New Foam Insert Help?

[Mach30]

I recently purchased new foam inserts and upholstery trim kit for my 1977 from the Z Store, which says that the foam might need to be modified. When I removed the old upholstery and foam, I found that the new foam doesn't quite fit. The main body foam slips into the frame perfectly but there is a plate over the headrest area which causes the foam to sit to high off the headrest. Does anyone have any experience with these foam inserts and/or can anyone offer me any recommendations on what to do? Should I modify the foam, or maybe remove the plate? Also, does anyone know what the bar on the headrest is? I don't remember see it attached to any thing when I removed the old seat upholstery. Thanks in advance!

[grannyknot]

On the inside of the new seat cover there should be a strip of material at the same spot where that bar is on the frame of the seat, in the new foam there should be 2-3 slits that will allow hog rings from that strip of material to anchor to that bar. It adds definition to the look and tightens up the seat cover at the head rest, if you look inside the old seat cover you will probably see that strip has ripped.

Really the only thing you can do is lay the new and old foams side by side and modify the new foam so it has the same contours as the old, a new box cutter blade works well. Keep test fitting until it sits right, then lay the new covers out in the sun and get them hot, it's so much easier to work with them when they will stretch a bit.

Also, there's a little trick to getting the new seat cover over the headrest foam, if you wrap the headrest with Saran Wrap or even a thin plastic bag the seat cover will slide over much easier, it can be a tight fit.

Edited August 31, 2020 by grannyknot

[crayZlair]

2 hours ago, grannyknot said:

 

Really the only thing you can do is lay the new and old foams side by side and modify the new foam so it has the same contours as the old, a new box cutter blade works well.

For me, an electric carving knife worked better. (Just my opinion)

[w3wilkes]

On 8/31/2020 at 9:09 AM, crayZlair said:

For me, an electric carving knife worked better. (Just my opinion)

I went the electric knife route also and it worked great. It was my seat bottom that needed cutting. The front edge of the seat foam had a "overhang" (for lack of a better word) that I had to cut off for the cover to properly fit the seat bottom.