I bought a seat foam kit from Walridge (Ontario), but the kit is without instructions and assumes more knowledge than I possess. The model is a 1969 Lightning.
There is the main, sculpted chunk. Should this be glued to the seat pan, or be free to float?
There is a strip of thin foam ~3" wide and 5'long. Does this go around the bottom, covering the gap between the pan and foam chunk? Should it wrap under the (sharp) bottom edge of the pan? There was perished rubber moulding there when disassembly occurred. Should this strip be glued into place, or float without adhesive?
There is one other piece of thin foam, cut in an arc 5-1/2"wide and 16" long. Where does this go? Again, glued or not?
Finally, there's the bit of thin foam that hangs over the back. It looks like it blends the foam ducktail/hump into the pan. Should this be glued, and should it be trimmed to some particular configuration? And again, should it wrap under the sharp bottom seat pan edge?
Thanks for any help. I tried attaching a small photo (thrice) but that didn't work out too well here.
Th.B. Nast
Seattle
Cant help you with specific instructions for your seat but when I re upholstered a Bantam seat last year I didnt buy a preformed foam base, and like yours, the old foam had perished. I bought some high density foam and some less firm foam from a car trimming company and made my own. The chap at the trimming works said make it all up loosely allowing for some compression when the cover is fitted and use some spray glue to tack any foam bits together. He suggested wrapping the foam in some loose cloth ( he said car polishing stockinette would be fine ) and then spray glue it to the base to tack into place. Then fit the cover.
To follow-up in case this thread is read in the future, I contacted R K Leighton, vendor of the foam kit in question. This was their reply:
"The main foam should be stuck down the your base.the other thinner pieces of foam are to cover up the exposed metal.The straight pieces down the sides the curved piece at the back.The thin piece that is stuck to the foam just makes the back look better when the cover is on.You do not need to fold the foam over the edges of the seat trim it of level.If you want to protect the edge like it was originally with rubber,material or tape."
This is helpful, if incomplete. It sounds like the 3" x 5' thin foam wraps around the steel frame, and the excess gets trimmed and not blended into the main seat foam.
This is not a job I want to do twice!
Also be carefull what glue you use. Only the spray glue. I used evo stick on my cover and it melted the vinyl! JJ.
That's weird. I used evo stick on vinyl on my clubman seat and it was fine.