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Budget seat pad repair - Series 2 VE SV6 Driver seat.

Wildboy

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Jul 20, 2016
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Jimboomba
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VE SV6 S2
Gday,

This is my first post on here, so please bear with me. I hope it all makes sense. Pro upholsterers may cringe, but this is the way we fixed my cactus seat pad.

I recently went through a QLD transport roadside inspection station and was faulted for my drivers seat. I am a big lad and the foam inside the part of the seat that angles up on the far right had deteriorated and collapsed so that the wire frame structure could be felt. I had no issue with it really, but I had to get it sorted.

I looked around for a replacement seat, but could only find a few, Beenleigh wreckers wanted $300!! Yep $300!! Hank at Tweed Heads Holden wrecking ask for $170.00. Not a bad price from Hank, but out of my budget.

I went to my mate Dave's house and we looked at the way the seat is constructed and decided it should be easy enough to pull it apart and do it ourselves.

Firstly I went to Clark rubber and over-stocked up on the foam I thought I would need. I went purely by feel. I ended up buying a block of firm light green foam that never got used and a section of the dark grey stuff seen in the pictures, about 60 X 80cm and approx 1 inch thick. Like I said, over-stocked up, but better to have too much, than not enough. Total cost was just over $50.00

My mate had done upholstery work in the past, so I entrusted him to the task. |

We pulled the entire seat out. Later we worked out that you only need to undo the four nuts holding the base pad to the rail structure. It will make it easier to remove and lighter to handle. Just use the seats height adjusters to raise it as far up as it will go and you will have no dramas. Be very careful of all plugs and cables when taking the seat out, which ever way you decide to tackle it. The wiring board hidden at the front of the seat that is hidden under the plastic moulding has four plugs, one has an orange rod type thing that looks kinda like a thick nail wit T at one end. That needs to be pulled back from the T and pressed down to remove the plug. Just play with it and it you'll work it out.

Once out, it's easier to work on a bench. Chuck an old sheet or towel down to prevent crap getting all over your upholstery.

Undo the screw holding the plastic cover on the left side near the seat belt clasp, then undo all four bolts holding the back to the base. Be careful of the air-bag wiring, think about bagging it and zip tying it into a smaller bundle for safety.
Now it is a simple case of removing the plastic clips/anchors that hold the cloth to the steel frame. Start from the back one then two each side. Leave the front attached, as it is glued in place.

Next we started to pull the fabric off and realised there are Velcro strips glued to the pad where the stitching is, this makes the stitched parts sit down in the gaps, therefore giving the seat it's shape. You need to use one hand to press down on the Velcro and one to lift the fabric. If you are rough, the Velcro will detach and you will have to re-glue it.

Once the upholstery is removed from back and sides, the pad is easy to slide out. Put the steel frame with the upholstery still attached to the front to one side and inspect the pad.

hold foam sheet up to the edge and get a basic area size, then cut it. Make it bigger than the area to be fixed, so you have room for error. Once cut, place against the area to be fixed again and trim to shape, leaving a good half inch over overlay on the top edge. This extra foam will wrap over the top edge as seen in pics. The bottom edge can be trimmed to suit the pad.

Using a big, blunt needle and thread (we used 300lb trace line) start trussing the foam to the pad by going through, under the wire structure, then back over, under the line, then a new hole through, under and back over, repeat...
Dave started from off centre to rear and worked forward, then tidied up the rear after. You can trim the foam as necessary as you go.

Once done, check over the pad and if there are any little nooks and crannies that need filling, just stuff some off cuts in. Upholstery grade glue if necessary. I had some, but forgot to take it top Dave's and wasn't going to drive an hour home to get it. We made do.

Now reverse to dismantle procedure, place the seat back in the car, hook up wiring and you're good to go. It will look a bit lumpy at first, but we did this yesterday and today as I write this, I've done about two hours driving and it now looks fine. We even put a tech screw into the side plastic mould that always breaks off, so it is all flush and firmly held in place.

I didn't get a lot of pics, but you should get the idea. Total time taken, including the process of working out the best way to approach the job and dinner break, about 3 hours.

I truly hope some people find this helpful. If anything needs better explanation, please let me know. All questions are welcome. I will try to answer as fast as possible.

Cheers











Finished product:
 
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