New front seat foam - experiences?

[Anders Dinsen]

As part of my restoration project, I've fitted a set of the new seat foams available on the market. The old ones were getting dusty and I thought it would be a good idea to update to new foam. I'm quite unhappy with the result, though.

While the thickness is identical to the original, the foam is much firmer, and in fact so high that I no longer feel that I fit in the seat. My head hits the roof and I need to recline the seat to a position, which is no longer comfortable. Also, because of the firmness, I do not feel that the sides give much support any more. It simply feels like I'm sitting on top of the seat, not in it.

Another issue, which is specific to the buttoned interior fabric I have, is that the original foam has an additional even softer layer on top which allows the grey button fabric to shape itself around the buttons. Without this additional softer layer, the fabric sits flat on the seat and it will never look good.

The foam is good quality, in fact, my sister is a chemist and used to work with memory foam production, and she said both the castings and the quality is good. I feel the problem is simply that they have chosen a far too firm type of foam for the Murena.

I'll be going back to the original foam, but I'm wondering what are other people's experiences with these remanufactured foams?

Attached picture shows the foam installed on my drivers seat.

[Grapes]

Thanks for sharing, that's exactly what I don't want if I refurbish my seats and the driver's seat definitely has seen better times. I was eying this foam but was also playing with the thought of cutting my own which is now probably going to be my choice.

[JL]

Whilst I have not yet refurbished my Murena seats, I have made new bases for my Lotus Elan +2 seats. I did not use manufactured seat foam, instead I purchased foam and formed the bases individually.

Foam can be purchased in varying density, I used a firmer foam for the side bolsters and softer for the seat, the foam can be built up in layers to get the rough shape  - I just used a spray contact adhesive for this. Once I had the rough shape I then  trimmed further with a sharp carving knife, finishing off with a sanding disc in an angle grinder - this bit is best done outside as it is a pretty dusty operation.

Making the seat foams does not take a great deal of time and is also not expensive!

You can also use foam to repair/improve your existing seats if the bases are not too crusty.

Cheers
John

[Grapes]

Yep, that's the plan. I have a spare set of seats so I can work on making new seats whilst still driving around 😂

[Anders Dinsen]

I like the idea about building up foam in layers. I might also do that eventually, but for now, I'll convert back to the original foam.

I have to say though that the mould used for this one is really well made as the foam fits perfectly on the frame. Also the foam has the features needed to fit the fabric. Only the top softer layer is missing in that respect, but that is specific for the buttoned fabric.

One has to make a few cuts to pass through stuff that holds the fabric stretched out on the foam and attached to the frame, but that's it.

So if only they had used less firm foam, it would have been close to perfect.