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The start of a winter project on the Clipper:

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The bare necessities!
Tom

So this was an overdue project. The seats in my car came from a doner car that Ross turned into a Pack-Up. It's original upholstery from a 54 Super Clipper. According to Ross, this also was an extra upcharge version of upholstery over the standard '54 Super Clipper upholstery.

But as with pretty much all these cars, the foam rubber cushion in the seat has petrified and turned to dust over the last 68 years. Every time I sit on it, I end up with yellow dandruff all over my floor.

I can tell you the construction is for sure a bit different than what my '54 Deluxe seat had. I don't remember the bottom horsehair layer or the plastic sheet layer with the support wires in it.

So here are the pics of me disassembling the seat. It's held together with copious amounts of "hog-ring" staples.

The upper gauze-batting layer is in very good condition, so I will reuse that. Also, the horsehair and plastic layer is also in very good condition; they will get reused as well.

I am going to replace the bottom burlap layer as it's a bit swiss-cheesed and, of course, the foam layer.

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So I cut all hog rings holding the horsehair layer in place and removed it. Underneath is the burlap layer that spans the zigzag springs.

This burlap has holes all in it, But to my surprise, it also has little wires that span the springs. Rather than lose that, I decided to keep it and just put a new layer under it.

So with that, a new layer of burlap when down, then the original burlap with the wires, followed by the horsehair layer. That all was then hog ringed back into place.

So for sure different from the construction of my 54 Deluxe Seats, as it didn't have the degree of support wires on top of the springs.

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Seat done. After adding the foam and beveling the edges the upholstery went back on and was hog ringed back in place. Then it went back in the car.

Seat feels way better. Much more even and feels like the back seat now.

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I just realized I missed a photo in the sequence. Here is the 2" foam. I ordered it online and it came vacuum packed in a small box like one of those new mattresses. But it was less $30 for a 2"x24"x74" piece. Only thing I did beyond this picture with it was bevel all the edges. Until I did this I couldn't get the cover back and get everything to line up correctly.

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Time for its Fall Washing

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Ah Kev...She looks brand new! Ernie in Arizona

Looks beautiful! I read your entire blog beginning to end when I first found this site and know all the work that’s gone into it. It’s a job well done!

Here is the complete video on rebuilding my car seat from my YouTube Channel: