Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Seat bottom

I took apart my Restall seat bottom. After 50 years the padding is pretty much gone away, and I seem to have less of my own personal padding as well. The picture below is the wooden base for the seat. I'm going to replace the webbing because the old stuff is kind of failed. I'm also thinking that I can make the cut out in the seat bottom a little bigger, which should give a little more springiness to the new webbing. I also see that the hole is cut straight through which puts a fairly sharp edge around the side with the cushion. Well my thought is to follow the pencil marks roughly and open up the seat and round out the edge so that part gets a little more comfortable. I'm going to add if possible a half an inch of very heavy foam padding with the softer seat padding on top of it. I'm looking for a combination of a more comfortable seat, without gaining very much height. As it is with the hood up, my head is about a half an inch from the fabric.

Has anybody done anything like this with the seat base? I don't think it will affect where it sits in the frame because the frame is farther outside the cut marks. And it is plywood so it should retain some of its strength, probably more than is needed.

I've never altered the wood but I did replace my foam with memory foam which made a huge difference to the comfort.

Did you start with a block of memory foam and shape it? How did you cut it? What size did you start with?

Back in my biking days, I found that an electric carving knife was ideal to cut and shape upholstery foam.

I bought a mem foam pillow and used that.
Exactly as Doug says, the electric carving knife gives a very accurate cut.