I am replacing the seat covers, foam and burlap on my 70 Challenger (Legendary vinyl and installation kits). The burlap I took off the front lower, upper and rear lower seats have a series of wires woven into them. None of the installation videos I have seen on the web show reusing these. They only show installing the burlap. What purpose do these wire serve? Are they needed? I noticed the old burlap is much coarser and the new one that I got is a much denser weave. Would that account for not using the wires? Thanks for any help.

Michael

I recovered my bench seats in my 69 runner and the front seat had the "wire" also. I transferred it to the new as I am sure it adds strength.

You have to use the wire's (that go into the loops in your new covers) in order to hold the sahpe of some seams.

The wire "mesh" that is part of your old foam isn't duplicated in the legendary buns so that is something you lose and can't reuse.

The small wires can be replaced in the burlap, but you will need to cut off the paper-wrapped larger wire and re-thread it into the new burlap, then re-twist the small wire around the larger paper wrapped wire.
These small wires were used to provide a connection between the zig-zag (No-Sag) springs, so when one spring was depressed (as in; pushed down, not in the sense of 'made sad' get it?) it would bring the other springs with it.
Using a few layers of Burlap will work as well. Just make sure you hog-ring the burlap to the springs.

So far I've done bottom seat cushions only for my 70 Cuda.

I bought straight lengths of wire from my local hardware store and wove them into the new burlap, similar to the original seat construction.

Like you were thinking, with a denser weave burlap (and if you are using new Legendary foam which is denser than original) you can probably get away without weaving the small wires into the burlap, but I think the wires help create a more supportive base for the foam.

Here's one of my finished bottom cushions.

Adding the wires also retains that factory original appearance for when someone goes looking under your seat.

Your seat looks great! What did you use to replace the twisted paper that the spring ends attached to (the white cord in you picture)?

Michael

Thanks.

I still have the original burlap that I pulled off my seats, and I guess that stuff does look almost just like twisted paper. I had always assumed that it was just some dried out and yellowed cotton-like cord so I just bought some similar diameter stuff at a fabric shop.