About five years ago I redid my seats with new foams
and covers from Rimmer Bros. I believe they were
actually made by a firm called Newton Commercial in
England.
The covers were fine, and the seat back foams were
pretty good (essentially the same construction as the
originals), but the seat base foams were not
so nice. The original seat base foams were molded
latex, which is a high-quality material, and expensive
to reproduce.
The repro bases were made of common polyurethane foam
that was shaped properly, but not nearly firm enough.
They don't provide a real "bucket seat" feel, and
going around corners I feel like my a** is going to
slide off the seat, as if I was sitting in an office
chair.
If I could find better-made seat base foams, I would
buy them and re-do the seat bases. I don't know if an
upholstery shop could make up a set from scratch.
They have a complex shape, and if the foam is shaped
wrong, the seats would definitely look funny.
Doug Braun
'72 Spit
--- Kevin Rhodes <krhodes1@maine.rr.com> wrote:
> End of last season, the driver's seat frame finally
> broke under my
> excess girth, so I had to pull the upholstery off. I
> redid the seats
> with new everything about 10 years ago, using
> materials from Victoria
> British. I was never particularly happy with the
> quality of the
> materials, and taking the seat apart has pretty well
> made me decide
> that it is time to do it over again - the seat foams
> are in a pretty
> terrible state, and the cardboard parts of the seat
> covers have
> disintegrated. Does anyone have any opinions as to
> who has the best
> quality foams and covers? Or do all the places
> pretty much sell the
> same stuff and just get it where it is cheapest/most
> convenient?
> Given the crummy quality and ridiculous price of the
> foams, I am
> tempted to try making my own from bulk foam.
>
> Luckily, I still had the driver's seat from the
> Spitfire I parted out
> years ago, so that went in for the time being. Not
> great, but the
> worst of it is hidden with the top down. And my butt
> covers the rest!
>
> Lastly, I really need a new tonneau cover. Is it
> really necessary to
> get the one with headrest pockets that is listed for
> my car? I have
> '74 seats with the tiny headrests that don't even go
> up into them.
> Seems like a flat one would be tidier, and they are
> a bit cheaper.
>
> Hard to believe, but I bought Freddy 12 years ago
> this July, on my
> birthday. One of us is getting old.... ;-)
>
> Kevin Rhodes
> Westbrook, Maine
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