81sc standard seat left thigh bolster refresh foam advice needed.

[ahh911]

Hello,
Happy holidays, hope you've enjoyed so far.

Question, I have the front seats out, the driver's seat was giving me problems, turns out the left thigh bolster metal support structure was bent over a fair amount. I've straightened it out and tested it outside of the car, but I'm thinking of replacing the orig bottom seat foam with new Porsche foam. The old one looks as expected, but to me the driving experience trumps cosmetics such as new leather on the seats, so, is it worth the 360$Can. to replace the driver's side? Will sitting feel improve to something that feels more like a driver's car and less like a worn out experience? If you've put in new seat foams, could you please advise on how the drive improved.

Regards,
Phil

[jjeffries]

Phil, the attached thread will likely be more in depth than your initial question but still represents the best way to understand exactly how these seats are constructed. It remains one of the DIY stories here on PP which I admire the most, I hope it’s helpful.

Full grain leather seat covers in the making

Best of luck to you,
John

[ahh911]

Wow, thanks John I didn't see that thread, what an effort.

My tops have been redone and while not of great quality, I've seen much worse, so while I have the bottom cover off, hopefully someone who has changed out the bottom foam for genuine product can tell if it's worth the money, up here the cost is another 50$ delivery plus border duty, so not cheap.

Phil

[30westrob]

One cheaper option is to purchase a block of foam and use an electric carving knife to sculp a replacement seat bottom. Most upholstery shops use this method.

[ahh911]

Looking at the construction of the lower foam, it's constructed of multiple layers of different material and has specialized cavities with bracing for the thigh bolsters. I don't think anything will be as good as the original, but I don't know this for a fact.

The original foam feels much better now that I've straightened the thigh bolster frame and inserted a small piece of wood parallel to the bolster area to make up for damaged rigidity loss to the foam bolster area caused when the bolster frame bent, so it's not bad, but having no reference to what a brand new purposefully built Porsche seat bottom feels like, I have no idea if it's closer to the original feel or way off. For reference, it now feels similar to the passenger side, but again not knowing how much aging has affected these lower cushions I have can't say if it's worth replacing with new genuine ones or leaving the original in. If someone has changed out an aged but otherwise undamaged lower seat foam for a new Porsche part and thinks it's a worthwhile improvement I'd like to hear from you.

Phil

[Marko888]

I wish new foam was available for my 1987 Sport seats...

I’d get the new foam in a heartbeat to replace your 39yr old seat foam.

[2.7RS]

Any good upholstery shop will carve a decent foam cushion

You customer need to realize all the foam densities.

When my sport seats were restored they used multiple densities in different areas. Side support. Ass. Back. Head. And combo layers.

At the end I got amazing seats that feel as good and supportive as my modern gt3.

Spend the dough. At the end the seat is your connection to your car

[ahh911]

Didn't know Upholstery shops could do such detailed work.

I've attached some pictures, does anything stand out? The covered seat is the passenger's side, just to show the seat covers are basically re-usable but not correct in style, I can deal with this later. The seats were removed to figure out why the driver's side bottom support was so bad. Like I've said it was the thigh bolster metal rail that had been bent. Both driver and pass side feel the same now. I think I'll order the 350$ (can) piece of foam, but that's close to what I paid for both rear Bilsteins, anyhow, if anyone else has replaced their old foam that is visually undamaged with new Porsche foam and reccomends it please let me know.