Front seat stuffing

T

tmh

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What is the best stuffing/bolster material for redoing the front seats? Some type of closed cell dense foam? I see varying levels of how "tight" the leather on the seat bottom should be. Some cars I have seen look like the leather almost has slack in the seat bottoms. I would appreciate seeing pictures of what is considered an ideal/correct set of seats so I can show the person doing the work what to strive for.

World Upholstery made my rear seat leather many years ago and I was pleased with the result. I intend to use them for the front seats. My car is a July 73 production date.

I did not find a thread on these questions when I looked but perhaps I didn't use the correct search words.

T.M. Hayes
 
Most use a 2-3" thick foam on top of the horse hair with burlap or vinyl between hair and springs. The 73 seats will be tensioned into the pads a bit but you don't want any sags. Would love to have your VIN and build date for my spreadsheet.

Chris
 
My '73 seats were upholstered with World Upholstery kit by the PO in 2006. His shop didn't do anything to the seat bottoms. They were like sitting on the floor. I had a first-class upholsterer fix them just like Chris described. I can now see over the steering wheel.

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I used a square of foam from JoAnne fabrics, fits perfectly pulled between the springs and the horsehair
 
HB Chris said:
Most use a 2-3" thick foam on top of the horse hair with burlap or vinyl between hair and springs. The 73 seats will be tensioned into the pads a bit but you don't want any sags. Would love to have your VIN and build date for my spreadsheet.

Chris
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The VIN is 2250630 and I was told that the build date was July 1973. I don't remember how that was determined.
T.M. Hayes
 
Drew Gregg said:
My '73 seats were upholstered with World Upholstery kit by the PO in 2006. His shop didn't do anything to the seat bottoms. They were like sitting on the floor. I had a first-class upholsterer fix them just like Chris described. I can now see over the steering wheel.

View attachment 99612View attachment 99613
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tmh said:
The VIN is 2250630 and I was told that the build date was July 1973. I don't remember how that was determined.
T.M. Hayes
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My seats were redone 37 years ago and the horse hair was replaced with foam at that time. It is time to redo the front seats again and I am striving for a better job than this previous time. The horse hair had deteriorated back in 1983 and a lot was on the floor of the car at that time. I just called World Upholstery and they didn't think the horse hair bolsters were still available. I can't imagine anyone's horse hair bolsters are still intact. Can anyone point me in the right direction or is it simply generic horse hair that someone stuffs in the seats? I truly appreciate anyone's assistance.
T.M. Hayes
 
tmh said:
The VIN is 2250630 and I was told that the build date was July 1973. I don't remember how that was determined.
T.M. Hayes
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Thank you, yes definitely 7/73. The FMVSS sticker on your driver door has the month if it is still readable. Send an e-mail to BMW, [email protected] (no e in archiv). What color is your coupe originally? The latest July build date I have is 17 July when 73 MY production ended.
 
HB Chris said:
Thank you, yes definitely 7/73. The FMVSS sticker on your driver door has the month if it is still readable. Send an e-mail to BMW, [email protected] (no e in archiv). What color is your coupe originally? The latest July build date I have is 17 July when 73 MY production ended.
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It is, and has always been, Fjord blue. The car was an automatic originally and it has a 265 Getrag Metric Mechanic 5 speed. Do you have any comments about availabiilty of horse hair? Thank you!
 
tmh said:
My seats were redone 37 years ago and the horse hair was replaced with foam at that time. It is time to redo the front seats again and I am striving for a better job than this previous time. The horse hair had deteriorated back in 1983 and a lot was on the floor of the car at that time. I just called World Upholstery and they didn't think the horse hair bolsters were still available. I can't imagine anyone's horse hair bolsters are still intact. Can anyone point me in the right direction or is it simply generic horse hair that someone stuffs in the seats? I truly appreciate anyone's assistance.
T.M. Hayes
Click to expand...

there is a much better material than foam for renewing the seats, i found it while doing my prewar motorcycle seat, it is horse plus vegetal fibers glued together with ruberized compound
if you are interested i can find it for you
 
tmh said:
It is, and has always been, Fjord blue. The car was an automatic originally and it has a 265 Getrag Metric Mechanic 5 speed. Do you have any comments about availabiilty of horse hair? Thank you!
Click to expand...


horse hair replacement....i have used it here:

Leather work. Motorrad bmw R2 seat is completed

so my old bmw r2 seat was not that old, probably was renewed using fake leather it looked good but it had some defects so i needed a replacement you can buy these replacements at around 140 euro, fake leather again, and not the right shape i wanted something more original it has been around...
e9coupe.com e9coupe.com
 
deQuincey said:
there is a much better material than foam for renewing the seats, i found it while doing my prewar motorcycle seat, it is horse plus vegetal fibers glued together with ruberized compound
if you are interested i can find it for you
Click to expand...
I see rubberized horse hair for upholstery in either 1 or 2 inch thickness x 20 inches wide sold by the foot. Is this what I should be wanting to be used along with foam for the front seats? Thank you!
 
IIRC and from what I vaguely recall as a long-time member/lurker here, the original "gummihaar" seat pad may be NLA. However (and some searching may turn it up) there is a pad from another Bimmer (2002? Bavaria?) that may be trimmed to fit.

My gummihaar went to powder and was vacuumed up long ago. Having stuffed the seats in some of my 2002s with a wide variety of materials, I'm looking at using a dense synthetic foam not unlike a yoga mat to restuff the CS seat bottoms. Generically, closed-cell polyethylene or polyurethane foam, widely/locally in a variety of densities and thicknesses. I am thinking that about one inch of dense foam, overlaid by 1/2 inch of less dense material, will do the job. Once the seat's out and cover's off, laying the stuff on and sitting on it will tell me how much is enough.

Caution... spring surfaces may be corroded and may saw through padding. Protection might be appropriate. I'm thinking that after the decision is made as to "how much is enough" I may use spray contact cement to adhere a layer of vinyl to the bottom of the padding material. I've used other things too, but some of those were kinda ghetto and we wouldn't go there with such a nice car, would we?

Restuffing the seats also allows one to somewhat re-contour the seat bottom, possibly by providing "shoulders" to keep better centered to the seat. The original 1970s seats seem kinda wide and flat, though I've not sat in one in original condition.
 
@Honolulu has an excellent recommendation - using light, less dense material below the surface material. i would recommend 1" material, its going to compress ... and you want material to allow it to breathe.
 
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