Comfortable seats start with a good base. This seems to be lacking in many cars, which can only lead to one thing-duct tape! To beef up the seats, you must take them down to the bare frames. Then after inspecting the springs and making any repairs, stretch a piece af burlap (sagless burlap is best, but you can glue two pieces of regular together) across the springs. Pull tight and hog ring it to the outer wire frame or onto the springs. Keep it tight! If it is difficult to attach to the base due to it's design, you can sew or glue strong listing wires into the edges of the burlap and hang it like curtain rods from the springs, bridging across the gaps and use less hog rings. Then you glue your foam cushions onto this base. This keeps the springs from cutting into the foam. If your seats need some lift, glue a 1 inch thick layer of good foam between the burlap and your molded foam. You can also cover your molded foam with a layer of 1/4" to 1/2" thick foam to puff it up a little. Dacron on top helps with removing wrinkles in the covers. The magic trick is STEAM ! It puffs old, collapsed foam back up and makes the vinyl soften up and snuggle down into place when shot into the underside of the covers. We use industrial pressure steamers, but I've been wondering if these steam cleaners they sell on late night infomercials could work.

This was written by "Stitcher Bob" on c-body drydock.