Upholstery?
'ardest game in the world!
My upholsterer friend has just been in hospital to have his thumbs painfully re-jointed, I'm about to find out why!
I'd been suffering with a knackered driver's seat bolster on our Evo2 for some time, I'd seen replacements advertised at Walkers, so I decided to go there and buy one. Also, I could try and find out where they were made, for future reference.
These little bolster covers are expensive, I thought the price included the foam insert - wrong! I went to Yorkshire in the blue Evo2 that needed the bolster, it was running well and I opened it up a bit over the hills, a radar van hidden in a valley clocked me over the 50mph limit. So including what that ticket was
going to cost, there was no way I was buying the foam insert too!
I bought the last, shop-soiled, bolster cover Walkers had, and I did find out
where they were made.
Back at home I put a dust sheet over my cleaned bench and removed the driver's seat. When you remove a seat, leave the mounting bolt spacers on the car in place, so they don't get mixed up.
On the bench I removed the runners and their mounting rails. These upper rails need to be removed to access the seat cushion webbing hooks. Someone had been there before and damaged one of the 6 Allen head fixing bolts, so I had to leave that one in place and rotate the rail to clear the seat hooks.
I drilled out the 2 pop rivets on the cushion's front securing rail, unhooked the webbing and removed the cushion. I carefully removed the recliner adjustment knob and the plastic hinge covers, these covers are secured with 3 sleeve fittings, each fitting has a pin in the centre which needs to be pushed outwards to allow release, do this carefully to avoid cracking the plastic cover. Remove 2 screws and 2 clips from the hinge and the back can be released.
Slider mounting plate
couldn't be removed
The bolster is held in place with a wire insert down both lower edges, these loop over hooks pressed out of the seat frame. Unhook these, peel the stuck down fabric ends off the frame, and the bolster can be removed.
My foam was well worn, and had a hole in the top, I stuffed some foam in this hole and put it all back together again. I put fresh double sided tape on the frame, and pulled the cover ends hard and stuck them down, there were still some wrinkles in the cover, I'll keep working at it, but I think my home repairs might not be good enough.
I might have to get a proper foam insert in the end.
Push the centre pins out of the sleeve fixings
My job placement as a part-time breast implant technician was about to be useful
Reassembling the seat is straightforward, hooking on the seat webbing needs a good pull, I pop riveted the front cushion fixing and all went well.
Putting the seat back in the car needs the usual treatment, don't tighten any bolt up until they're all in place. Push the seat backwards and locate the front bolts, screw them in enough to clear the seat runners, slide the seat forwards and do the back 2 bolts. Tighten them up when all are located properly.
Pull!!
The bolster looks much better, it doesn't seem to be real Alcantara, or maybe it's new and better. The wrinkles might not be all my fault either. My repair will do for this summer, I'll massage the bolster as I'm driving, but I'll be on the lookout for a more genuine solution. I'll keep you posted.
I tried hard to be clean, but I got some dirty finger marks on the new bolster. I scrubbed these marks with Vanish and a nail brush borrowed from home, it came up well.
It's a massage seat, but I'll be doing the massaging!
If you'd like to see a vid of this job, click below.
