Thread: How To: Renew the shape and feel of your seats for FREE!

This should apply to all front seats, i would think that they would be close to this if not the same. But these seats are out of a B14 for demonstration purposes.

Tools Needed:
Steady pair of pliers, needle nose works the best.
Decent pair of side cutters
Pry tool or flat head screw driver
14MM socket or wrench


You can do this with the seat still in the car without taking out any trim panels, but the seat is out for better pics.

Procedure:
1. Remove the head rest
2. Unhook the long plastic snap that is on the back side of the seat all the way at the bottom.


3. Pull the tab you just unhooked through the slot into the front of the seat.

4. Start pulling the seat cover up. You will notice that there is a horizontal bar that is attached to the seat about half way up in the front.

5. Take the side cutters and spread apart the hog rings that secure the seat cover to the seat chassis.

6. Pull the cover the rest of the way up until it snags on the headrest holders.

7. Reach up from the back of the seat under the little flap of foam and push together the tabs of the headrest holders. They will now pull out with ease.

Here is what they look like removed, just press the tabs inward.

8. Remove the cover completely.
9. Start to pull the bottom of the foam off from the front, then once that is free just lift up and remove the whole piece from the frame.

10. Now remove the 4 14mm bolts from the sides that hold the back seat frame to the hinges.

11. This is where you can adjust how tight the sides are. Take the frame and put one side on the ground and rock the frame towards the front of the frame to bend the side in. Repeat on the other side. You really don’t need to bend it that much to make a difference.

12. Now re-assemble as you took apart. You can add foam to where you want it if you so desire. I found that just bending the frame back made a huge difference.

This is what my foam looked like.


Conclusion: This made a huge difference for me and now the sides are snug to my body to where I will not slide in the seat. You can reshape, remove, or add foam where you want it to get that perfect fit. My foam was torn and ripped on the edge so badly it could not be repaired. I had an extra pair of seats I was able to take the new foam from.

i did all of that without even taking the cover all the way off just pull it all the way to the top and use a pry bar on the holes for leverage to bend the sides in and then just slide it all back in zip ties and heavy duty spray adhesive work well on ripped foam

could this be done to the bottom of the seat????

I used to work at a place that did car interiors. Another great trick is to use a garment steamer on the foam. Hold the steamer against the foam and it will expand back to how it was when it was new. It will give even more life back to your seats.

Great write-up squirlz. I wouldn't attempt this without hog ring pliers so you're a braver man than I am. =]

I bet it could. I think it would involve a little more work since you have the rails and reclining mechanism.



Thats a good tip, might have to try it some time. Thanks for the feedback.

any certain type? my driverside is kinda flat near the door.

This is the style we used, but others might work too.

MIne too I'm too fat

so all u gotta do is take the seat apart and steam the foam?

That's what I did when I first got my car to revitalize the seats. (Sometimes the foam is beat up and some fabric glue or tape or extra foam is in order.) It worked out well. I wish I'd thought of squirlz's trick about bending the metal back in shape because that would have made it even better. As it stands now my passenger side seat hugs my shoulders, but the driver's side is pretty loose.