Date:         Thu, 21 Sep 1995 16:28:26 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Lee_Wood@scrdp.stanford.edu (Lee Wood)
Subject:      Re: SewFine Seat Covers for '81 Vanagon

I wrote:
>
>>I just finished installing a set of SewFine seat covers in my '81 Westfalia a
>>couple of weeks ago.  First I ordered their $6 folder of fabric swatches
>
Then Don Geiger emailed me:
>
>Hi Lee.  I have a Sewfine catalog an samlpes of the vinyl and velour fabric,
>but no tweed.  What's it like?  Strong, heavy material?  Good color
>selection?  I think that's what I'd be interested in.
>
>My problem is my seat back has little padding.  I haven't taken the seat
>apart yet though,  any feedback on what the original padding was make of and
>how easy/difficult it would be to replace?  Would flat foam padding do it?
>
>Thanks for any help and congratulations on your "new" seats. :)

Don,

Glad you asked.  I'm replying to the list, too, because this may be of
broader interest.

The tweed selection was good, strong material.  Not a tweed like Harris or
herringbone with obvious color patterns.  It's monochromatic, in a nice
selection of (I think) tasteful colors.  Coarsely woven fabric reminiscent
of burlap viewed through mild magnification.  That makes it sound kind of
cheesy, but it's not. I liked it a lot.  Better yet, my wife liked it, too.
We picked a cafe au lait brown that went well with the original dark brown
carpeting and door panels.

My front seat backs were terribly deteriorated, too.  That pre-formed fiber
pad was crumbling out of the bottom of the seat cover and looked like
years-old Shredded Wheat falling on the car floor.  The seat springs
pressed into my back, covered by just the fabric.

Getting the headrest mounts out was the worst part of stripping the seat
backs.  The headrests themselves just pulled straight up and out after I
removed the "bobby-pin"-shaped keeper spring in the mount.  Try removing
the mounts on the worst-deteriorated seat back first, so you can rip the
fiber stuff off and see how it's fastened.  I had to first unfasten the
bottom hems by un-bending the five (I think) steel teeth that were bent
over the bottom hems and rolling the cover up to the top until it wouldn't
come off because of the headrest mounts.  The mounts turn out to be plastic
tubes that are shaped into four points with "barbs" at the bottom
(visualize a very tall, skinny royal crown with four points and barbs
pointing outwards) that snap into a horizontal metal portion of the
seatback frame under the padding.  Reach up in there and pinch together two
or three of the barbed points (they aren't sharp) and simultaneously lever
upward on the exposed flange of the mount.  Remember, it's all plastic and
there has been some recent message traffic about the brittleness of those
old plastic bits.  Be more careful on the second seat back so you can keep
the old pad and see the shape the new padding should take.

SewFine shows pre-formed foam seat back padding for earlier Busses in their
catalog, but they didn't offer it for Vanagons yet.  They offered to sell
me some sheet foam, but I found better prices locally.  I looked in the
yellow pages and found several listings.  First I went to a fabric store,
but they had only one grade of foam to offer, and it looked a little
light-weight for the job.  Then I visited "House of Foam" in Palo Alto
(insert standard conflict of interest disclaimer here).  They had several
grades of stiffness to offer and the owner suggested the heaviest grade of
upholstery foam in a 1" thickness.  I had been thinking about 1/2" foam,
but I took his suggestion - I'm glad I did.  I bought a 48 X 24 piece, and
it was plenty for both seats.  Cost about $14.

Since the foam didn't offer the stiffness that the pre-formed fiber stuff
(formerly) offered, I decided to back the foam by taping four horizontal
strips of standard corrugated box cardboard over the seat-back springs
first.  Each strip is about 1/4 the height of the seat back and overlaps
slightly with its neighbors.  This provided backing for the foam and still
allowed the seat back to take its proper contours and flex differently in
different places.  I used standard 100-mph duct tape for all taping in this
project.

Then I taped and tucked the 24 X 24 piece of foam over the cardboard and
seat frame.  One original seat back was in pretty good shape, so I used
that to indicate where there should/could be more foam rolling over the
frame on the top and sides.  I started from the bottom front edge of the
seat back and worked up and overlapped over the top and down the back,
tucking into crannies in the back and side where I could.  I cut "darts"
into the foam to remove excess at the corners where it bunched up too much
where I needed to tuck it in.  What wouldn't stay where I tucked it, I held
in place with thin strips of tape.  I felt for the holes where the headrest
had plugged into the top of the seat frame and cut out the foam with a
sharp knife.

** NOW, THIS IS IMPORTANT ** Find and remove the two pieces of stiff wire
in the bottom front and back hems of each old seat-back cover.  These wires
don't come with the SewFine covers and are required to keep the new fabric
from ripping off the teeth on the bottom edge of the seat-back frame.
Those are the teeth you had to straighten out to get the old covers off.
If you don't hook those teeth over the wire hidden in the bottom hem, it'll
probably rip out the first time you sit down.  Work the wires into the hems
of the new seat back covers.

I worked the covers down by hand as far as I could onto the seat backs and
still came up about 1-1/2 inch short.  But I think SewFine did it right,
though, because after I used pliers and pulled on the hem (with the wire
already inside - see above) to get it all the way down over the teeth, the
fit was factory-perfect.  I used a thin awl to probe for the holes in the
foam and seat frame where the headrest mounts go in, and marked the spot
with chalk.  I cut a small X on the spot, spread the fabric and gingerly
worked the headrest mount into the hole.  You have to get it going in at
just the right angle in order to get it to hit the lower hole at the other
end, but it isn't difficult.  Once you find the proper angle, the mount
just pops in with a bump from the heel of your palm.

My seat bottom cushions were in great shape and the installation method was
self-evident.  Turn the seat bottom upside down and apply downward pressure
on the seat bottom pan.  The slack that is now in the side fabric allows
you to pull the sewn-in plastic reinforcing strip out of the channel around
the bottom of the seat.  The new covers just tuck in where the old ones
come out.  The thickness of the back (BIB) hem may present a puzzle, but
try different ways.  It'll go in there.  Even if it pops out later, you can
easily flip the seat and try another way.  No cutting or taping or probing
or cursing.   If you need new cushion padding, I can't advise, sorry.

I hope this is understandable.  If you have further questions, just ask.
Good luck.

Lee