Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 12:01 am
by Sonex1517
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:55 am
by mike.smith
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:03 am
by fastj22
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.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:08 am
by Msing48
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 10:11 am
by Msing48
I should have mentioned that I only did the seat bottoms and did no contouring.
Mike Singleton
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:09 pm
by avee8r
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 5:31 pm
by tonyr
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..)
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:36 pm
by mkellems
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
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:40 am
by 984dm
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)
Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 10:05 am
by Sonex1517
Thanks for the replies and email everyone
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 1:11 pm
by SonexN76ET
I bought a slab of conform foam that is 38 x 19 consisting of 1 inch medium and 1 inch firm. I have not installed it yet because it is very heavy. I will likely use high density foam instead.
Last year I reupholstered my boat. Now I am slowly putting my Sonex seat upholstery together. Chris Madsen has a few good links to upholstery on his builders website that I am referencing.
I should have some pictures soon.
Thanks,
Jake
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:34 pm
by ScottM-Sonex1629
Robbie,
The confor foam I told you about arrived today from Aircraft Spruce. To all reading this thread, I do not recommend getting the single 2" layer of the blue/medium firm. It’s as hard as wood. I’m going to see about returning it and trying what I orginally bought.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 6:30 pm
by billmaxmcw
I went to the local upholstery store and tried out a number of materials. I ended up with 2-inch very firm foam for the seat, and 2-inch soft foam for the back, covered by my wife in fabric similar to car cloth seats. Side panels ditto. Held in place by sticky-back velcro tape.
Bill
inside 001 (800x600).jpg (423.46 KiB) Viewed 17772 times
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 3:16 pm
by SonexN76ET
Al Roberts,
Here is a thread on upholstery. I saw on your earliest post someone had mentioned that $1000 for leather is a good price.
I put together my own leather upholstery as I had sewn some boats seats a couple years ago. If I could do it over again I would just have bought the tex nylon upholstery package from Sonex. The Sonex set looks better and is probably lighter than what I pulled together.
Jake
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:01 pm
by Mike53
http://www.sunmatecushions.com/pages/hi … plications http://www.sunmatecushions.com/pages/di … st-sellers
Same stuff as Conform just cheaper .
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:21 pm
by tmobbs
I have the Sonex leather upholstery set for my A model Sonex with the lowered seat option and twin sticks. It looks good.
But I sat on the seat cushions in the aircraft for the first time today and was disapointed to find that I could no longer get full up elevator. The slots in the upholstery to take the two sticks just don’t go far enough back to enable the sticks to move back far enough. With the triangular “boots” in place, the situation is even worse.
Has anyone else found that?
And if so what have you done about it?
Tim Mobbs Sonex #1555, Aerovee #0672
Bungay, Suffolk, England.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 9:00 pm
by peter anson
I have just tried a new tack on this and I was very happy with the results. The seat base cushions in my Sonex are just 2" thick foam rubber which I find OK, but I found that flying for more than 2 hours in a day caused back pains. I simply copied the shape of my car seat in blue polystyrene foam and slipped it behind the seat back cushion. I found it to be really comfortable on a long trip.
The back is 353 mm wide by 400 mm high. Maximum thickness of 30 mm is located 150 mm from the bottom edge and it tapers to about 2 mm at the top and bottom. The sides are carved from the same 30 mm sheet and glued on with 5 minute epoxy. The maximum side depth of 70 mm is located about 180 mm from the bottom.
Peter
Sonex 894
321 hours - the last 18 in real comfort
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:04 am
by WaiexN143NM
Hi tim,
Yes the sonex seat cushions.,we took to a local upholstery shop here on the airfield , at KRYN ryan field tucson. We cut out a few more inches , to clear the sticks. Restictched, looks good.
WaiexN143NM
Michael
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 10:02 pm
by Darick
I bought a used factory interior package. There is a row of snaps at the top of the seat back. Is this for attaching a sling type baggage compartment or meant to be snapped to the cross member to keep the seat in place?
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 9:00 am
by builderflyer
Darick,
They snap to the cross member. I put a strip of foam cushioning beneath to take up some of the extra material and to provide a softer seat when getting in and out of the airplane.
Art,Sonex taildragger #95
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 2:53 pm
by kevinh
Btw - this thread prompted me to order my seat foam. And I noticed that the place I selected has a sale right now on certain sizes: www.sunmatecushions.com
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:55 pm
by kevinh
Don just asked me a question about the foam I listed. I figured I’d paste my reply here for future searchers/discussion. (Though I know virtually nothing on this topic - I’m copying a bit of what some RV friends did)
Sure thing. Here’s what I ordered (somewhat limited based on what was on sale):
22"x36" Pudgee - 1/2" (8 lbs)
$138.65 USD 1 $138.65 USD
Discounted Overstock 32"x37" SunMate - Medium-soft / 2" (8 lb)
$61.45 USD 1 $61.45 USD
Discounted Overstock 32"x37" SunMate - Medium / 1.25" (5 lb)
$38.87 USD 1 $38.87 USD
Discounted Overstock 32"x37" SunMate FRG - Medium / 1" (4 lb)
From my notes:
22” (ish) high back
2” of SunMate Medium-soft + extra sun mate medium used for lumbar support
22” deep bottom
.5” Pudgee
1.25” SunMate Medium
Total of 1.75”
Or add 1” of extra booster for total of 2.75”
32” wide
The Pudgee stuff is optional (and expensive) as a top layer but it feels really cool (they sent me a big pack of free samples). On their site they have a page which based on your weight and preference can specify what firmness is recommended. Based on some RV friends who used in their RV I opted for medium-soft on the back and medium on the bottom (I’m 175 lbs).
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:47 am
by Bryan Cotton
Last night I watched one YouTube video, read the manual, and taught myself how to use the Singer sewing machine. This task is on my punch list.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:48 pm
by Bryan Cotton
A quick cross post for future reference: page 109 of my thread starts my upholstery adventures.
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=578&start=1080
Before this cushion, I practiced on scrap. Then I took in the waist of my jeans. Been working on losing weight to improve useful load. Then I altered two pairs of new cargo pants for my younger son as the waist was either too tight or loose in the available sizes.
Welding, riveting, gluing, sewing - all different aspects of the same thing.
I found this video helpful.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 6:53 pm
by Rynoth
Bryan, that’s a great video. Makes we want to buy a sewing machine…
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:25 pm
by Bryan Cotton
The primary purpose of the hobby is to collect tools.
When I was newly married or maybe engaged I bought this machine for my wife as a gift because she said she liked to sew. I had my mom pick it out down in Tennessee as she has been into it for years. I think she used it once and then never again. She said it had thread tension problems. I found the needle was installed backwards. The thing runs great. Good to see it in use after two decades of storage.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 1:46 am
by lstinthot
I bought my wife a new embroidery machine, she thinks I bought it for her.
Re: Seat cushions and upholstery
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:46 am
by sonex1566
This is my chance to shine as a Martha Stewart wannabe…I borrowed my Mother in law’s embroidery machine. To cut a long story short, many, many hours later, I used every swear word I know at least twice over. I finished my upholstery a couple of months back. The racing stripes are to make up for lost speed due to my fat bum!