I’m in the process of re-foaming my bucket seats (’69 super bee) using OER seat foams. After taking the covers off and comparing the old foam to the new foam, the old foam appears different from the repro. The old foam is beefier at the outer edges and angles upwards, while the repro is flat across the entire surface. This results in a different appearance of the seat (angled edges from the old foam vs. flat over the entire surface using the new foam).

The seats were recovered prior to me owning the car, so I do not know if the factory seat foams were replaced with what I have now. Can anyone confirm if the old foam in the pic is the factory foam, or is it a replacement that made when accuracy was not much of a concern? Were the original seats flat across the entire surface or were the edges raised relative to the middle portion?

Thanks.

On '69 Coronet buckets, as on the '69 Belvedere line, the bolsters were a bit "proud" (taller) of the center areas.
Roundabout 1/2-3/4", IIRC. You can see that in the brochures or photos of low-mileage originals.
Oddly, my Chargers were not that way, but noticeably flatter.
This applies to the seat back as well as the cushion (bottom), and for the Plymouths at least, also the back seat on bucket-seat models.
Sometimes applications are incorrectly listed in the aftermarket catalogs, you might want to check that.

Thanks. So do you think that's the original foam? Legendary shows the same "flat" style for a '69 Bee.

Link

Does anyone reproduce the original style (and firmness) 1969 bucket seat foam??? My original '69 GTX's bucket seat foam was replaced and it is the worst seat foam, so bad I can feel the springs/frame. I need to replace it just so I don't feel like I'm almost sitting on the floor pan Thanks.

Mike

My GTX with new covers and foam are as you say "flatter" and not "proud" at the at the edges as I remember my (then new) '69 RR back in '69 through the '70's, Here's the GTX before the new covers and foam and even with 90,000+ miles on the odo they were NOT flat as you pointed out. I now for sure need to get CORRECT new FIRM foam and redo them. Glad this question came up, the car is too nice to not have O.E. type seat foam,

The passenger's seat (foam) seems to be correct but the driver's seat (foam) is flat as noted. I have not spent much or any time in the passenger's seat with the car moving but the first time my wife rode in the GTX (years ago) the first thing she said or complained about was how soft the seat foam was and that she could no longer see over the dash as she could in our '68 bench seat Road Runner and that complaint has NEVER gone away.

If correct foam can't be found at OER, what about Legendary ?
Another option is to find a good upholstery shop; a "real" guy can glue additional foam on and get the right shape.
They can also beef up the firmness using straps under weak or too-soft foam.

THIS ^

I checked legendary and their web site lists the same "flat" foam for the '69 Bee (see my post above). I plan on calling them today to place an order for a different set of seats and while I'm at it I will ask about the bucket seat foams.

They guy doing my seats said he could build the foam to get the desired look. My goal is to get the seats to look original. However, I don't know what the original look is as someone recovered the seats 13+ years ago and I have no way to know if the current foam is the correct shape. It's possible that when the seats were recovered the original style foam was not available and an aftermarket foam was used.

Based on the pictures, I tend to think the "flat look" is wrong for these seats.

The photo on the right that A12 posted is the correct appearance, as I hope I communicated.
Note that the seam where the bolsters meet the center part of the cushion & seatback is pulled into the seat.
A good upholstery shop can get that contour.

The new foams you have are for a 68 I believe. Reason I say this is that I had 68 foams just like this for my 68 Dart and installed no issue. Somehow over the many years of collecting parts, I bought 2 sets (long story).
I figured I would just use the extra foam set on my 69 Dart as they were sagging and it was too late for me to return. When I took off my seat covers it was then I noticed that the 69 has the metal bars that create the side bolsters, the 68 does not and is flat. The box I got from Legendary said 68 A-B body seat foams.
I was not able to use the 68 on my 69 directly. I had to make a adhoc solution and slice the new 68 foams and put over my old 69 foams. Worked, but was a PITA. Only did it because I was way beyond the point of returning.

All seat foam comes with a disclaimer that says "requires minimal to moderate modifications on some models and professional installation is highly recommended"
Molded seat foam is made to fit a variety of models within the specified years, so every model will need different mods to make the covers fit properly.

Yes I see that, and I understand that many repro items require some tweaking to get the proper look. But in this case the seat foam is not even close to the original seat foam for a '69 Bee. What the disclaimer should say (in my opinion) is

"The seat foam is a generic seat foam for several different types of seats, and for certain types of seats the foam may require some modification. It is not necessarily an accurate reproduction of the factory seat foam"

or something similar. I thought I was buying a reproduction of the ORIGINAL factory seat foam. I now understand that is not the case.

Seats are back and in the car. I ended up reusing the original foam and having it beefed up/repaired where necessary to get the desired look. Definitley an improvement over the what I had.

looks great !