How to Repair Your Tractor Seat DIY
This is a DIY video on how to rebuild your tractor’s seat starting with the steel frame, adding foam, adding vinyl. The seat used for this demonstration is from a 1973 Bolens Husky 1556 which is of fairly typical construction; seat back plate to which molded foam is glued, which is covered in vinyl. Over time, the steel rusts, letting go of the foam, and the vinyl wears, tearing and letting the elements into the seat. The quick and dirty: Remove all the old foam and vinyl. Clean all the rust off the steel seat. Cut 2″ foam to the contours of the steel seat. Glue foam to steel seat. Cut new vinyl into shape of seat. Glue Vinyl to foam. Resecure the vinyl to the steel seat. It’s that easy…some notes…you an never leave too much extra, but you can cut too much. This is my first time totally reconstructing a seat. I have glued the original foam/vinyl back on the steel plate before but that was more of a repair instead of replacement of materials.
[phpbay] tractor, 200, “91952″, “tires”[/phpbay]
Cool! i know how to fix my seat on my yardman tractor now…LOL… i also painted my tractor too. check out my 2 vids of my tractor if you got a chance. my tractor just needs a new seat to make it look better. i took pictures of it transformation..LOL
I saw your tractor…very neat. I was wondering, are there special mounts on the engine or transaxle made of rubber, hence the “Vibra-Mount” name?
yep there is rubber… i saw them, then figured out what vibra mout meant..lol
Nice DIY video- i was thinking to repair the metal pan you couldve used some JB weld- that stuff works great on small holes ( specially since the pan was so rusty and somewhat thin). To help with the wrinkles in the cover, possibly laying it out in the sun for a bit would soften it up? My dad and i did that with a vynal flooring we put in my one house- went in like butter.
Im going to be doing some painting on my 86 craftsmans sheetmetal as well ( total repaint)- should be interesting.
Thank you. What I needed to do was weld a small plate where the seat bolts connect to the bottom of the seat. If you grabbed the seat and pulled up hard enough, you’d rip them right out. I wanted to just get the thing covered as cheap as I could and as fast as I could. I think it was $7 for the foam, $10 for the vinyl, and $11 for the glue. I have enough vinyl and glue to actually do another seat.
Thats not a bad price- an upolstery shop would charge you more then that.
I mentioned JB weld because i patched a couple tiny holes in a mower deck with it- wasnt worth dragging out the welder to do it.
Another great DIY video from you, great job on the seat repair.
Peace
You could, it doesn’t really matter, however if you glue it down and then mess up, you’re busy ripping out what you just did. This way you cut it, if it’s great you glue it, if you need to do it again, then so be it. As for the other items, yes, but I don’t own those, The foam will be hidden by the fabric anyways so a great cut really isn’t required.
Hey, I got the same tractor, and same seat! Howdie from Schenectady, N.Y.
Where did you buy your vinyl at?
@chortiz11 Local fabric store.