Date: Thu, 24 Oct 96 15:49:02 From: "Hanson, Todd" To: type-3@umich.edu Hello. My original seat covers are in pretty good shape, but the seat pad (foam) is sagging. I know that replacement form-fit pads are available. Any special tricks to removing and reinstalling the 30-year-old vinyl? I suppose I should use new hog rings to reattach the seat cover to the frame. Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanson@frost.com Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 20:44:26 -0500 To: type-3@umich.edu From: jadney@vwtype3.org (Melissa & Jim) Subject: Re: T-3: Seat pad replacement? I cut my own out of foam rubber from an upholestery (sp?) shop and bits of good quality carpet remnants. OEM didn't use hog rings. In my opinion neither do quality resorations. Just look at how it was originally done. Jim --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 00:28:02 -0400 From: Squareback Reply-To: tfink@hubcap.clemson.edu To: type-3@umich.edu Subject: Re: T-3: Seat pad replacement? Melissa & Jim wrote: > > > > > Hello. My original seat covers are in pretty good shape, but the seat > > pad (foam) is sagging. I know that replacement form-fit pads are > > available. > > I cut my own out of foam rubber from an upholestery (sp?) shop and bits of > good quality carpet remnants. > > Any special tricks to removing and reinstalling the 30-year-old vinyl? > > I suppose I should use new hog rings to reattach the seat cover to the > > frame. Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > OEM didn't use hog rings. In my opinion neither do quality resorations. > Just look at how it was originally done. The original upholstery(lower cushon) is held directly to the seat frame by metal tabs. The tabs are like little spikes. The material is streched tight, pushed over the tab, and then the tab is bent into the seat frame. Be careful because these tabs will break off easily. The seat back upholstery is just pulled over and secured by a zipper at the bottom, or at least mine was. -- =================================================================== Tim Fink \ / \ / 69 Squareback (New 1776cc Motor) \ \/ / 79 Dasher \ /\ / 81 Diesel Rabbit \ / \ / 67 Fastback \/ \/ =================================================================== tfink@hubcap.clemson.edu South Carolina =================================================================== Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 20:35:50 -0500 To: type-3@umich.edu From: Squareback (by way of jadney@vwtype3.org (Melissa & Jim)) Subject: Re: T-3: Seat pad replacement? The original upholstery(lower cushon) is held directly to the seat frame by metal tabs. The tabs are like little spikes. The material is streched tight, pushed over the tab, and then the tab is bent into the seat frame. Be careful because these tabs will break off easily. The seat back upholstery is just pulled over and secured by a zipper at the bottom, or at least mine was. I'm right with you on the seat bottoms, but I never saw a zipper. 68 through 73 used the same sharp tabs at the bottom of the seat back. Over the years I've been around a 64, 65, 66, and 67 also, but never got that intimate with them;-) [73s do have that little zipper that gives access to the passenger sensor for the seat belt alarm.] Jim ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Subject: Restoring Seats Author: type-3-errors@umich.edu at SMTPGATE Date: 10/25/96 8:11 AM I have several Type III's that have cracked and peeled seats. I hoping for some opinions on how to go about restoring these. The inside foam is shot also, so this would be from the ground up restoration. Do most people use these aftermarket kits? Or get the supplies individually? Some of the front seats no longer fold forward when lifting the lever on the side of the seat? I can see that the hook is worn. Do they make replacment parts for this? Thanks in advance for the info. Craig Woolston. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works So. California '70 Sqback '71 Fastback cwoolsto@ladc.lockheed.com Date: Fri, 25 Oct 96 09:34:00 PDT From: Toby Erkson To: type-3@umich.edu Subject: Re: Restoring Seats My passenger seat doesn't fold forward either. I haven't taken the seat out and thoroughly looked at things, yet, but maybe I will this weekend. If I need to fold it forward I reach under the seat and push the horizontal rod towards the shift tunnel -- that releases the locking mechanism and allows movement. The rod is basically under the backrest and is perpendicular to the seat rails. Toby Erkson air_cooled_nut@pobox.com modified '72 Squareback 2.0L stock '75 Porsche 914 1.8L Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 17:00:10 -0700 From: stans4@ix.netcom.com (Stanley Schaefer) Subject: Re: Restoring Seats Having just gone through this, here are some tips: Strip the things entirely, remove what remains of horsehair padding, foam, etc. The bases on mine('71) have bent sheetmetal clips that can be persuaded to let the bottom come off(rail part). Clean rails thoroughly, sand, steel wool, whatever. Check parts, the spring links particularly, for cracks, etc. My driver's