahoe couple years ago with 100k on it. Great shape except the drivers seat bottom look like it got attacked by a Rottweiler! I ordered a new seat bottom and cover before I got it home….

 

[bucket]

A lot of seat wear is from people that don't notice how they get in and out of the car or truck. I always try to avoid sliding and twisting as much as possible to avoid excessively wearing out the seat fabric. But I've been called a seat nazzi (found another forbidden word, lol) before, lol. Back when I drove a Camaro everyday, I banned one buddy of mine from riding in it. Every time he got in, he backed into the side bolster and folded it over on itself, then slid his ass all the way down the bolster and then crashed down into the seat bottom. He would then proceed to rotate all of his weight in the seat bottom as he brought his legs into the car, somehow while also leaning back forcefully into the seatback and flexing the entire seat. It was a very violent way of getting into a car and my mint condition original GM seats did not appreciate it.

 

[Grit dog]

@bucket, I feel we would get along great!
Nothing like someone so oblivious or clumsy that they can't help but try to destroy your car just entering or exiting it...
Same here, cars are easy, but trucks, I always attempt to miss the outside bolster when getting in or out.
Funny (now), couple weeks ago, I'm covering night shift on one of my projects. Weather sux, cold wet and muddy.
Guy comes over, hops into the passenger side of my truck. Does the obligatory drag your ass over the bolster (fine on the pass side, it'll never wear out), plops into the seat, mud all over his pants and a pair of Kleins in his back pocket! All to ask me a simple question. Didn't need a ride anywhere and his (clapped out job truck) was like 50' away if he did! Truck is brand new company issued rig with leather seats... I about lost it! lol

Even better, lets say you got some nice carpet in your vehicle and equally nice floor mats to keep said carpet from turning into wet smelly moldy dirty wore out crap. Why does the passenger's left foot, still in their shoe, have to end up on top of the carpet on the transmission hump within 5 minutes of sitting down? And why does that person's shoe usually contain more than trace remnants of dog poo?

On another note. Any vehicle that has basically bucket front seats, most all of them these days, even if there's a center seat, it's usually 40-20-40 type arrangement, could the mfers, I mean mfgs, please make the drivers and passengers seat covers and foam interchangeable? Is that too much to ask?
First it would be super easy to get cheap oem replacements as 50% of the seats (passenger) in junk cars would have little wear n tear.
Second, for those who care enough, guy could pull the covers and foam off of both front seats and swap them once the drivers seat is seeing some wear n tear.
Is it better to have a brand new looking passenger seat 5,10,20 years later, like every used car pic on CL and FB shows (conveniently missing the shredded drivers seat)? Or would it be nicer to have 2 partially worn yet still presentable and comfortable after the same amount of time?

 

[DoubleDingo]

@bucket, I feel we would get along great!
Nothing like someone so oblivious or clumsy that they can't help but try to destroy your car just entering or exiting it...
Same here, cars are easy, but trucks, I always attempt to miss the outside bolster when getting in or out.
Funny (now), couple weeks ago, I'm covering night shift on one of my projects. Weather sux, cold wet and muddy.
Guy comes over, hops into the passenger side of my truck. Does the obligatory drag your ass over the bolster (fine on the pass side, it'll never wear out), plops into the seat, mud all over his pants and a pair of Kleins in his back pocket! All to ask me a simple question. Didn't need a ride anywhere and his (clapped out job truck) was like 50' away if he did! Truck is brand new company issued rig with leather seats... I about lost it! lol

Even better, lets say you got some nice carpet in your vehicle and equally nice floor mats to keep said carpet from turning into wet smelly moldy dirty wore out crap. Why does the passenger's left foot, still in their shoe, have to end up on top of the carpet on the transmission hump within 5 minutes of sitting down? And why does that person's shoe usually contain more than trace remnants of dog poo?

It's in the operators manual of riding passenger in a truck...

 

[Grit dog]

It's in the operators manual of riding passenger in a truck...

Must be! Weird, the people who do this are usually also the types that couldn't read instructions on how to boil water though! LOL

 

[Goldie Driver]

Any feedback on anyone buying upholstery from LMC or the like?

Bought a houndstooth seat cover for my 80 from Classic Industries.

Took forever- like 8 months.

Only ***** I have is that the buttons on the original are not on the replacement, but even the vinyl piping is.

And, the buttons can be transferred.

Its not on yet because the carpet needs to be replaced, and might as well have it done when the seat redone.

Ain't bought the carpet yet...

 

[Goldie Driver]

Bought a houndstooth seat cover for my 80 from Classic Industries.

Took forever- like 8 months.

Only ***** I have is that the buttons on the original are not on the replacement, but even the vinyl piping is.

And, the buttons can be transferred.

Its not on yet because the carpet needs to be replaced, and might as well have it done when the seat redone.

Ain't bought the carpet yet...

And, B-!-t-c-h is censored...

Gawddammit.

 

[Ken B]

I am just looking for whats good and bad. winter inside projects, new seat foam and upholstery.

 

[73c20jim]

And, B-!-t-c-h is censored...

Gawddammit.

Proper forum etiquette. spell out your censured words. lol

 

[shiftpro]

A lot of seat wear is from people that don't notice how they get in and out of the car or truck. I always try to avoid sliding and twisting as much as possible to avoid excessively wearing out the seat fabric. But I've been called a seat nazzi (found another forbidden word, lol) before, lol. Back when I drove a Camaro everyday, I banned one buddy of mine from riding in it. Every time he got in, he backed into the side bolster and folded it over on itself, then slid his ass all the way down the bolster and then crashed down into the seat bottom. He would then proceed to rotate all of his weight in the seat bottom as he brought his legs into the car, somehow while also leaning back forcefully into the seatback and flexing the entire seat. It was a very violent way of getting into a car and my mint condition original GM seats did not appreciate it.

Yeah like driving a 700 auto for years or killing it in a handful of months.