Re-Upholstering the Honda Reflex Seat ( not including the backrest )

Transcription

1 Re-Upholstering the Honda Reflex Seat ( not including the backrest ) I bought my 2001 Honda Reflex in December, It came with the seat as shown in figure 1. Figure 1 There are ebay vendors who sell replacement seat covers for $80-90 with free shipping. As shown in figure 2, these covers are sewn from about eight separate pieces of vinyl which need to be seam sealed to be waterproof unlike the one piece OEM cover. They do include new vinyl for the backrest which is not addressed in this article. Figure 2 I decided to try to re-upholstered the seat with commonly available marine vinyl1 from Jo-Ann

2 Fabrics. The material is Black Marine Vinyl, SKU regularly priced at $16.99 for a 54 wide by one yard sheet. Only one yard is needed for this project. A search for Jo-Ann Fabrics coupon on the Internet provided a 40% off coupon so the price including sales tax came to $ The marine vinyl has a 100% polyester, textured backing. This light gray backing can be seen in figures 8, 9, and 10. The OEM Honda vinyl also has a backing with similar texture except it is a dark gray color. Imprinted into the backing of the marine vinyl is the following information, Spradling Proquinal SQTS04 PT Spradling is a US company associated with Proquinal SA a Colombian manufacturer of vinyl. I was unable to find a data sheet for this marine vinyl. The Honda OEM material is about thick but the marine vinyl is about thick. The Honda material feels like it stretches more but that may be because it is thinner. Honda's fabric was not attached with any adhesive only staples so this project also did not use adhesive. It is not necessary since the vinyl will be stretched to a very tight fit over the foam. The following three photos where taken to show how the backrest, hinge, and original seat cover are attached. Figure 3

3 Figure 4 It is very important to take note of the wrinkle pattern in the original cover as shown in figure 4 because it will be necessary to duplicate this. The height and frequency of the wrinkles is an indicator of how much excess material was taken up at that location. Figure 5 The backrest plastic guides are each held in place by a long self tapping screw shown partly unscrewed in figure 5 above and a pop-rivet which will need to drilled out.

4 Figure 6 These backrest guides do not appear to be available as spare parts online. Figure 7

5 This is the first pass at attempting to recover the seat. Figure 8 Figure 9 The material was stretched and stapled at the front and back of the seat.

6 Figure 10 The tools used were a Harbor Freight 20 gauge staple gun2 with 7/16 crown, 1/4 length staples3 and a pair of locking pliers. Small pieces of vinyl were attached to the jaws of the pliers with rubber cement to prevent marring the finish. Starting at the back, more material was stretched, held in place with the pliers and stapled as shown in figure 10 above. Figure 11

7 After the first pass, it was time to take stock of the situation and determine a strategy to overcome problems that were becoming obvious. Stretching the material and stapling at the front and back initially as shown in figure 9 was not going to work for this seat because it causes the material between the backrest position and the front hump to rise off the foam in between. It became very difficult by pulling to the sides to get the vinyl back onto the foam right were we normally sit on the seat. There was excess material in many places as shown circled in red in figure 11. In the next pass, a heat gun would be used to soften the vinyl so it could be stretched further to eliminate the excess material. Care must be used with a heat gun not to overheat the material. The heat gun can melt the vinyl. I used it only in the low heat position and heated only enough to warm the material but it did not feel hot to the touch. Figure 12 Starting at the back and working forward, the heat gun was able to eliminate all the excess material at the back. As the position of the backrest was reached, the backrest guides were reattached as shown in figure 13 using the original self tapping screws. The replacement of the guides aids substantially in pushing the vinyl down as shown in the side view of figure 14. The pop-rivets were not replaced at this point since they appear to be used mostly to prevent rotation of the guides as opposed to retention.

8 Figure 13 The results continuing to work forward are shown in figures 14 and 15 below. Figure 14

9 Figure 15 In figure 15 about 1 1/2 of excess material has still not been eliminated as shown circled in red. Heat and stretching was not quite enough to complete the job. Next pressure was applied. Figure 16 A pillow was placed over the front of the seat's underside. I put my knees on the pillow so it compressed the foam that comprises the front hump. This pressure with the use of some heat was able to eliminate the last vestiges of excess material.

10 Figure 17 The top of the seat cover is now free of wrinkles and tight against the foam beneath it. Figure 18 In figure 18 circled in red, Honda used what appears to be non-standard pop-rivets to hold the backrest guides in addition to screws. The pop-rivets measured 4.5 mm in diameter with 10 mm washers on both the front and back side. The top of these rivets can also be seen in figure 5. These pop-rivets were replaced with Chicago screws4 found at Orchard Supply shown below,

11 Figure 19 The Chicago screws have extra large heads so no 10 mm washers were needed. They cost $1.19 per pack. The female part with through hole is larger than 4.5 mm in diameter so the plastic guides shown in figure 6 where drilled out to accommodate the 3/16 threaded shank. The drill used was 13/64. These Chicago screws are aluminum so they will not rust. It is recommended that Loctite be used to secure them. 5/32 ( 4 mm ) pop-rivets could have been used without drilling out the backrest guides but Orchard Supply was out of stock. Figure 20 Figure 20 shows most of the tools used. Not shown in the photo is a pair of pliers and a flat blade screwdriver needed for removing staples. As the vinyl is stretched and tightened, earlier staples

12 need to be removed and those sections re-stretched and re-stapled. The process is iterative. Below is a close up photo of the locking pliers with vinyl pieces attached to the jaws to prevent marring the vinyl. Figure 21 Figure 22 Figure 22 shows the finished product essentially identical to the factory Honda seat cover but slightly thicker.

13 1 Jo-Ann Fabrics also sells other types of vinyl for upholstery and tablecloths, but these are intended for indoor use. Only their marine vinyl is intended for outdoor use, specifically boat cushions since it is intended to stand up to harsh sunlight and even harsher saltwater. 2 Harbor Freight SKU Commonly available for $20 or less with a coupon. 3 Harbor Freight SKU ,000 zinc plated staples for $ Made by Servalite UPC code March 28, 2013