Like many others, the left side of my driver's seat bottom is badly collapsed. So much so that it quite literally made my butt hurt from driving. I've been dragging my feet on doing a seat swap (probably Celica seats to gain some headroom), largely because I'll have to actually drive to pick them up. The final straw was when my lower back started hurting when walking the dogs.
I thought it might be possible to swap the seat bottoms. Most passenger seats I see are comparatively pristine. Short version: nope, you can't.
It sure looks tempting, though. There are four bolts holding the sliders on:
You have to keep the sliders in their original positions, since they're asymmetric. The swapped seat bottoms seem to bolt right up at first, until you realize that there are only three threaded holes under the seat bottom. The fourth slider bolt actually attaches to the side bracket, which bolts into the side of the seat bottom using a partially concealed bolt. Oops.
If you wanted to put in the effort, you could probably make something work. Fabricate a bracket extension. But I wouldn't vouch for its safety. Besides, it turns out that the sides of the seats are shaped differently. Get the seat into place and the seat bottom interferes with the center console. In retrospect, this is painfully obvious from the first picture. Look at how far out the metal "hoop" goes on one side, compared to how the side of the seat cuts in closely on the other side.
Well, whatever. I swapped the seat bottoms back again. At least I had a chance to blow out 20 years of accumulated dust and crap. But the seat is still godawful uncomfortable, so I made a stab at improving it. Worst case it's still less uncomfortable than the collapsed foam.
A few minutes with some pliers, taking out maybe five hog rings, and I could pull the seat cover back. It was compressed and torn. I used a flap disc to grind out the worst of it:
I have no idea what made this hole:
The only foam I could find is the carpet underlayment I've been using to insulate the floors. I cut out several shaped strips, ground off the water resistant backing, and started laminating the layers on using Super 90 spray adhesive. I think it ended up being three layers on the top, a chunk filling in that missing section, plus one along the side. I feathered the edges of each layer, particularly on the inner side.
Rounding it all off with the flap disc and it was hugely improved:
It's definitely not perfect, but wow is it ever an improvement. I can drive without a weird lean, and my back (and butt) feel better already:
I'm still going to do a seat swap, but this is a big improvement for about 1.5 hours of work.
I thought it might be possible to swap the seat bottoms. Most passenger seats I see are comparatively pristine. Short version: nope, you can't.
It sure looks tempting, though. There are four bolts holding the sliders on:
You have to keep the sliders in their original positions, since they're asymmetric. The swapped seat bottoms seem to bolt right up at first, until you realize that there are only three threaded holes under the seat bottom. The fourth slider bolt actually attaches to the side bracket, which bolts into the side of the seat bottom using a partially concealed bolt. Oops.
If you wanted to put in the effort, you could probably make something work. Fabricate a bracket extension. But I wouldn't vouch for its safety. Besides, it turns out that the sides of the seats are shaped differently. Get the seat into place and the seat bottom interferes with the center console. In retrospect, this is painfully obvious from the first picture. Look at how far out the metal "hoop" goes on one side, compared to how the side of the seat cuts in closely on the other side.
Well, whatever. I swapped the seat bottoms back again. At least I had a chance to blow out 20 years of accumulated dust and crap. But the seat is still godawful uncomfortable, so I made a stab at improving it. Worst case it's still less uncomfortable than the collapsed foam.
A few minutes with some pliers, taking out maybe five hog rings, and I could pull the seat cover back. It was compressed and torn. I used a flap disc to grind out the worst of it:
I have no idea what made this hole:
The only foam I could find is the carpet underlayment I've been using to insulate the floors. I cut out several shaped strips, ground off the water resistant backing, and started laminating the layers on using Super 90 spray adhesive. I think it ended up being three layers on the top, a chunk filling in that missing section, plus one along the side. I feathered the edges of each layer, particularly on the inner side.
Rounding it all off with the flap disc and it was hugely improved:
It's definitely not perfect, but wow is it ever an improvement. I can drive without a weird lean, and my back (and butt) feel better already:
I'm still going to do a seat swap, but this is a big improvement for about 1.5 hours of work.
