P80 Driver seat leather and seat bottom replacement ( re titled) Topic is solved

[abscate]

Wow the seat looks great! I think he paid in the neighborhood of $460 for just the bottom seatcover and about the same for the back. So for both seatcovers your parts car saved around a grand. June

That new seat cover and heater is another $360 at Volvo parts Lisle

[sleddriver]

I did both bottom foam cushion & leather cover swap several years ago. When my neighbor took the sled to pickup a chair, she remarked how 'stiff' the foam was...like sitting in/on a bucket. (She even has more padding....). I've read one can 'revitalize' old foam cushions by steaming them. Problem is 20yr old foam is....20 years old.

Planned on doing the seat back leather as well....sometime. Currently buried in RF ABS harness issues....

[abscate]

Reattaching stay to seat cover

You have to be sure the hog rings or zip ties pick up the wire stay both inside the fabric cover of the seat cover, and the stay buried in the foam. Just give it a little tug and you will feel the wire.

I used 4 inch zip ties.

DONT DO THIS

My hands are still killing me this morning from the fine manual work of fishing these through in tight quarters. You want at least 6 inch zip ties and 8 inch are probably one dime more for a 100 pack. pull them to about 1 cm diameter (same as hog ring) then snip of excess

Place the inboard ones first, loosely as shown, then place the outboards, tighten inboards, tighten outboards.

Tying in seat bottom cover to stays with zipties

You start at the back of the seat bottom (there is enough slack to pull it over the foam.

The seat backrest you start on the backside, right under the headrest support. The next picture shows both the starting point for the seat back cover (turn it inside out to start, attach this back point first, then work it down tying it to the center stays and side stays like the seat bottom. The two cross plastic pieces are the buttons you seek to release the headrest at the start of this job

Start of seat back cover tie down, headrest release

Full view of lumbar support

[abscate]

Detail of how the seat back bolster works and knob removal

The manual tilt knob pops off, and then an M6 holds on the assembly - EZPZ

Manual tilt knob cover and M6 on guts

The lumbar knob is bit more complicated - unscrew Counterclock wise, then use a tool to pop it off by hard CCW rotation

Removing lumbar knob

How the lumbar support works - the screw action just tightens the piece of taut fabric behind the seatback, pulling it forward or easing tension as desired.

Operating guts of the lumbar support

[abscate]

Volvo custom assesses the seat for the new owner by varying the number of springs appropriate for your size - you can adjust these if the seat is too soft or firm (MVSS (tm) )*

On the left is June's seat, on the right is mine.

You start by attaching the loose flap at top working under the seat, then fold the leather over and sequentially attach to the side and cross stays

Seat underside

Here is the detail of how the springs attach - I put mine back in when all done, with pliers as shown, A bit of hand strength required.

Reattaching springs on seat bottom at rear, underneath

Spikes pick up foam at front

* MVS Sarcasm (c)2018

[abscate]

I hope I remember to install that pink retainer clip for the SRS SIPPS bag..

Looking good after some Connoly leather treatment

New seat in place

Head rest release detail - there are two places to push on roughly on the seam

One release button for headrest CLICK

Heres the actual latches you depress

Head rest latches

This cutout for the SIPSS and the mount hardware makes the seatbacks not-swappable between pass and driver - I knew that, June had to remind me of that though...

I think I will have to have a SIPPS test party pretty soon.

There is a release at the bottom of the back seat cover you have to fuss with

[abscate]

Begin opening up the backrest at the bottom of the seat

Opening bottom of seat back cover - hog rings at bottom.

Work it up, undoing hog rings as you go

Removing hog rings - I dont cut them, I just gorilla them off with a stiff plier - two twists and they pop open as shown

[abscate]

The old, the new, and the final approval of the P80 seat decor living room set by the cat..

[bmdubya1198]

That's what I forgot to mention... zip ties. I used 8" zip ties, I believe. They made it easy, and you can get 100 of those at Harbor Freight for $0.99 with a coupon from my top secret coupon site.
I don't have any hog rings or hog ring pliers, but I'm sure it's probably a little harder and certainly more time consuming to do it that way. My logic with the zip ties is who is going to know except for me anyway?

Very nice writeup!

[abscate]

A bit more scattered than I like but I think someone contemplating this job can get most of the tricks down

It took me 4 hours without break to do both of these including cleaning and lubing the power seat motors and gears.

The quality of materials in these seats is top shelf - everything was high end, expensive stuff.

I also took a walk on the wild side and did not disconnect battery, just did not turn on ignition with SRS disconnected. No SRS lights.

Linking back to another thread on seat skin replacement with good advice on hog ring pliers

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76527

Linking back to another thread on P80 and P2 leather

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76713

marked for VRD