I have some Porsche seats I want to put in my coupe. The side bolsters are pretty tatty. I watched a YouTube video were they rough cut foam and glued it in place. Then they took a small die grinder with an abrasive wheel to bring it to the correct contour. Any idea what kind of abrasive would work best on foam?
An electric knife is what they used to rough cut it (and cut out the bad portion) before they glued the new foam in.Then they "sanded" it to a perfect contour. I have seen bench seats done with just a knife. There is room to pull the fabric, which pulls the foam into shape. This is for the side "bolsters" in the style of 80's recaros, bolsters are small and I guess need to be close to the original shape. Any way, they rough cut it with an electric carving knife, then sanded it to a perfect fit ion the new upholstery. Like I said, they used a small angle die grinder and an abrasive wheel. They didn't say what the abrasive was.
Just a course grit grinding disc works great! I just did the seat base for the 'Bucket of Ugly a couple of weeks ago, and used a fairly worn out 36 grit roloc type disc... easy!
Thanks. They kept the abrasive pointed down so you couldn't see it and didn't mention anything. Sort of the way Norm Abrams tends to keep his hand over the manufacturers label on tools.
Optimum is the carving knife, IMO. Grinders would sling particles everywhere. Palm sander maybe. It won't take much to re-shape it.
You'll have spare foam, do some test runs on the spare, I'm guessing a roloc disc or even a flapper disc would work fine.
We do upholstery, simple 80 to 120 flap wheels (just like you use for metal) is what we use to contour. Test on a piece first to get the hang of it because it can mow down quickly.
Use a finer grit disc on foam; 120 or better. The co****r grits can 'grab' the foam and either pitch it across your shop or tear a big hunk out of it.... DAMHIKIJK...
I appreciate all the responses. I thought I would toss in the video that I watched, you can skip to 4:40 to see the grinder used after the knife. May be overkill, but I have the tools and it seemed to improve the job. Since they are using leather, which doesn't have the "stretch" of vinyl, I thought maybe it was necessary. I also expect they charge a lot and need to turn out a perfect product.
Just as everyone else said. 80-120 grit, I use an angled die grinder. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Actually the vinyl will show heavy imperfections in foam. It doesnt have to be wet sanded paint smooth, but bl;ind man slinging bondo is no good.
I just did the seats in my truck and used a 120 grit flap wheel in a 4 1/2 grinder. Did a great job but will make a mess.
the video is spot on we use 120 grit with our grinders and works very well. you might want to practice on some s**** first but if you take your time and ease in to it you should be ok.
Roughed it with electric knife and shaped it with 80 grit on a die grinder. I wore a mask when shaping, foam dust was everywhere. Ended up with just a little hand shaping.
Like others have said, rough to shape with an electric carving knife and anywhere from 80 to 120 on a Roloc will shape beautifully. Someone mentioned a palm sander, don't do this, the weight of the sander completely deforms the foam and you will have no control over the final shape.
Not to hijack the thread, but I have a dodge caravan seat that has some factory lines in it. I want to reupholster it with a smooth finish so that I can have tuck and roll installed. How would I fix this? Glue foam to the top of it? The seat is comfortable as is, so I don't want to change the shape all that much.
So after all this grinding and sanding mayhem is over, what kind of glue do you use to stick foam to foam?
Before I ought an electric knife I used my wife's bread knife. The scalloped edge works pretty well. Just don't tell the wife.
The Jalopy Journal
