New Seat, What a Treat - Headrests

This is the final installment of the seat reupholstering effort. I have stripped down, sanded, rust-treated and painted the original seat frames (in Part 1). Onto those frames, I have installed the seat webbing (Part 3), new hard-backs (Part 2), foams and covers (Parts 2 and 3). The seats have been installed back into the little car, with head rests, but I have not yet talked about that upholstery effort for those. I will cover that today.

Headrest Extraction

First, you need to separate the headrest from the seat. Obviously, but it's not that easy. With a convertible, moisture gets everywhere. In the Pacific Northwest, moisture gets everywhere. Add those together, and moisture truly gets everywhere. Even into the headrest tube, and enough of it to rust through chrome. My driver seat was easy, but I had to resort to these more drastic measures for the passenger seat: with the top down and the seat still bolted to the floor, stand behind the seat, place one hand on either side and lift as hard as you can. If you are lucky, it will come flying out, bang against the ceiling and not hit you in the head on the way down. If you are unlucky, you may just hurt your back, and the head rest is still stuck. Seriously, these buggers can be that stubborn. Use your best judgement, but it needs to come out to do the seats at all, so if you cannot get it free, forget about recovering your seats.

Old Cover Off
Once in hand, look at the underside of the headrest. There is a plastic strip that runs along the bottom which is held on with 2 Phillips head screws. Mine were really rusty (so I ultimately replaced them) so I needed to take care coaxing them out. If you keep yours, it may be worth soaking them in vinegar to get them rust-free Set the plastic strip aside for cleaning with dish soap and grab a thin slotted screw driver and a pair of needle-nose pliers. The plastic strip covers up staples which hold the cover on. With the screwdriver, work the staples free enough for you to grab with the needle-nose pliers and then pull the staples out. If you are not concerned about the old cover, you can tear the cover off and pull the staples afterwards. I prefer to not destroy things, but everyone is different.

With the staples out, the cover is only holding on through friction. Pull the cover and the foam off of the head rest stem. Do this whether you are reusing the foam or not. If it is original foam, I strongly encourage replacing it, though it can be hard to locate for some cars. I found the MGB headrest foams at Mirror Trim in the UK, and while the cost is a little high, it was worth not having the old foam disintegrate while installing.

Repair and Rust Treat
In my case, there was rust on the square metal head rest "head" as well as down near the bottom of the chrome post. The wood into which the staples were driven was shattered in the driver-side headrest (passenger side wood was in great shape). So, there was some repair and rust treatment needed. First, I taped off the top 3 inches of the chrome post with painters tape. This part of the post on both headrests was in decent shape, and I was opposed to painting them. Once taped, I sanded the "head" thoroughly and scuffed the rust off the chrome below the taped off section. I felt this chrome would not be seen, but needed to be clean for the head rest to work better. Then, I shot the "head" with some gloss-black Rustoleum and removed the tape. The wood strips in the driver head rest needed to be replaced, so I took one piece that was still intact and used it as a pattern. From my woodpile I found a strip of cabinet edging that was the right height and width, and cut two pieces to length. Before I started re-assembling, I cleaned the plastic strips with dish soap and found 4 Phillips head wood screws which would fit through the holes, sit flush once installed and were about the same length as the originals. I used "size 6" thickness, 3/4 inch long wood screws.

Re-Assemble

The headrest foam and cover are not uniform. Both are side specific (front and rear). The nicely tailored edge is on the edge from the front while the un-hemmed edge runs from the rear, and under the front, hemmed edge. The foam is thicker in the front than the rear, but that part is a little more obvious. Similar to stuffing a pillow into a pillowcase, stuff the foam into the cover, making sure that the corners are in the corners and the edges align with the edges. The foam is way bigger than the cover, so I used my thighs, arms, and abdomen to get the foam into the cover. Then, it was a considerable finger exercise to get everything aligned. Once set, though, you will see a slot in the foam for the "head" of the headrest to slide into. With the glossy paint, it slides right in. On the passenger head rest, I found I spent more time fiddling with the head rest post to get it at a depth I liked, but you may not have that issue, as I did not with the driver side. Shrug,

Staple and Screw
Before you grab your staple gun, I suggest that you take your nice and clean plastic strips and test fit them. Similar to the foams, the strips are not mirror-images, the rear side is thicker, but the distance from the post to the screw hole is the same on either side. So, consider where the screws will go, and then plan your staples. Remove the plastic strip, pull the rear flap forward, and under the front (hemmed) flap and hold it in place with your finger. I held it in place where the screw hole was so I would not lose track of it while stapling. Check that you are centering over the wood and place at least 1 staple on either side of the screw hole. There were 2 per side originally, so I did the same, making sure that the amount of stretch across the headrest was uniform as I did. There is a lot to keep track of in order to make it look good and lots of ways you can lose focus so it looks bad. Just do not staple until you are sure.

Once the staples are in, the hard part is over. Slide the plastic strip back into place and screw it to the "head" with rust-free screws. If you ever wanted one of those seat belt keepers (like these in the picture), now would be the time to install them. I do not like losing my seat belt, reaching around for it nor having it bang against the car when I take it off. These little plastic keepers really help, though getting access to a parcel stowed behind the seat is not as easy.

Re-Install
This should be straightforward. In my case, the seat foams were manufactured without holes for the head rests. Perhaps the seat foams were developed to span many years, including years without head rests. Regardless, If you did all-new foams like I did, you will need to find the rectangular hole with your fingers and cut the foam. Take care as you align the cover, the foam and the head rest post. Do not simply grab the chrome lip on the seat cover and push/pull. The chrome lip will easily separate from the cover if you do that. Once you find alignment, trim what little foam you need to and slide the head rest into the seat. I took an extra minute and applied some PB-Blaster brand white lithium grease to the post so it would move more freely in the future. I also applied this grease to the cleaned-to-the-steel seat rails and workings so the seat would slide forward and aft more easily. These little final touches really made a difference in the usability and perception of the seats once you were sitting down in them. I highly recommend taking the extra few minutes to apply the lithium grease.

So that's it. Over the course of about 2 days per seat, they are completely renewed. New foams, new webbing, new covers from top to bottom. The headrests are more functional, the seats tilt and move more freely. Most importantly, they are comfortable. Now that they are installed, I will either finish the wiring of the seat heat, put some effort into the amplifier for the speaker box or carpet the trunk. I will see how I feel when I get to the garage.

Thanks, as always, for following along.