TR3A seat back padding

[foster461]

We are restoring the seats of my TR3A and have reached the stage where the pans have been blasted and painted, I have new tack strips installed and I have the vinyl glued to both bases. Next job is to fit the padding to the seat backs. I have a padding kit from TRF that looks to be good quality. The pads for the seat backs have an additional horseshoe shaped strip about 4 inches wide glued to the pad.

 

Questions..

 

1. Does the pad get glued to the seat back with the horseshoe piece facing the seat back ?
2. If that is the case, is it just the horseshoe piece that gets glued to the seat back or do we need to glue as much of the pad to the seat as we can get to make contact ?
3. I assume that the excess pad gets folded over the top of the seat back and glued to the rear of the seat back before the thin cotton padding is applied over the horsehair pad ?

Original seats did not make a good reference and the instruction sheet that came with the padding is lacking in any useful information for the TR3A.

 

Thanks..

Stan

 

[iain]

Hi Stan

 

Good questions,

 

I am not sure about this kit, but, the extra padding on my seat is on the front of the Horse hair. I think it is to pad the 2" strip of seat that joins the front to the plain section of the seat cover. The Cotton padding then goes over the top.Again the cotton goes over the top of the seat to pad the round between the seat front and back Certainly that show my seats are put together and the only new bit is the leather cover.

 

Cheers

 

Iain

[Ian Vincent]

Stan,

 

If you PM me with your email address I have a folder of pictures from when I took my seat apart. They may help as they show the way the padding was fitted originally.

 

Rgds Ian

[foster461]

Thanks Iain and Ian.

 

Looking at the TRF listing for the seat padding (RFK258) they show the horseshoe shaped bit at the rear of the padding

 

http://trf.zeni.net/webcatalog/specials8.6/index.php?menu=&page=7

 

If I am not mistaken this is also how it is shown in the How To Restore book

 

[iain]

Hi Stan

Pleased you found the answer

Iain

[foster461]

Hi Stan

Pleased you found the answer

Iain

 

Unclear Iain. It seems like an awkward way to fit this padding and it sounded like you have the main pad glued to the seat back and the extra horseshoe shaped bit at the front ?

 

Stan

[iain]

It's a pain I didn't photo last week... I had the cover off to weld the seat base up...afew stress fractures had developed.

I think it's horse shoe first. Then horse hair complete. Then the cotton around the 5-6" margin to pad the outer edges and just over the top / around the sides.

Iain

[foster461]

Ian Vincent kindly sent me some pictures that he took while dismantling his original TR3A seats and they are very helpful. What they show is:

 

1. The seat back pad is glued to the seat back with the horseshoe shaped piece up against the seat back. This leaves a smooth continuous surface for you to lean against while providing some additional padding at the sides and top.
2. There was batting up the sides and along the top of the pad that was also folded over the seat back to provide a more rounded edge.
3. Additional batting had been used where needed to fill out the sides
4. From what I could see from the pictures glue had been applied to the pad anywhere that it might contact the seat back
5. Slits had been made in the pad to make it easier to fold over the seat back.

If Ian doesn't mind I can re-post a couple of his pictures.

 

Stan

[Ian Vincent]

Feel free to re-post as many as you like Stan.

 

Rgds Ian

[foster461]

Ian did a great job in capturing the detail from his original seats. These two pictures answered many of my questions.

 

This first image shows that the pad was glued to the seat back with the horseshoe piece facing the seat back. You can also see where the glue was applied as those areas are a little darker in color and how the pad has been cut in a few places to help it fold over the sides of the seat back.

 

 

 

 

 

This next image shows how the batting was applied over the edge of the pad and where additional batting has been inserted to help pad out the sides of the seat cover.

 

Edited August 20, 2016 by foster461

[foster461]

The rebuilt seats are back in the car. New TRF seat springs, padding and covers. They are much more comfortable than the worn out seats and now I sit high enough to see over the top of the passenger side wing. I added a bit more padding on the seat cushions, just some half inch thick batting to help pad the fronts a bit more. Just enough room now to slide in under the giant steering wheel.

 

[Ian Vincent]

Good job Stan.

 

Rgds Ian

[M. Pied Lourd]

They look great! I have to tell you, the one thing that takes a lot of getting used to is having the original springs in the seat bottoms.....almost like air ride :-)

 

Cheers

Tush

[foster461]

They look great! I have to tell you, the one thing that takes a lot of getting used to is having the original springs in the seat bottoms.....almost like air ride :-)

 

Cheers

Tush

 

Many of my original springs were broken. Gave a whole new meaning to Pokemon.

[Guest]

Very Nice!

I had my seats redone with 'slow foam' like the stuff you find in high end matrasses. At first I had used too much: I couldn't slide my leg under the wheel ;-)

Edited September 11, 2016 by Menno van Rij 2

[TR 2100]

Those seats look absolutely gorgeous - so much harder

to achieve than than it may seem.

 

I like the shade of blue. I had to go with a ½ shade lighter

blue than original, as I wanted naturally dyed leather, not

recoloured, but I do like to see (what I reckon is) the true

original shade*.

Are the seats leather or vynide?

 

AlanR

 

*(although I do appreciate that colours represented differ

between computers)

Edited September 11, 2016 by TR 2100

[foster461]

Those seats look absolutely gorgeous - so much harder

to achieve than than it may seem.

 

I like the shade of blue. I had to go with a ½ shade lighter

blue than original, as I wanted naturally dyed leather, not

recoloured, but I do like to see (what I reckon is) the true

original shade*.

Are the seats leather or vynide?

 

AlanR

 

*(although I do appreciate that colours represented differ

between computers)

 

We have over two weeks into these seats starting with media blasting and painting the seat pans and then several days of just waiting for glue to fully cure before we moved on to the next step. Not a bad job though with two people who can stretch and secure the material while keeping it aligned and straight.

 

My interior (capping, dashboard, door panels, seats etc) is all midnight blue vinyl that came from TRF, not sure where they get it from. The carpet is shadow blue with midnight blue edging.

 

Stan

[stuart]

Looking very nice Stan, the original spring sets are much better than most of the repros as they make you sit on the seat rather than in it and you bounce all over the place!

Stuart.

[foster461]

Looking very nice Stan, the original spring sets are much better than most of the repros as they make you sit on the seat rather than in it and you bounce all over the place!

Stuart.

 

I compared the TRF seat springs to the originals and to one of the other products from Victoria British. As far as I can tell the TRF springs look like the originals. Same number of springs, same gauge metal, interlocking springs. Really nicely made. The VB springs look like large bed springs, no interlocking or overlap, just butted up together and tied to each other with plastic wire ties. With enough padding the VB springs probably function ok but with a different experience to the originals or the better repro springs

 

Stan

[stuart]

Your lucky then as the ones generally sold over here are the larger variety and way too heavy gauge wire hence the very "Bouncy" ride!

Stuart.

[Andrew Smith]

 

I compared the TRF seat springs to the originals and to one of the other products from Victoria British. As far as I can tell the TRF springs look like the originals. Same number of springs, same gauge metal, interlocking springs.......................

 

Stan

 

That's good to hear Stan, as part of TuRK's light restoration is to strip the seat bases, repair the original covers (a few split seams) and replace the seat springs and padding - so I'll check out TRF's site.

 

Cheers

Andrew