|
In Reply to: Can you tell me more about pads for seats?? posted by omarshrif on February 19, 2001 at 13:42:12:
First, remove the front drivers seat by taking off the plastic guards on the front and rear of the slide rails...must have Torque bits for your socket wrench. Once these are removed you will find the bigger torque bolts holding down the the seat...two are on the front and two others on the rear of the slide rail. You will have to move the seat all the way back to gain access to the front ones and then move it all the way forward to remove the rear bolts. (needless to say, do not disconnect the electric seat harness until you are ready to remove the seat.
Once removed, you can flip the seat upside down as mentioned about to work on the underside of the seat bottom.
The next step is to remove the plastic cover holding the electric controls in place. This is very easily done by gently prying off the controls with a flathead screwdriver and removing the obvious screws with the same smaller torque bit used to remove the seat rail covers. There are also three plastic plugs that can be easily pulled out.
You will find that the leather seat cover is tucked under and fitted over some extended metal prongs that are part of the seat frame. I used needle nose plyers to tug on the leather to free it past the metal prongs. Do this one at at time until you have freed the front, control side of the seat, and the rear of the seat. IMPORTANT... YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PULL THE ENTIRE SEAT COVER OFF!
Once you have pulled the seat cover up, you will find that the cover is then still attached to metal rods on the top part of the foam seat cushion (look at the new replacement foam pad for clear detail on locations) with upholstery fasteners. I used the needle nose plyers and a small screwdriver to widen them just enough to pull them past the small diameter of the metal rods (similar to the width of a metal shirt hanger). The reason you don't want to ruin these fasteners is because you want to re-use them when re-attaching the leather seat cover to the new foam pad.
Once all the fastners have been freed, you can pull the pad out. It is that simple. Now carefully put the new pad in place making sure that you fit it firmly into its place on the frame and work the cover into place...pulling the back piece of leather throught the small space between the back rest and the seat bottom. Once in place, use the needle nose plyers to re-position the fasteners over the metal rods on the new pad working your way from the back, left side of the seat, forward and to the front corner. Once all fastners are back in place, you can begin to pull the leather back around the frame and re-attach over the prongs.
Your seat will now feel brand new! Install the seat back in your car in the same maner your removed it. While it is out, you can shampoo your carpet and clean up all the crap that has sandwhiched itself between the seat rail and the center console! Good luck.
Salts.
I'm intersted in rebuilding my front seats, that seem to have lost their support.
Your note sounds like that's possible, even a do it yourself project???
What does the pad look like, and how is it installed?