Seat cushions and upholstery

Discuss painting, polishing, or painting vs polishing.

Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby Sonex1517 » Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:01 am

Who in the community has made their own seat?

I am interested in hearing about others experiences with seat cushions and upholstery. Specifically what densities they used and if they did any contouring.

Thanks!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved
Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Aero Estates (T25)
First flight 10/10/2015
325+ hours
Jabiru 3300 Gen 4
Prince P Tip
Taildragger
N1517S
User avatar
Sonex1517
 
Posts: 1649
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:11 am
Location: Chicagoland

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby mike.smith » Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:55 am

Robbie:

In both the seat and the back I used Confor Foam: 1" CF45/Medium/Blue, then 1" CF42/Soft/Pink on top. It's essentially the TempurPedic foam. It feels awesome. But if I had it to do over I would consider only using 1" of the Soft/Pink for the back. There isn't nearly as much weight being put on the back cusion, so the Medium/Blue isn't really necessary, and it only adds thickness that my long legs didn't need. I got the best deal on the foam from:
https://www.scs-interiors.com/aerospace ... -foam.html

I did not do any contouring. You can see photos on my Kitlog site:
http://www.mykitlog.com/users/category. ... egory=9497
Mike Smith
Sonex N439M
Scratch built, AeroVee, Dual stick, Tail dragger
http://www.mykitlog.com/mikesmith
mike.smith
 
Posts: 1406
Joined: Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:45 pm

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby fastj22 » Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:03 am

I used 2 inch blue space foam for the back half of the lower seat (under the butts) 2 inch standard craft store foam for the front half and the entire seat back. The space foam is heavy and is hard as a rock under 50 degrees. But very comfy once things warm up.

John Gillis
SEL Private, Comm Glider, Tow pilot (Pawnee Driver)
Waiex N116YX, Jabiru 3300, Tail dragger,
First flight, 3/16/2013. 403 hours and climbing.
Home: CO15. KOSH x 5
Flying a B-Model Conversion (Super Bee Baby!)
User avatar
fastj22
 
Posts: 1594
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:56 pm
Location: Mile High

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby Msing48 » Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:08 am

Robbie,

Over the past 10 years I have tried quite a few different seat foams including the factory cushions, boat cushions and various combinations, I even spent the money and time at Airventure several years ago to buy and try every combination of Confor foam. I did this by testing them for an hour each while sitting with them on the wooden chairs at Theater in the Woods. I found what I thought was the perfect combination (pink over blue). When I got home, I had new seat bottoms made using this combination. Fortunately, I had them made with zippers. I found that they were only marginally better than the factory seats. I found some "high density" foam at a large craft store here in Houstion, replaced the Confor foam and found this to be much better. This foam was not anywhere near as high density as the Confor foam but was 2 or 3 times as dense as the typical craft foam.

Mike Singleton
N148MS
Msing48
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:39 pm

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby Msing48 » Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:11 am

I should have mentioned that I only did the seat bottoms and did no contouring.

Mike Singleton
Msing48
 
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:39 pm

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby avee8r » Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:09 pm

Hi Robbie

Ever see the commercial on TV for the Sheepskin covered, contour foam cushions? I found they're the perfect size, comfort etc... for my Sonex. I put some Velcro on them so they don't slide around and the setup works just fine.

Happy Landings
John
N50NX
avee8r
 
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2012 11:30 am

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby tonyr » Sun Feb 22, 2015 5:31 pm

Hi Robbie

I sewed my own upholstery and used the confor foam pink over blue for the seat pan and blue for the backs. I used 1000D Cordura for the coverings which doesn't "give" much.
I tapered the foam towards the front under the legs.. its just the blue at the front. I even glued the under leg end foam on at an angle so they sit better on the pan. I made 4 individual cushions, 2 seat pans and 2 backs, all attached with Velcro.
Lots of work to sew though and a bit of head scratching to work out the how! I also fitted zippers.
After 40 hours of use I find them comfy on the seat bottom but not so much on the back. I was thinking of adding some conventional foam to increase the thickness on them, but might have to remake the back covers.
The other thing with them is they are pretty weighty due to the confor foam..
I have a couple of pics here:
( I remade the stick boots in a thinner vinyl and they sit a lot better than these..)
Image
Image

PS.. I cut the foam with a cheap electric meat carver. To get the taper I used a wooden jig to keep the blades at the correct cutting angle. Worked good!

Cheers
Tony
Sonex #813
First Flight... 4 Oct 14
298 hours having fun!
http://sonexaus.wikispaces.com/Tony+%28Richo%29+Richardson+Sonex+813
User avatar
tonyr
 
Posts: 200
Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2013 12:50 am

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby mkellems » Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:36 pm

This is what we did with my new interior at a friends hot rod shop.
used hd foam/confor foam and pleather - seat was cut short to keep it away from under the knees and made a curtain for the baggage area.
Thanks,Mike
Image
Tough Times Don't Last Tough People Do!!
mkellems
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:23 pm

Re: Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby 984dm » Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:40 am

Hi Robbie,

Hi Tech Foams (www.seatfoam.com) from NE is a supplier I'm considering for getting foam for my seats. I met them at OSH last summer, and they seem to have good prices. What I like is they offer a wide variety of pre-cut pieces to choose from.

I'm shopping around to see what it would cost to have the seat covers sewn up, then will decide whether or not to go with the factory seats. The factory seats do have a nice fit to them.

Good luck with finishing up your plane,
Dave Misner
Sonex N984DM (in progress)
Dave M.
Bloomer, WI
Legacy Sonex N984DM (N number reserved, project is a work in progress)
Tri gear with center stick
Revmaster 2300
MGL XTreme EFIS/EMS, MGL V6, Sandia STX 165
984dm
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:39 pm

Seat cushions and upholstery

Postby Sonex1517 » Wed Feb 25, 2015 10:05 am

Thanks for the replies and email everyone
Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Aero Estates (T25)
First flight 10/10/2015
325+ hours
Jabiru 3300 Gen 4
Prince P Tip
Taildragger
N1517S
User avatar
Sonex1517
 
Posts: 1649
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:11 am
Location: Chicagoland

Next

Return to Finish methods

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests