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Thanks everyone, I saw his video before but I'll watch it again and try it on my own.

Any opinions on whether this is critter damage or sun damage, or wear? Not that it really matters.

Carb thread, just got it back together:
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=261455

Dried out and brittle foam seat padding

I agree. Critter damage would have a lot more fluff piled up and droppings everywhere. Just old materials all the way around.

This is exactly what my '54 front seat was doing before I redid it.

The original seat foam dries out and turns brittle after 60+ years.

Replace with modern foam.

How hard is it to replace? Can you just carefully pull the staples then use an upholstery stapler to put it back together, or is it very involved to get the fabric back in place nicely?

Please take a look at my 54 Project Blog; I posted a video I did on replacing it.

Will do, thanks.

Here is the progress so far on the seat. (Other thread) I got it cleaned up nicely! I will put the foam in sometime later as it has not even arrived yet from Amazon. Check out the old foam. Wonder why it felt a bit hard‽ 🤔





I got the leather cleaned up very nicely with Miguiar's cleaner and the conditioner. Good stuff. I'm certain this is the first time it has been cleaned in since new, 70 years ago. Most importantly, it FEELS new again. Of note, I was wondering why this one section looked dirty still, then realized it's a slightly different color than the rest of the seat. To be expected, I suppose, but usually it's not quite this obvious.

I got the front seat put back together, and it's certainly more comfortable. I used "semi-firm" foam. You can see how I had re-hog-ring the horsehair section. I used some Elmer's Glue-all before setting the foam on the lining above the horsehair which you can see had the old foam glued to it, though I doubt it did much.

I think the 2-inch-thick foam is too thick. As you can see, it looks not quite right, and was difficult to install into the car (the rear of the seat was hard to jam in place). Maybe 1 inch, firm, would have been better, though I doubt anyone will really notice.

I forgot to take a picture, but I repaired the burlap area before reattaching the foam. I actually took the synthetic cloth wrapping for the foam, folded thrice, and hog-ringed it to the seat springs around its perimeter. And instead of Kev's welding rod, I used some extra of the Bowden cable inner wire that I used previously for the one section that for some reason needed it, though welding rod is likely superior. I just didn't have any.