Hi everyone! I'm still really new here and I have lots of questions. I just bought my father-in-law's 1999 Dakota Sport with 85,000 miles. So far, I love it. I got out the polisher and buffed all the paint swirls and detailed it. The outside looks great - while still having the bumps and bruises that make it a truck!

The next thing to tackle is the interior. The interior is in good shape, but the driver's seat foam is completely worn out and lop-sided. I did a search and people seem to have similar issues, but no one really says where they can get OEM replacement foam. Does anyone have a source for this without going to the dealer?

Thanks for the help!
Mike

 

With only 85K on that thing I wonder why the seat is so beat up it should be still in great shape.

Choices are

1 get a junkyard replacement set

2 get some foam and some seat covers

3 go to an auto upholstery shop and get them fixed

All not cheap

A foam place is here http://www.foamorder.com/cushions.html I would get some of the EverFlex™ V44 or EverFlex™ V54 anything softer would not work in a car seat because you need such thin foam like one inch or ½ inch thickness I would call and tell them what you want done they can help.

One more way to do a quick fix is get a good neck pillow made of the memory foam a quality memory foam one like this one http://www.brookstone.com/tempurpedi...oducts|175414p

One word of caution regarding the memory foam if you live where it gets colder than 55 at night the foam turns hard as a rock till it warms up so it’s like sitting on a brick. I take my pillow inside at night because of this

I sit on one because of my bad back and it helps me tremendously

 

If you use the memory foam pillow trick you can buy a cheap memory foam pillow for about $50 they are not true memory foam but close and work really well I have been using a cheap one and it’s still good.

One other thing as soon as you get it remove the zippered cover wash it then get some black or dark brown cloth dye and dye it one of those colors because you don’t want it white they will get dirty fast and a brown or black pillow will hide the dirt. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...d_i=1571208232

Oh and some people will think you are weird having a pillow in your car but F*** them with my bad back I don’t care what people think at least my back is happy and I’m not in pain using it

Oh and after you dye it wash it about two times to remove any excess dye so your pants don’t get any color leaching out into your pants and with washing those two times wash by themselves because it will leach some color out and anything washed with it will get color leaching

 

The foam in my seats is disintegrating to. I also had some missing springs and found that some of the holes that the springs went into had pulled through. It was better after redrilling new holes and replacing the springs but it still wasn't all that comfortable. After getting a few quotes from a few upholsters and weighing against the laundry list of mechanical repairs I needed to correct, I wound up buying a couple of seat covers from walmart ($10 a pair) and put three 1" layers of foam under them. Feels like heaven now and they don't look like crap. So-much so that I'm keeping them that way.

 

I climbed in last night and checked the seat out. The top of the foam is nice and supportive. It's the bottem that's ripped to shreads. It looks like the rails that the seat's frame slides on is cutting into the foam and obliterating it into nothing. My father-in-law is a very tall man and weighs more than me, so I'm thinking the extra weight from a larger person caused the foam to cut into the rails and rip up the foam.

Instead of padding the top, I may try to remove the foam and add the support from the bottom with plywood or something. Something to give it support and keep it from cutting into the metal anymore. I haven't looked deep enough to figure out if that will work or not. I'm crossing my fingers. If not, I'll give the padding and seat cover idea a try.

Thanks for the suggestions!
Mike

 

Go to the bone-yard, grab the seat bottom out of a passenger-side seat, (less-wear).
And, just use that as your replacement.

 

I like that idea a lot too. Thanks!
Mike

 

Since I dont have my dakota too look at to see if this would work but the ram guys just switch with their passenger side seat bottom. They undo the clips and like 4 screws and take the whole bottom over to the other side then the driver side rip's and what not are hidden by the console on the passenger side.

 

Take the cover off and find some carpet foam cut to fit and gluing them to the old cushion put cover back on.

 

carpet foam that stuff is heavy in chemicals and will dry out fast plus it’s not really made for constant flexing like regular cushion foam it is made to stay flat only.