Front seat disassembly

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Bwana

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Has anyone done this with the stock front seats? Mine seems to be a bit wobbly and the head rests are stuck. I remember a thread where I think SteveH (?) was able to free up the head rests but how to take apart the actual seats? I also remember my upholsterer mentioning he had a tough time figuring it out. Pictures oud be excellent too
 
i have some spare blue cloth seats ... i may try taking one apart to see if i can figure it out / document it.
 
YEP its fairly easy
pull off the back
then just drill out the rivets on the back
and you have access to everything
 
Any photos? I guess the first step is to take side plates off? Does the perimeter chrome strip get all bent up if you're not careful?
 
Jeff,

Before you take the whole seat apart just verify if the cable under the seat cushion that connects the 2 sides to adjust the angle of the seat back is intact.

Mine were wobbly once and it was just the cable was pulled out.

Doug

Key Biscayne-20140214-00253.jpg
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Key Biscayne-20140214-00254.jpg
 
When I removed mine to replace the chrome plated plastic trims, I just kept squirting a little WD 40 down them and they finally broke loose. I had the seats out on the floor and stood over them for better leverage.
 
Bwana: getting the headrests free can be a major headache. Some have had luck soaking the support rods with PB Blaster and they freed up. IIRC one guy suspended the whole seat by the headrest and it pulled free after a lot of struggling. In my case, nothing worked so I removed the headrest upholstery, cut the metal headrest frame in half and twisted each side to free them up. Good luck, and have a few beers...
 
I wouldn't use PB blaster on the seats unless you plan to fully disassemble them. It smells terrible. I think Gary recommends Kroil or something of the sort.
 
okay, i have started to take one of my seats apart. i successfully separated the base from the back. now trying to figure out how to take the back apart. as i was carrying the seat from the shed to the garage, the headrest came out (i was carrying it with my hand between the headrest and the seat and the weight of the seat helped it to slide out).

any advice on how to remove the chrome trim and seat back would be appreciated as i don't want to ruin the chrome trim
 
RS Porsche: I took my seats apart to reupholster them a couple of years back.I wish I had pix but I know someone posted a great series showing how this is done, so do a search. Anyway, IIRC, after you remove the chrome hinge covers, there are bolts holding the seat back to the seat bottom and seat back. Remove them so you can work with the seat back. The seat back cover can then be removed by carefully wiggling it out of the aluminum chrome trim which is riveted to the seat back. With the back off you will of course see the rivets holding the chrome trim in place along with the dozens of rivets that hold the fiberglass seat back to the frame. It is pretty obvious how everything is put together once you get the back off. Good luck!
 
okay ... so i need to try to remove the back from the chrome trim, rather than the chrome trim from the back.. good info. i will give that a try starting at the bottom.

i already have the seat back removed from the seat base ... and the chrome hinge covers were the first to come off.
thanks
scott
 
yep, that worked. i put a pry bar under the bottom gap ... and slowly worked it up and the back popped out of the chrome trim and easily came off ... and exposed the rivets holding the trim on as well as tacking down the fabric. i was taking apart a blue fabric seat as practice
 
well, i've been learning a lesson in futility. i learned how to take the seat apart on one of my old seats have the seat back + bottom separated ... the covers off of both sides ... and know that all of the padding foam in the old ones are candidates for total rebuild ... especially the seat bottom.

so, i decided to proceed with one of the tan seats ... but i still cannot get the headrest out ... one side moved but not the other side. so i started to remove the upholstery on the seat back. learned something (seat back is leather but the seat bottom is vinyl - go figure). the problem is, you can get the leather off with the headrest still in place ... as the post goes thru the leather. the only thing that might be possible is to pull up all of the foam / horsehair fill to get to it ... and that is not something i really want to do.

any ideas?
 
SUCCESS ... we have separation of the headrest from the seat back. the method that worked
1. a flat prybar between the seat and the headrest to get a little movement
2. a BFH ... of the rubber mallet type ... i hit on both sides of the bottom (each end) of the headrest and bit by bit it came out.

there really wasn't much rust or corrosion on the posts, but i polished it up with a little steel wool and chrome polish. before i put it back in, i will be working one side at a time to make sure that it will slide. i might try a circular metal brush into the slots before hand.

but, before hand, there is a little seat rebuilding to do on the locking mechanism.
 
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