I refurbed my cloth seats (E28 1983)

[Kodachrome 146]

I did check if I could find replacement used ones in better quality and wasnt happy with what sellers were offering, so we decided to make a couple of days out of it and combined skills to refurb what we have. 

Basically:

- No foam/sponge left in originals, no softness in the horsehair molded bases. Cloth itself in pretty good condition.

- Forced stripes of cotton wadding inside "piping" on the back piece

- Kept the horse hair mold but added middle strips of 35-160U High Density foam and side bolsters of 28-170U Medium density foam

- Hand washed rear cloth, did not remove from seat as it was riveted to the frame (and no need).

- Machine washed base

- Wife sewed in "Interface" material into the base stips to create new "loops" to hold the side-centre-side metal bars in place (original channels disintegrated

- Initially used OEM like Bull Ring pliers to reattached metal bars etc but found that large cable ties work a lot better. Used lots of them (13per base, 5 on each side and 3 in the middle). 

 

Very happy with result, firm but soft, smells great too thanks to the washing and cloth shampoo!

 

[Mikan 173]

This is awesome! Well done. 

[User Name 19]

Awesome, I actually might consider doing mine instead of swapping out for another type of seat.

[Olaf 3235]

@Kodachrome Great job, Alan!  Looks better, and am sure it feels better.

Where'd you get the foam?

[Kodachrome 146]

I got the foam on Trade Me, those are the exact names I used from the listing. There are foam and seat outlets around bricks & mortar style too that can sell and cut it for you. Apparently the best DIY cutting method is to use an electric kitchen knife. Would be near than what I used (blades and scissors). 

I got the wadding in Spotlight!

 

It does feel great tho!

Edited May 15, 2019 by Kodachrome

[Kodachrome 146]

Giving these away now as fitted e36 seats in their place!