Heres a few picts of my adventures tearing into my Leather Cimarron seat today. Had a busted something or the other inside that was poking pieces of the metal frame out, tearing up the seat as well as being way uncomfortable.
Here is the power unit, these things are very durable, and I've fallen in love with them!!
Ok, needed to practice. Started with an old beater on the left, and then the spare Cimarron one on the right for parts, then the busted one in the middle. Ron ought to be able to practically build a 1st gen after all the rebuilding and breaking down at the salvage yards!! :-)
The unit is held together with hog rings. Top Tip here - You can buy a real nice set of hog ring pliers at NAPA, but don't ask them for the hog rings...they don't have them!!
Start taking to rings out, just take your time. I found the whole process very easy , and quite enjoyable. Didn't take nearly as long as I'd planned on!!
The Base lifts up and off. All 3 bases were identical...so much for Cadallic Quality!
Here is one of the main differences on the Caddy seat. 5 hog rings attach at the back of the seat to the base. Makes for a snugger fit.
Now, fold the seat cushion inside out so you can separate it from the foam insert. This bugger has metal support rods inside it, and those had busted and caused me all my grief. You can't repair this, just replace it and be done. Once you have the fabric turned, you'll fund 2 rather hidden hog rings at the front on the bottom, once you find them , and remove them, you are nearly done!!
Little better view:
Now the fun begins!! These rods swing up allowing you to slide the cushion off from the material. Neat engineering !!
Here is a shot of a couple of the cushions. One is the Chevy and the other is a Caddy. They are a bit different, but the picture doesn't bear it out. Just for kicks, I use the Chevy cushion, putting the spare Caddy seat back together to see if it would fit. I actually does right well, one wouldn't know unless they had been inside and knew.
Assembly is as usual, just reverse LOL..
Here is a picture of the rather spartan looking pliers loaded with a ring. Top Tip - Northwest Hardware sells this and the rings for about $20. The rings I used were a bit bigger but way stronger than stock ones. After a few times it was very easy to use!!
Here I'm reattaching the rod to the cushion :
...and here is the seat all back together, I DID get it back together after all - Yea!! LOL
...and the seats after I'm all done. Gosh I'm hopin' I can run across another set of these next year. If not maybe Ron might be able to come to the rescue. One of the nice features of the 1st gens is the variety of interior colors. Later versions mainly came in grey & black. I'm just a nut for blue personally. both my J-bodies and also my Ranger is clad in it.
Here is the reassembled spare caddy seat. You can see the seat is a bit flatter because I used the chevy cushion. It feels comfortable tho, and the fit is good.
Lastly, here is the busted cushion headed for the trash bin. You can see the damage on the left. The cats & dogs have gone nuts over this thing, guess they deserve a little Caddy comfort for a little while before it gets trashed!! :-)
That is a good write up of seat removal tear down!I have yet to see any cimmarons yet.I hope probably in week or two hit a pull a part yard two hrs away and hope to grab more sweet stuff.I seem to be one of few who do get stuff off first gens so all the better.
Orlen-
Nice work! I still have to get my seats apart. Looks real clear on the bottom parts. How do you get the lever out of the back of the top part without tearing the fabric? That is where I am stuck. I don't want to cut it up.
If yours are like my ole ladys' 3rd gen, I haven't been into those, unfortunately. You might try a post on the 2nd or 3rd gen forums , maybe someone might have more info there....just an idea.
Oh darn....I forget to add to my seat post. I had actually gotten a set of those nice Hog Ring pliers at NAPA. When I finally found those hog rings at True Value (Northwest Hardware), they wouldn't even fit the pliers from NAPA. I had to return them to NAPA, and buy the rough cut ones that True Value had.
