DIY rehab worn driver's seat foam tips

[Danno1985]

My 2011 is starting to exhibit the typical sagging in the driver's side bottom cushion of the 60/40 bench, and it's gotten to a point where I need to address it. It's affecting my posture in ways that are exacerbating all kinds of issues on any kind of longer drive.

At this point, with the newest of the "classic" Rangers being 12 years old already, I'm not particularly optimistic that a junkyard seat is going to be a viable option - my hunch is that unless I luck out and find something with 30K, anything in yards around here is going to be similarly jacked up or worse. Searched car-part.com and A-grade seats are asking close to 1 grand. For a Ranger front seat? No way.

I read a few threads about folks adding foam from fabric/craft stores to the bottom of the seat. For those who have done this, is it possible to do so without removing and dismantling the seat? Did you bother shaping the foam, or did you just cut out a rectangle roughly the side of the seat bottom and stuff it in? Does it feel lumpy and janky? How does it hold up?

I also found a few videos of folks using a steamer to bring some loft back to the foam. Anyone try this, and if so, do you think it'd work without removing the cover? I'm always just wary about taking interior stuff apart and then never having it go back together quite right.

Other options I've considered are getting an estimate from an upholstery shop, or just buying the NOS OEM replacement foam from Tasca.

 

[rubydist]

The bucket seats seem to hold up better, and the Explorer/Mountaineer seats are pretty nice. I have seen some of those in good condition fairly recently. You might expand your search to include those.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I don't believe there is any chance of just "stuffing" some foam in there with good results. It's going to require removing the seat and pulling the cover off.

Perhaps try calling a couple upholstery shops in your area and get a price to fix it.

Passenger seats tend to take less abuse. I've seen on here where a nice passenger seat is put on the driver side. Now you buckets... driver recline lever is now in the center.

Not optimal... but it works...

 

[Danno1985]

I don't believe there is any chance of just "stuffing" some foam in there with good results. It's going to require removing the seat and pulling the cover off.

Perhaps try calling a couple upholstery shops in your area and get a price to fix it.

Passenger seats tend to take less abuse. I've seen on here where a nice passenger seat is put on the driver side. Now you buckets... driver recline lever is now in the center.

Not optimal... but it works...

Thanks for the suggestion! That would work, but I have seat-mounted side airbags in my 2011, so assuming I don't want to lose those (I don't, drivers be crazy here and this little truck is already disadvantaged in a crash compared to anything modern), I'm stuck either replacing the entire driver's side of the bench or refurbing the seat I have, which is probably my only real option. It's not as jacked up as some I've seen - the seatback doesn't seem to be broken, but the foam bottom is worn in a really annoyingly lopsided way that causes hip pain on long drives. It's almost like the previous owner was sitting in between the driver's seat and the middle part of the bench rather than centered in the driver's seat.

 

[dvdswan]

Bucket Seat Rebuild | The Ranger Station

 

[Manscout]

I did stuff some new 3" foam and kept the original as well. You can check out more of it here:

 

[scotts90ranger]

I've gone to Home Depot and picked up like 3' or 6' of carpet padding and cut that up to put in my worn out vehicle seats, I made the mistake of only doing the bottom cushion, I think I also added a couple tension springs and fixed some broken wires... if I remember right I used two thicknesses on the F350 and one on the '97 Ranger... doing the same to the seat backs is on the list...

 

[Danno1985]

Thanks for the helpful tips and advice, everyone. For some reasons, I had this idea that it might be possible to unclip one side of the upholstery on the back of the seat bottom and just add a piece of foam without removing or dismantling the seat, but after reading this thread and examining the underside of the seat, it doesn't seem like this will be practical or possible. Still haven't had a chance to get an estimate from an upholstery shop or two, so that's my next move. Tasca has the foam 60/40 cushion in stock for $132, which isn't really that bad, assuming I can actually get the seat back together right (I hate interior stuff, lol). My thinking is that perhaps a good upholsterer can rebuild it better than stock. I've had three of these trucks and been around several more over the years, and IME the stock seat cushion seems like it's good for about 100K tops before developing the sinkhole at the back of the cushion.

 

[scotts90ranger]

They're not hard to get apart or back together, it's just plastic clips that clip onto the metal seat frame... on my F350 the seat had moved up and down enough times for one of the springs to pull through the frame and I think on the Ranger seat a piece of stiff wire holding the grid together under the foam had broken at a spring, there's room for more springs too, and the springs break as well...

There is no chance to add foam without pulling the seats, the tracks cover some of the material...