240 seat foam repair

[andrejwillcke]

Hi,

I decided to try a little writeup on a repair I did on my second 240, I hope you like it, and it helps to keep your bu## seated as it should

So you got yourself a nice 240, but started wondering why you always get some yellowish crumples beneath the driver's seat? You back feels curved inside the backrest, the lumbar support doesn't help anymore, and one side of the back is sagging and giving no side support at all? Well, you need to repair your seat, get a new one or switch over to another car (hopefully not your choice)...

As most of you will already be able to take a seat out of the car, I won't deal too much with that part. Only the annoying part regarding the various plastic covers will be covered in detail.
The main repair procedure for a pure part exchange or a partial repair is already covered here:
http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/index.htm

'Kudos' to him, good pictures, well described, all perfect.
But: As of now, no known sources for seat foams at less than ~200$, and most used ones won't be an easy repair... And that's where my method will work.


The whole repair will take a few hours, but drying will take its time.
If you can, leave the car (or each seat) for a day or two alone.

Required parts:
About 32” of an alloy profile, size approx. 2”x0.5”
One truck / semi or tractor inner tire tube (may be old and punched)
10 packs of cheap silicone caulk, tinted (not clear), otherwise price should be the deciding factor. Avoid using anything else than pure silicone, acrylic caulk won't work
Some steel wire, whatever you have lying around
A nice bunch of tyraps, black preferred, but others will do if none available
Some jeans, in whatever condition

Attention: In case your driver's seat is really bad, you should consider getting a used passenger seat off a wreck. This may or may not be required, but once you've started the work, you may decide using a better foam (which you should have at hand...).

Now let's go to get some work done..:
Start with removing the seats out of the car. Two 13mm nuts in the forward part of the rails, two 13mm bolts on the rear, those may be hidden behind some plastic covers, you can pry them off easily with a big screwdriver, just pop the plastic rivets out, no breaks to be expected.
Now take off the seat rail assembly, 4 13mm bolts with some spacers.
It's time to do the worst part: Removing the odd plastic bits.
To remove the lumbar support adjuster, just turn it counterclockwise until fully released. The small plastic base underneath can then be just pulled out.
Take a small screwdriver or a knife, and pry the middle cover off the recline adjuster. This is only pushed inside the middle of the button, in some cases you need to work into the groove, in others it's already showing a bit. However, do it carefully, the plastic is quite soft, and any marks will be noticeable afterwards.
Now comes the ugliest part: Removing the adjuster button. It holds onto the shaft by means of a clip, this one needs to be worked out of the groove and off the shaft. I used a small flat screwdriver and some needle pliers, but ideally you have anything hook-shaped at hand.
It's time to take the lower cover and foam off the frame, as described in above link. Shouldn't be much of a problem, just try to avoid any rips, a small damage may lead to a weak spot in the cover, so be a little careful on that.

If you're lucky, at least the passenger side foam will be in a usable condition, the driver's side will be worse for sure...

This is good enough to be repaired:



Rips all around the side frame support.



Note the broken plastic 'reinforcement'.

Now to the actual foam repair:

Open the first silicone pack, spread a spoonful of the caulk on the foam's surface and start massaging it into the foam. With a little practice you may be able to get the caulk as deep as 1/2” into the foam. This has several effects after the silicone hardens.

By sealing the surface, there will be no more chunks falling off, with the silicone sealing against moisture, spilled fluids and ambient air (including ozone), further deterioration will be stopped as much as possible.

In addition, the silicone will add further strength to the foam, which may have suffered from years of use (and maybe abuse), and be more or less weakened and softer than wanted.
As a result, both by the deepness and the amount of silicone within the foam, you may be able to influence the stiffness of the seat.

I myself decided to use as much silicone as I had, I found the result to be stiff, but not too hard even on longer trips:



Whenever you have a deeper crack or missing chunks in the foam, you should try to decide if it's a weak spot, or if it was a miscellaneous damage.
This should help on the decision of either just gluing together and smoothening, or in reinforcing to spread the loads over greater surfaces.
And this is where those old pants are the premium choice...
Jeans (even worn out ones) are quite resistant against abrasion, and they won't rip as easy as the foam itself.
Therefore, whenever a weak spot in the design of the foam is clearly identifiable, glue some tissue on it.

Unfortunately, I don't have any closeup pictures (blurry mobile pics), but once you're at it, you will get the feeling. Here is a side shot after install:



For an improved side support, and added rigidity within the front of the seat, I used a piece of alloy angle, which is inserted between the two piece foam:



This sure does change noticeably the feeling for leg support!

For the seat back, the same procedures apply. Here, suffering the most are the sides, which tend to rip on the side support bar, and the foam squeezes between the bar and frame itself, giving the sides a sloppy feeling.

Before pics:





In case your lumbar support was broken (wire ripped or springs disconnected), probably the middle part around the wire frame reinforcement will also have suffered:



So what is next? Well, the foam itself should be done and ready for re-install after drying, but some (from my point of view) design faults are still there.
There are major gaps between the spring supported surfaces both on the lower frame and on the backrest, and also on the sides of this.
So it would be just a mapper of time, until the same rips re-appear...

This is where the rubber (tire tube) and more zipties get into play.

I used a square rubber 'sheet', laid over the lower wire frame (support with zipties), and two strong wires running across it to avoid the springs moving anywhere:



Now for the backrest. As mentioned, worst part is all forces are only taken by the lumbar support, and on the sides only the small diameter tubes are supposed to hold the foam in position.
The solution I applied may look a bit crude, but it worked ok since the repair (about 1 1/2 years ago).

