Comfort seat help

[deano]

Like many people that I have talked to, my comfort seat bases basically collapse when I sit on them. I took one of them apart to see what I might do about that.

The springs are incredibly easy to compress. I thought I might be able to slide in sheets of foam, but the quite random orientation of the springs would make that impossible. It looks like it would be possible to slide cylindrical foam pieces inside the springs though.

The horsehair set cushions are in good shape, and firmly attached to the springs with approximately 5000000002 hog rings.

Here are a couple of thoughts about how to get a good firmness back to the bases.

Option-1 - keep the horsehair seat pads and fill each and every spring with a foam cylinder (seem to be available in different grades and hardness for £0.23 to £0.35 each, based on 5cm dia x 17cm long). If they go in tight and touch each other along their lengths, that might work - what do you think?

Option-2 - get some of the modern foam seat pads e.g. Design911 and fill the springs with expanding foam. The idea here is to make a solid but lightweight base for the spongy seat pads. The spring box is only left in to define the shape and boundaries for the expanding foam - what do you think?

Does anyone have any alternative suggestions?

PS. is that likkle paper label a date stamp?

[Gary71]

Take them out.
Place them somewhere safe in the garage.
Buy Recaro replicas.
Never look back!

https://bf-torino.com/LeMans-B80-Leathe ... uroy-black

[deano]

Aftermarket seats are certainly an option, but the price for them makes me cringe a little bit, even though its a drop in the ocean compared to 6 grand on wings and then more for fitting them, with paint still to go....

I quite like the look of the comfort seats, and the covers only need one or two small vinyl repairs so seems a shame not to try and make them go again... at least for now...

I'll bet there are quite a few of these seats sitting on a shelf in the garage or loft

[Flat 6]

I like your first idea. Can't quite visualise the second.

I'm sending my comfort seats to Garry at Classic FX for repair and presumably pros like him have their techniques for firming up these seats while retaining some originality. Don't immediately like the notion of replacing with moulded foam.

You could always ask Garry yourself, he's on here a fair bit.

Al

[deano]

Just a bit more detail about my 2nd idea:

The second idea is to fill the spring box with spray foam.

The spring box will then be solid, I think (depending on the foam I suppose), so the springs wont be able to compress at all.

Then, put the modern foam seat pads on top - these will provide a level of comfort/give.

The current horsehair pads are quite solid, so would be uncomfortable and lumpy if left them on top of the foam filled springs I think...

[Nine One One]

I do not think the spray foam will last that long with human weight constantly on and off it. I am sure it will just break up, and you will be left with lots of small bits of foam on the bottom of the seat?

I take it you are on about the expandable foam that comes in a can, from Screwfix or elsewhere?

[deano]

Thanks for your feedback. I cut up an old IKEA foam mattress into square columns and squished them inside the springs to test the concept. Works pretty well - spring box still compresses, but now much firmer, and acceptably so I think, although I only filled about half of the springs I think responsible for some side-to-side wobble.

Looks like I need 180 cut to size pieces to do it properly... that about £70 I think...

....any comments / thoughts / suggestions?