Where to buy seat foam?

Thread from 2011:

I bought a really bitchin pair of seats off of a fellow GRM member and I need to do some upholstery work on them. I am looking to buy some nice high density foam for auto upholstery but don't know where the best place to find it. I will probably need to replace a couple of pieces of the foam to make the seats stiff again. I need to do a do a foam and webbing job than some fabric patching and I will be set. I am working on getting my sewing machine up and running so I can attempt repair. Seat repair is too damn expensive in my opinion, but I'll see what happens. Thanks for any tips folks!

You can cut out the ripped up sections and spray glue in just as much good foam as you need. In the past, I went to the junk yard and cut out pieces large enough to make up what I need out of junk seats. Good thing about foam is it's easy to cut and shape with an electric turkey knife. Think of it as metal body work with metal that's real easy to fix.

Maybe look in the local Yellow pages under "Foam"? There should be some upholstery supply stores in your area that can set you up.

JoAnn Fabics and the like. Last one I was in had nearly a 40' long section of various sizes and densities of foam.

Defender Industries in Ct., the thrid largest marine parts supplier in the country sells closed cell and open cell foam in any thickness you want. Closed cell is much firmer than open cell foam--probably what you want to use. . They are in Waterford, Ct. Pretty good people to deal with.

Thanks for all the tips, I went to Joann Fabrics and basically found the help useless. They did sell some large pieces of upholstery foam though.

I also went to a specialty foam shop and they knew their foam but one 20"x20"x4" piece was like 100$. I should probably go by an upholstery shop and see what they have to say. I remember the Doc saying something about cutting up an old foam mattress and that sounds like basically all the foam you could want. I actually already have the turkey knife for it's intended purpose, cutting foam. I also have access to a professional foam cutter if I need it, but I doubt I want to borrow it.

Kind of weird how this auto hobby makes you pick up a variety of skills .

Thanks again folks and nice day!

Hit a junkyard and pull some foam from big seats. I'd stick to cushion foam because it's usually denser than back foam. Front seat foam is normally denser than rear seat stuff,too.That way you'll get closed cell foam that's intended to pass ingress/egress test schedules(more durable). I'd also cherry pick passenger side foam because it's probably had significantly less use.

I forgot about that option. I see tons of foam at the junkyard. Thanks for the tip Deadskunk, I'd bet a bench seats worth of foam and I'll be set. Volvos look like they are full of good foam.

Thanks again folks!

Merely reinforcing what tr8todd already said. If you want a big chunk of good durable foam, find a pickup with a bench seat.

I should know to listen to anyone with a TR8, a really cool car. Think I've seen one in person. You see TR7s periodically but not 8s.

Necro-bump.

Do certain manufacturers use denser foam than others?

What I'm asking is if I went to the junkyard in search of the densest foam I could find, which brands should I be looking at?

Foam density & ILD are different. You can have a crazy dense foam that is still soft.

I'd look in an upholstery shop (auto or furniture).

In reply to ProDarwin:

I am planning to go to the junkyard this weekend to re-purpose some seat foam for a project. I am looking for firm foam. Would I be better off looking at Nissan vs. Buick?

Chrysler rear seat bottom foam was the answer to this for me.

In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock:
Firmness and density can vary quite a bit amongst the different model vehicles from a single manufacturer, so there's no hard rules about who's foam you want to seek out. Find a chunk of foam that suits your shape needs and do the Charmin' test by squeezing. I'd be inclined to find the firmest I could, but it's subjective. Also, a leather seat will normally feel firmer than a similar cloth seat, even though the foam has the same firmness spec. With whatever foam you find try and cut your pieces so that you retain the exterior surface as much as possible. Many foam parts will have a skin that's denser than the core and that helps . In my experience German seats were the firmest, in general, but finding a piece that you can cut to fit is the real issue.
Maybe I missed some details, but what seats are you trying to repair/rebuild?

I just got some memory, confor type foam for some seats I am making from Sunmate. Their discount stuff is a good deal. I got medium, soft, and extra soft in 1" and 1/2" thickness, and a can of 77 spray adhesive. Pilots like the stuff, and preliminary testing is positive (:.

In reply to DeadSkunk:

I'm contemplating making a seat for the bike for me to better fit on it.

I want to go from this

To something resembling this crude rendering

In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock:

Your idea looks less comfortable than stock to me, my motorcycle seats usually start flat and need more "butt cup" built in.

I have a yoga mat that I've been cutting up for seat modifications, it's a nice density and you can just add layers where needed until you get what you want- test fit until you get something you like and stick all the layers together with spray adhesive. The separate 1/4" thick pieces help keep it incremental rather than freeform when making tweaks, which helps me avoid making big mistakes or wasting large amounts of material.

You could make your own mold and pour in 2 part expanding poly foam.

Seat foam takes quite a beating over time. Bonding it together with Super 77 is only going to work so well also. If you do that, make sure you put a scrim over the top & bottom surfaces.

Front seat cushion foam would be best for that in my opinion, but finding a cushion thick enough could be an issue. I'd hit the junk yard and find a truck bench seat maybe, or a second row cushion from a crewcab or van.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

That's a mustang solo in the first pic. Which is about an inch taller than stock. My problem is a tight hip angle. My knees are higher than my hips.

In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock:

Oof, that's not a comfy place to be. I'd be tempted to put some sort of higher scrambler type seat on it and tweak things around until it looks right.

I assume new is not an option, but what about modifying a used seat from another bike?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock: I assume new is not an option, but what about modifying a used seat from another bike?

Why buy a seat from a different bike when I have an unused spare seat for my bike sitting around not doing anything?

It's not an unheard of thing to do, although most folks layer up new foam.

In reply to Nick (picaso) Comstock:

Well how was I supposed to know you have a spare

Yeah, take your spare and go nuts!

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

I asked about improving ergo's over on ADVrider. A couple guys said that I needed to do a bench, and provided pictures of theirs.

The problem with that, besides having to source a two up seat to start with is that I built my rack to go where the passenger seat would go. I could build another rack, but I'd rather not.

Then someone posted this picture and I figured I was on the right track. So there is some historical precedent.

I started researching how people modify seats. Certainly something I can handle. I will have to farm out the cover simply because I don't have the equipment to do it.

The idea to use foam from a car seat is because I'm an impatient cheap ass. I could order foam but I would have to wait for it and I hate that, plus I can get probably 10x the amount of foam for the same cost. It may work, it may not. But at this point I have nothing to lose except hopefully some terrible soreness after a long ride.