Cut some long strips of the rubber, and tie them all across the frame, alternating with several loops around the outer tubes:







To avoid the rubber strip ripping apart, I decided to tie it with some knots,instead of using staples.
I decided that the lower part under the lumbar support was where most additional stress is to be expected (at least, where I wanted it to be harder).
In any case, this should be your own choice, just use trial and error to find what's best. Take care that the rubber band is not protruding too much, any bulky knots on the outer tubes could otherwise lead to a punctual load on the foam.

Now kindly ask your wife (mom, girlfriend, neighbour,...) to wash the covers (gentle machine wash will do), let everything dry, re-assemble and enjoy your fully restored seats.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for typos or misspelling. Please forgive if it's not too well done, but it's my first writeup

Anyway, I hope it may be inspiring for your next seat repair, at least it shows a cheap way of resolving some design flaws....

Regards,
Andrej

EDIT: Well, I think this may have been the first post ever not getting A SINGLE reply (after ~260 readers)...

I wasn't fishing for compliments (neither am I now), but maybe I should just let it be.
Maybe someone can do a writeup on how to install a lighted exhaust tip or on the DIY of a mufflerless side exhaust

Regards,
Andrej

[andrejwillcke]

...Up.
Let's see if somebody reacts at all. Open to any comments.

[Prime240]

I just redid my 240 seat and I looked also at your post for inspiration
Good job

[andrejwillcke]

Weeoowww... Glad you answered. Did you try the silicone?

[woodenshoes]

Andrej, great writeup!! I have 2 cars both with seats in need of repair (don't they all?). I haven't gotten around to doing them yet, but I had planned on using your method along with the instructions on cleanflametrap.com to help me get it done. Thanks for taking the time to try something different and write it all up.

[WolfDK]

Great writeup, nice to see somebody who also care about restoring/maintaining the cabin of our beloved bricks I am also amazed that you got so few comments, as this is a VERY common problem afaik. Think the rubber modification should be done to all 240 font seats, regarding the condition - they will all deteriorate over time.

My 240 is next, but i might go for a donor rh seat, to replace the foam on my lh seat.

[mintyrl]

thanks for this article...it also inspired me to undertake the task...

I must add however, that the removing of the hog rings is a or PITA. Have to be careful not to create rips when taking them off.

As always, patience is key.. drinking a nice cold one while doing the project to help you chill doesnt hurt one bit

use old bicycle inner tubes for backrest reinforcements, and some sturdy cardboard (see home appliance shipping packaging) between the frames and foams to prevent future cuts, tears from sharp stress points

[245Mike]

I always wondered if there was a way to fix a seat bottom that wasnt too far gone. Thanks!!!

[j-pac]

hate to bump such an old thread, but just wanted to drop by and say THX for the write-up, im tackling this project this weekend. volvo's are notorious for having seat problems, had issues with all 3 of my 240's with sagging seats, went to purchase one and even after the pre purchase inspection company from portland came out, still couldn't get the price down far enough for my liking. ill give it a fix anyways!

[TestPoint]

Just found this thread because of the bump to the top of the list.

My problem was the deteriorating spring wire webs under the seat cushion and the following my solution.

When I removed the seats for leather refinish I discovered that the spring webs under both front seats were broken. On the driver seat it was noticeable in that the front of the seat cushion sank down without any weight on it and much more so sitting in it. Common problem solved by sending PDI about $50 but not old Tight Wad Tom. I noticed that the wire mesh looked remarkably like closet wire shelving from one of the big box hardware stores that was less than $5 for more than enough to do both seats.



After shopping around I found one that, when a section was cut out, was only a quarter inch shorter in width than the OEM web.

Cut the piece out, bent the side-to-side ends over to add extra strength, and bent the side ends to match the OEM wire. That was the easy part. The under seat springs are the strongest that I have ever dealt with and the extra quarter inch width requirement didn't help.






The bottom of the foam seat has a molded in plastic support that was broken also, especially on the outside of the driver seat. In order to add some support to replace that plastic I cut a piece out of some black trunk carpet that I had picked up sometime in the past to spread the weight across and between the web and the broken plastic support.

Now the hard part. The seat springs tension are on the order of valve springs. I tried leveraging the new web over with a Gorilla Bar. In case ya'll don't have a Gorilla Bar I hope you never need one. That didn't work.



It took stretching the springs on both sides at the same time to connect the side bars of the new web to the springs. Two coat hanger gave their lives in the process. Anyone trying this needs to be careful as the tension extends into the dangerous region.



And here it is finished.



I realize that this effort all hinges on how well the wire welds hold but it was another learning experience. If I have to spend the $50 I will know how to install them.

Now we will see how well the welded wire shelving holds up compared to the engineered spring steel web that Volvo thought appropriate.

The passenger seat failed in a different manner. The center cord that holds the side-to-side wires in place came apart and allowed the front two wires to come off the side wires. That permitted the front springs to slide forward and nearly off the side wires. Nearly enough that there was no support on the front 6 inches of the seat. As pictured I added coat hanger wire on both sides to hold the front springs to the rear springs. Zip ties hold the new wire in place so that the front springs cannot slide forward again.

[Hotdoggin]

Yeah, last time I rebuilt seats I couldn't believe the tension on those springs. I further couldn't believe I hulked up enough to pull them in with a big pair of channel locks. There HAS to be another way.