side back was hard to get forward, what had happened was that the latch hook had cut into the folding part and had raised a large burr at the latch hole, causing me to have to joggle the back to get the hook to release. When I saw that, I got out the old rawhide mallet and wood block, got things back into position, works like new now. On the springs, clean as well as you can, hose it off and spray with some epoxy or similar paint. If you have some rust converter-type stuff, use that first. You want very smooth edges for the vinyl covers to slide on, makes things much easier. You might want to rub tire talc on the inside of the covers, mine slid on much easier that way, very tight fit. I used jute-backed carpet remnants for covering the springs, foam was good on the backs so just taped over the springs on the back with some more carpet. I had some molded foam cushions for the bottoms, taped those into position so they didn't slide around trying to wrestle the cover on, had to do a little surgery on the foam around the edges, the lips didn't quite match on the one seat with the edge of the springs. Really didn't take much more than an afternoon to get things together once the painting was done. I had some low spots on the back on the drivers side, just slide some more carpet up inside. Pad to taste, in other words. Looks OK, rides better, much more comfortable than riding around on the old springs and depleted horsehair. Did it during the summer 85 degree weather, wouldn't like to try it in the 30's and 40's, vinyl is real stiff and needs a lot of stretching to get it to fit, heat gun time, maybe. Wish I had done it years sooner. There is some adjustment for centering the latch hooks, played with that, also had to rebend one of the latch connecting rods that had gotten bent trying to get the seat to unlatch. Get both hooks to withdraw at the same time and you've got it. Can reallly see what's going on with the seat out, kind of hard with it in the car. Does anyone know of a source for the plastic covers that go on the pan part of the rails for '71s? WCM used to catalog them, but unavailable now. Date: Sat, 26 Oct 1996 11:03:38 -0500 To: type-3@umich.edu From: jadney@vwtype3.org (Melissa & Jim) Subject: Re: Restoring Seats I have a few of these, but I think they are just about the last ones left in the world. In my experience the old ones will still do their job even if broken into several pieces. The one thing that you should do is pull out the seat and straighten the rails. Use a straightedge as a gauge and make sure they are straight both up/down and L/R. I find that the front segment of each pan rail tends to get bent when people yank their seats out. The straightening can usually be done rather easily with a good pair of slip-joint pliers. When you put your seats back into place you need to be careful not to bend them again. Of course it also helps to clean out the grooves in the seats and to lightly grease them also. Jim --------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 96 08:54:00 PST From: Toby Erkson Message-ID: To: Type III Email List Subject: Re[2]: Restoring Seats Craig, thanks for bringing this up. After 4+ years of not working properly, my seat now works! Saturday evening I pulled my passenger seat out, plopped it on the living room floor, and my cats and I began inspection. Here's a copy of my notes, hope it helps. Make a printout, get your seat, and follow along. Put the seat in front of you with the back of the seat facing you, as if you were sitting in the back seat facing forward. Tilt the seatback forward. Down the side where the slide handle is (the round release knob) is an elbow at the base of the seat back. Above the elbow on the inside you'll see a cable. The cable is held by a bracket secured by a Phillips screw. Loosening the screw allows adjustment of the cable. Move the bracket up to allow more pull on the release lever. Your cable may have stretched and doesn't pull the flapper out all of the way, which causes the release pawl (hook) not to retract fully. Thus the seat is stopped by the pawl on the release knob side or the second release pawl (the one on the opposite side) isn't being retracted as far as it could be. If the cable adjustment won't help look under the seat. The main rod is elbowed in the see-saw lever. My see-saw lever has two holes on the main rod side but I had no easy way to put the main lever in the other hole. The second rod on the see-saw lever is in a slot. What I did is take a small screw, put a wide washer on it at the head and put it in the slot (in the part of the slot furthest from the length of the main rod) so it would push the secondary lever back more towards the release knob side. I secured the screw with a self-locking nut. The screw and a slight upward adjustment of the cable bracket fixed the problem! The mechanism is very simple, just look at it, push the cat's curious nose out of the way, and fiddle. Anyone with some mechanical aptitude can rig up something to have the pawls retract more. Toby Erkson air_cooled_nut@pobox.com modified '72 Squareback 2.0L stock '75 Porsche 914 1.8L