seat foam for 72-74 Cuda front buckets???

[crash340]

Is anyone makeing repop front seat foams for the 73 Cuda??? Ive only found 70/71, anyone know??

[Sinatra]

I just went through this for my '74, as the driver's seat was completely shot.  As in, the lower frame was rusted out.

The seat foams were molded to the frames starting in mid-'72.  Early '72s used replaceable foams (the seats with the hard plastic back) but somewhere along the line they switched to the soft-back seats with molded-on foams.  The lowers actually pop off rather easily and could be changed with one from another similar-year seat, but the seat-back frame is completely buried within the foam.  If yours is shot, you need to reconstruct it using upholstery foam.  You can recycle it from a junk seat, or purchase new chunks of thick foam and piece it in.  The other option (the one I chose) is to replace your seat frames entirely with ones with better foam.  If you're going to have a professional do the upholstery, he or she should have no problem getting the foam back in shape, but it will cost extra.

I ended up buying seat cores better than what came with my car, and while waiting for those to arrive found a near-perfect set of seat cores at a show.  I think that's God's way of telling me I have to buy another Challenger.

[crash340]

Thanks Sinatra,
Yep, have just done some more research on this in the last 10 Min, my seats are in very good condition, the backs are fine, the foams in the base are just starting to crumble a little and I sit way too low ( I have bath towels rolled up under the seats to sit me up higher  by limiting compression (I'm short and fat LOL))

finding E Body seats here in Australia is well, not possible. Im going to have to think this through some

[Street_Challenged73]

I would find some high-density foam from like a boating company and mold the foam down to what you need for your seat bottom. An electric knife seems to work well to form the new foam and you use a contact cement or upholstery adhesive to glue the new pieces on to the existing foam.

[Sinatra]

Until I gave up and found new seats my plan was to scavenge foam from different seats.  I still have the rear seatbacks from both my '67 GTX and my '73 Charger 340 for some reason, so I was going to slice 'n' dice those as needed.  Being that they're the same material and density, it seemed like the obvious method of repair to me.  That may be your best option considering availability in, or the cost of shipping to, Oz.  Per Legendary's installation video, I also bought medium-density foam sheet to put over the factory foam to better fill out the reproduction covers.  I got that from Amazon.com for $12/sheet, each being 1/2" x 30" x 72" which should do one seat.  The foam will cut with a regular old bread knife very easily.

Click here for the Legendary installation video.  I'd suggest bookmarking it.  If you like drinking games, get a bunch of friends together, watch all the Legendary seatcover installation videos, and take a drink every time he says, "molded foam kit", "paper coated listing wire" or "Mom's old carving knife". 

[crash340]

Until I gave up and found new seats my plan was to scavenge foam from different seats.  I still have the rear seatbacks from both my '67 GTX and my '73 Charger 340 for some reason, so I was going to slice 'n' dice those as needed.  Being that they're the same material and density, it seemed like the obvious method of repair to me.  That may be your best option considering availability in, or the cost of shipping to, Oz.  Per Legendary's installation video, I also bought medium-density foam sheet to put over the factory foam to better fill out the reproduction covers.  I got that from Amazon.com for $12/sheet, each being 1/2" x 30" x 72" which should do one seat.  The foam will cut with a regular old bread knife very easily.

Click here for the Legendary installation video.  I'd suggest bookmarking it.  If you like drinking games, get a bunch of friends together, watch all the Legendary seatcover installation videos, and take a drink every time he says, "molded foam kit", "paper coated listing wire" or "Mom's old carving knife". 

I did watch that today, was funny for sure,

The issue with that and others is the 40 year old foam is breaking down, everyones is, and lke SC73 suggested yes I could carve from a block for sure, if I could find some re-enforced foam like the original then perfect, the original has a cord mesh cast into it which gives it stretch strength as such over normal foam

[Sinatra]

None of the six original seats I have for my car have any such mesh in the foam, I assure you.  There are chunks bigger than my forearm missing from the driver's side seatback along with significant damage to the bottom as well.  If you were to bring a chunk of what you have to an upholstery shop and tell them, "I need the new version of this" they'd be able to get it.  However, due to the fact that your seats are as bad as they are, you must also remember that you're now probably going to have two different densities of foam.  Some areas of the seat will be firmer than others; it will feel lumpy when you sit on it.

As far as everyone's seat foam breaking down, I have five excellent seat cores here that would beg to differ.  Only the driver's seat was bad.  It's not the original one for the car and had been sitting outside in a field since the 1980s, exposed to rain, heat, insects, rodentia, etc.  It was so bad the listing wires literally rusted away.  There were only two left in it; the rest were brown powder and stains.  What's left of that foam is actually still pretty solid, amazingly enough.  As I said, there are just enormous chunks missing, and the seat springs and some of the frame are rusted away.

[crash340]

If you have a look at the photo you can see the white plastic type re-enforcement, still used today under the name of Conwed netting http://www.conwedplastics.com/en/innovation/success-stories/automotive-seats/

[Bullitt-]

I'm not saying you can but I've wondered if the '70-71 Challenger foams could not
be used on the later models with some mods..
I think the bottoms are the same, it's the backs..could you not trim old foam
off the backs where the replacement foam would go leaving the rest?

Someone tell me if this is not doable...

[Sinatra]

I looked into that, and had a friend with access to new stuff send me pictures of the earlier foams.  I don't think it's doable.  The earlier cars used the hard plastic seat shell and the frame is exposed back there.  The later seatbacks were basically dunked in the foam, so to speak.  The only exposed metal is the arms that connect it to the lower.  Everything else is molded deep inside the foam.

That netting is only at the bottom of the seat base, Crash.  It doesn't run through the foam anywhere near the seating surface.  Its only purpose is to keep the foam from extruding through the springs.  Every installation video I've seen suggests using burlap in that area for exactly the same reason.  Patching the foam with replacement chunks cut from another source is a very viable option.

This is the driver's seat I was given to work with when I bought my car.  It gives a very good idea of how these seats were made, since time and exposure have turned it into a cutaway model. 

[crash340]

Thanks sinatra, ok, cool, my foams are for their age in fantastic condition, as is the covers, no holes or tears etc, the seat backs are fine, no need to fix or fiddle with them.  its the seat bases I need to have more support in so the burlap with added cross wires will help out a bunch,