My 1958 500N rear seat is bascially a sheet of foam covered in Vinyl. This is the case for both the bottom and back support. I'll be replacing the covers soon and came across a photo of the rear seat in a 500F, looked to be steel framed with springs. Anyone know if this what my 500N should have? Hoping i'm not missing the rear seat.

The rear seat in my F has a wooden base the steel part is on the back rest of the rear seat as apparently it could be used as heavy equipment carrier but it's not a steel frame just a strip that stops things from rolling forward I guess. Surely if your rear seat has a ply wood base then you are with a rear seat. I'm sure there will be someone on here who could answer more accurately but I'm all for trying.

mimmo said:

My 1958 500N rear seat is bascially a sheet of foam covered in Vinyl. This is the case for both the bottom and back support. I'll be replacing the covers soon and came across a photo of the rear seat in a 500F, looked to be steel framed with springs. Anyone know if this what my 500N should have? Hoping i'm not missing the rear seat.

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Hi mimmo and welcome to the list.

When the original 479cc Nuova 500 went on the market it was not well received as it was very basic in both fit out and performance. The car was quickly revised and relaunched as the Normale and Sport versions. Later came the D, F (don't know what happened to the E), R/L and 126.

The rear seat in the pre-Ds was very basic and I quote verbatum from a couple of sources -

"The rear seat consists of a foam rubber cushion and back. Seat back is cemented to rear floor and body shell bulkhead. Rear seat lining is of fabric and imitation leather, and includes also a masonite floor which is fitted below the back window. The seat lining is held in place by four self-threading screws, two of which secure the floor below back window and two the lining at back bottom."
From Fiat New 500 Shop Manual

and the caption to the photo below

"Light and comfortable seats tilt forward to let extra passengers or large quantities of luggage into the unpadded rear."
From The Motor Road Test No. 34 (1957).
The photo was taken from the article and is not of great quality - sorry.

The rear seats in the Fs were properly constructed with metal frames and springs then padded and covered. The upright was secured using a rubber strap and could be folded down to accommodate luggage.

Hope this helps. It would seem that what you currently have is original.
If you wish, I'll have a bit more of a dig around and see if I can find better images.

Merry Xmas,
Chris

Wow, thanks guys. bambino , no need to dig up more pics, you gave me more than enough info, thanks. Glad i'm not missing anything. Cant believe Motor trend ...."light and comfortable seats..." thats a stretch.

My 1958 500N rear seat is basically a sheet of foam covered in Vinyl. This is the case for both the bottom and back support.

Click to expand...

That's exactly the way mine was (1959 500 N, also USA version). The bottom foam was about 2"-3" thick, closed cell foam. The back maybe a bit thinner. I'm not at my home computer right now, so don't have any of my pics, but I'll see what I have in the way of pre-dismantle shots. It didn't look quite like your pic, and I haven't gotten to the point of re-doing the interior yet.

Thanks, I will post pics when i get started on the seat upholstery, should be in a few weeks. In the process of wet sanding the paint job that took place more than 10 years ago. what a pain.

Are the seat covers the same in terms of quality from all the popular suppliers out there, like ricambi, mr fiat , etc??

Here are a couple of pictures of my 1959 500 N rear seat area. Doesn't show too much, but there was a felt mat underlayment, topped by the closed cell foam seat and back. My notes indicate that the seat back was .75 to 1" thick. The bottom was sculpted foam, about 2.75" thick at the front edge, 1.25" thick at the rear edge.