Seat foam

[Last TR]

I started my interior remake with leather covers and new foam from The Roadster Factory. I finished the seat bottom on the passenger seat and started on the back. I found the new back foam was 2 to 3 inches too wide. I was able to reuse the old foam on the passenger seat, but the old driver seat foam was far too gone to use. For size comparison in the photo, I placed the new foam over the seat finished with the reused old foam. The only solution I can see is to take apart the new foam, cut it to the proper size, and glue it back together with new fabric tape. Needless to say, I am very disappointed. Has anyone else run into a similar problem and solved it to their satisfaction?



Ken Morton
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[Maki]

Try and find a good used original. I used a new type and was disappointed. I then renewed the covers with new and found an excellent original type which was and is far superior.

S&S or Robsport should be able to help.

[john 215]

Hi,

Got mine from Simon over at Robsport, fitted a treat when I fitted leather in my DHC. Don't forget there are hard board inserts to be glued on the sides -



Cheers John


LIVE LIFE A QUARTER OF A MILE AT A TIME!

1976 Speke FHC Beauty Now with an overdrive conversion

1979 3.5 FHC(STATUS PENDING!!)

1982 2.0 DHC NOW A 4.6, BUILT NOT BROUGHT !!!!

[dursleyman]

I got mine from Robsport as well and they fitted pretty well.

Russ

1980 TR7 Sprint DHC
Dursley
UK

http://tr7russ.blogspot.co.uk/

[FI Spyder]

When you've got lemons....make lemonaide. I would cut at the corner and tape as you've suggested if the tape will hold (and you can't send them back). Are you replacing the bottom rubber diaphragm? Mine had cracks so that was the only thing I replaced. Made a big difference in the firmness of the seat. I got one of the last original type as they went to rubber straps for a while in the interm. The diaphragms are now available again but I don't know how the repros stack up.

http://s119.photobucket.com/user/Spit999/media/TR7/SeatRubber.jpg.html

Leather seats are going to get pretty hot. Ron (Orange Rag) has leather in his car and last summer at Shawnigan Lake Boys School car show he had to put a towel on the seats. Good thing you're getting A/C.[:p]



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[HDRider]

I have used TRF foams in the past and not had this problem. I would contact them and talk to them about it. They have good customer service and will want to know about your problem.

Edward Hamer
Petaluma CA

[whitenviro]

Disappointing, but shouldn't be too hard to adjust them to make them fit correctly. It's just foam, so you can use a razor blade to cut out the excess and redo the tape at the edges. If you use any glue, just be sure it is a type that stays flexible once dried, like most contact cements or silicone adhesives. Stay away from superglue or gorilla glues; they will just form a hard spot you might feel, and they won't flex enough when you sit down on them, which will eventually cause the foam to tear next to the glued joints.


[/img]
1980 Pageant Blue DHC with removable hardtop.

[nick]

Interestingly I had the opposite problem. I acquired some used black cloth/vinyl covers from a late model 7 or 8. When I put them on my '76 car they were too big. The fit was very lose. They must have made different size foam over the years.

[img][IMG]http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/nickmi/TR7%201975/Yellow.jpg[/img]
nick
'79 TR7 DHC
'76 TR7 FHC

[Last TR]

I'm going to call The Roadster Factory in the next day or two and see what they have to say. I suspect I'll end up "resizing" the foam using the same 3M trim adhesive I used for assembling the passenger seat. Probably not going to get it done on this trip to Oregon; I'm only here for a couple more days. I'll be back down before the Portland ABFM for another work session.

As far as the sir conditioning, it looks like that is not going to happen. I'll post separately about that, but I bought ventilated seat cushions last year that really help keep the backside cool in hot weather.

Ken Morton
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees

[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Last TR</i>

As far as the sir conditioning, it looks like that is not going to happen. I'll post separately about that, but I bought ventilated seat cushions last year that really help keep the backside cool in hot weather.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

That's not going to cut it. For you Alaskans you're going to at least need a bucket of ice water and a towel in the passenger foot well to keep moping your forehead.[:p][8D]


- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Hasbeen]

I always found the sun coming through the windscreen, heating up the huge expanse of black plastic that is the dashboard was my problem. The radiant heat coming off that was what made the car uncomfortable in hot weather.

Before I fitted the air conditioning I made up a dash mat, out of some carpet I had lying around. It was in a few pieces, but after dying it black, it did not look too bad. It certainly made a difference, but the car was still uncomfortable on the 95F plus days we get so many of in summer around here.

It was almost good enough & I was going to get a motor trimmer to make a nice one, before the second hand air conditioning system came along. That made so much difference, that I will never own another car without air conditioning.

Hasbeen

[Last TR]

<font color="black">The Roadster Factory sent my photo and comments to Newton Commercial, their supplier for seat foam. Here is Newton's response:
</font id="black">

<font color="blue">We have fitted our foam to a TR7 seat frame; and also compared our foam to an original TR7 squab foam, and can offer the following explanation.

When comparing our foam to an original foam, the foams match up. There is a very slight difference, with ours being slightly wider; however the difference is minimal. When placing this foam over an original seat; as in your customers picture; the foam does appear larger. However, when fitting to the seat frame; which we also tested, the foam squashes down to shape.

As the foam is fitted, it should be glued to the frame, which will help to shape the foam to the frame. You may be left with a small amount of excess, once completely fitted, down the edges of the foam. This can either be tucked in, or trimmed off.

I can completely understand your customers thoughts when looking at the foam compared to his fitted seat, but once he attempts to fit the foam to the frame, compressing it slightly as he goes, he should not have any problems.

I hope the above satisfies your query; please let me know if you wish for me to explain this further or supply any pictures to reference what I mean.

</font id="blue">
<font color="black">Following this correspondence from Newton, I explained again to Albert at TRF that I had attempted to fit the new foam to the seat frame and it is more than slightly wider than the original. It will not compress slightly and will not fit without problems as suggested by Newton. There is far more than a small amount of excess to trim; the corners would wrap halfway back on the sides and the sides would wrap around the back. Albert has offered me a partial refund, but that doesn't solve the issue. I'll look for another supplier with smaller foam, and hang onto the oversize foam for now to modify if I don't find smaller ones.</font id="black">



Ken Morton
Anchorage, Alaska

1980 TR8, 1973 TR6, 1965 Volvo PV544, 1958 MGA, Jeep Cherokees