'95 F150 - tips on R & R seat covers?

[stevef150xlt]

I'm taking tomorrow off so I can get the driver's seat in my F150 fixed. I've got the 40/20/40 seat with six-way power driver's and power lumbar. The problem is that the welds have broken on one side of the support that goes across the backrest, the support that the lumbar "pad" or bladder hangs from. I'm going to strip the upholstery off the the backrest frame and take it to a welding shop to have the frame re-welded.

My question is, what tips can anybody offer on putting the pads and cover back on the frame? A guy at work said something about putting baby powder or plastic or something on either the frame or the pads, he couldn't remember for sure. He say he saw this on TGG, when they were working on an Explorer.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[1fatcat]

Anytime I do internal seat work, I never use any kind of powders or anything. My best advice to you would be, TAKE YOUR TIME ON IT! If you want it to look good when your done, then don't rush it! Seats are more complicated than most people think they are.

Also, please, for god sakes, PLEASE don't have your old frame welded back together!!!!! It will just break again anyways...I GUARANTEE IT! Save yourself from another day of tearing the seat apart and just replace the frame with a new one.

(Please do not take offence to this, but) If you are a husky person, try to go easy on applying exess pressure to the backrest. There are only a couple of things that will break a seat frame...accidents or exess pressure.

[KA9MOT]

Originally posted by 1fatcat
There are only a couple of things that will break a seat frame...accidents or exess pressure.

Yeah! I am going to have to get mine Beefied up. LOL

[stevef150xlt]

Well, the seat is back together, and it went more easily than I thought it would. The shop that did the welding (MIG) has been in business since 1971, and the welds are beautiful; nice steady beads and great penetration (I guess I should expect that from an $8000 welding rig and a guy who's been doing it for over 30 years). So now it has one nice long bead on each side, instead of what amounted to a couple of tack welds on each side.

The cover went on well (it has a lightweight plastic liner between the foam and the cover, kind of like what your clothes come back from the dry cleaners in), and a little baby powder helped everything slip on easier. The cover itself is foam-backed, which is probably the reason the maufacturer put plastic in there. The cover also has two bows in it, so I was careful not to disturb them. The cover also doesn't use any hog rings, which was nice. The bottom flaps have plastic strips which lock together. It took about 30min to remove the cover and foam, and about 40min to put it back on.

[KA9MOT]

Good deal. Thanks for the update.