Seat foam swap

[octanejunkie]

I got tired of my sagging drivers seat so I pulled a good condition passenger seat foam from a 97 in the junk yard this past weekend. There was no occupancy sensor wire.

To make life easy, I swapped seat bottoms, moving my 99 passenger to the driver side and vice versa. WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Feels like driving a new car.

I guess I should short out the occupancy sensor so my passenger light on the dash stops flashing but its just for a few days; I can live with it.

I called a few upholstery shops to swap the foam for me, pricing was crazy, even if I offered to just bring them the seat bottom and foam (no seat install/reinstall labor) but they all want about $150 to do the job. Cheapest guy was $95 after he took the time to listen to what I would bring him.

Has anyone done this swap and will the small hog ring pliers from Harbor Freight do the job or do I need to get a different tool?

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[Unner]

I just bought a passenger seat bottom out of a wrecked T4R that was the same interior pattern as mine and put that on my driver side. I think I paid like $120 for the bottom shipped and it took only a few minutes to pull the seat, swap the bottoms, and put it back in. That's the easiest way and probably will produce the best results.

 

[octanejunkie]

I just bought a passenger seat bottom out of a wrecked T4R that was the same interior pattern as mine and put that on my driver side. I think I paid like $120 for the bottom shipped and it took only a few minutes to pull the seat, swap the bottoms, and put it back in. That's the easiest way and probably will produce the best results.

I would consider that if I could find one in my year/pattern

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[Unner]

Have you tried ebay? That's where I got mine. Someone was selling the entire seat and I messaged them asking if they would take less for just the seat bottom and they did.

 

[pauldub]

I swapped in "new" used seat foam on several of my Cherokees and my motor home. It's quite simple if you're just a little bit handy. Any hog ring pliers should do the trick.

 

[RS Dude]

I re-cushioned my front seats several years ago. Bought the foam oem from Toyota. They were expensive, about $100-120 per cushion. Also cleaned and reinforced the original fabric, with excellent results. Job is relatively easy. Bought hog rigs off ebay for cheap. Used common pliers as a substitute for special hog ring pliers. If you just do driver's seat its half as expensive.:target:

 

[96Runr]

Brother Octane, I have done this way too many times to count. Trust me, zip ties do the job EVERYTIME. Just make sure you twist square part of zip tie under the metal rod that is attached to the seat - don't bother with hog ties

 

[024rnrSport]

It's very easy with common tools. No need to buy anything special. OEM foam was $150 for my Tacoma butt pad and it was money well spent.

 

[96Runr]

FYI...If the metal rods are torn away from cloth seat, I found that paper postal wrapping tape that you would use to wrap package ( the one that has string in it) works really well to hold metal rods in place

Washing cloth seat covers in cold water, air dry in dryer (spot treat before wash w oxy clean) - good as new and they don't smell from 20 years of ashe.

 

[RS Dude]

Brother Octane, I have done this way too many times to count. Trust me, zip ties do the job EVERYTIME. Just make sure you twist square part of zip tie under the metal rod that is attached to the seat - don't bother with hog ties

Hee, hee, hee! Zip ties instead of hog rings! I'll bet the engineers at Toyota are hitting themselves in the head over using hog rings instead of zip ties and feeling like complete IDIOTS!:ybrick:

 

[96Runr]

Oxy clean, postal tape, zip ties. All you need

 

[JZiggy]

I did some upholstery work on my rear seats and used an $18 hog ring plier kit from Amazon. Worked great!

 

[nissanh]

Wish I have

Oxy clean, postal tape, zip ties. All you need

Wish I have these seats!

 

[octanejunkie]

Brother Octane, I have done this way too many times to count. Trust me, zip ties do the job EVERYTIME. Just make sure you twist square part of zip tie under the metal rod that is attached to the seat - don't bother with hog ties

Wayne is the MotherF-ing Man! Zip ties were the ticket. :cheers:

 

[octanejunkie]

How I did it

Pried apart and removed all outside hog rings using 2 needle nose pliers. Marked locations of ties with a sharpie. I also took reference pics along the way.

Peeled back the rear of the seat cover and worked the cover off the foam, compressing the foam, in a clockwise pattern.

Inserted zip ties under metal rails in seat foam

Laced inner rails and secured and trimmed zip ties, then worked the cover back over the foam in a clockwise manner, compressing and working the foam and the cover to get a kinda-good fit; then zip tied shut.

Sorry for dark pic, but here are seats reinstalled

Here is what I learned and noted along the way
1. This is a messy project, crumbling foam everywhere
2. THE OLD FOAM SMELLS LIKE VOMIT
3. My driver's bottom seat cover is crap, I am going to replace it
4. The seat foam from a 96-98 isn't correct for a 99. My old foam had a big "32" on it while the foam I salvaged had a "31" so it doesn't fill my seat cover properly
5. There are also 2 metal rails forward of the mid-rail (sorry no pic) that there was no place to secure to the 98 foam, so I left them loose inside the seat (attributes to the poor fit, probably)
6. The seat foam from a 96-98 isn't contoured as "aggressively" as the 99, it's not as tight against the thighs - this isn't a bad thing as I wasn't used to the feel of the passenger seat bottom on the driver's side for the last few days. Now I get to experience the 98 seat bottom, which is still better than my old, crappy 99 seat foam was.

You could say this whole exercise was for naught in the end, but it was good experience, relatively easy (and zip ties were the way to go) I'll be on the lookout for a passenger seat bottom, complete, from a 99 Sport in the same tan fabric, but I'm in no rush at this point.

What I have is better than what I had for the time being and thanks to this forum it became an easy project. Thanks guys!

 

[024rnrSport]

Too bad you can't get the stretch out of the fabric. Such is life. I've considered ordering the seat cover from that Japanese Toyota parts dealer that starts with A (I'm forgetting at the moment...)

 

[JRZEE2000TR4LTD]

When I redid the bottom on my driver side seat I used new OEM foam and the new leather from the guy in Utah on Ebay. A couple observations and comments.

The new foam combined with the new leather made for a very tight fit. I, at first, used a couple zip ties and they got cut through by the seat bottom metal. The edges are kinda sharp. I think the tightness because of the leather and newness of everything put a lot of tension on the zipties which forced me to use the hogrings. I founds the hogrings easy to use and it cinched up everything nicely.
To the OP, the zipties will probably be OK because you have cloth and broken in seat foam. Just wanted to put this out there for someone who has new leather and a new cushion and may need to use the hogrings.

 

[Rimcrew]

Where does one find a good deal on OEM foam seat bottom cushions?

The places I have checked were pretty expensive.

 

[024rnrSport]

Check Camelback Toyota or any number of online dealers. Probably around $150.

 

[octanejunkie]

Check Camelback Toyota or any number of online dealers. Probably around $150.

Considering an upholsterer wanted to charge me $150 to install it, that's a wash (pardon the pun) if your fabric is in good shape and you're willing to get your hands "dirty" installing it

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