Technical 100HP Seat Backs

[guywarrington]

Has anyone managed to swap the drivers seat back on their Panda for the passenger one? The other day the left side bolster collapsed on mine and can feel the metal frame underneath now. It’s annoying as I’d already replaced the entire seat when I bought the car for the same reason. My only other option is to fit some after markets OMP or Recaro seats but will lose the standard look plus I’m sure where the seat belt socket would go as they’re obviously attached to the seat at present. Any ideas?

 

[Agh321]

I will be watching with interest
Because I’ve the same problem

 

[SPORTPACK50]

Me too!

 

[dac69er]

what the hell are people doing to their pandas to make the bolsters collapse? my girlfriends are perfectly ok on hers and the car has done about 125,000miles.

 

[irc]

You can repair them (foam glue and hessian, but they never seem to feel as comfortable.
If you do nothing, the covering will eventually get cut by the sharp seat edge.
The bases are an easy swap, the backs less so, but probably possible. The seat back adjuster rod is the awkward bit... not taken one apart yet, so not sure if the actual metalwork is handed or not.
Or you could remove the cover, cut and paste the good foam sides of 2 backs and reassemble.

 

[DaveMcT]

what the hell are people doing to their pandas to make the bolsters collapse? my girlfriends are perfectly ok on hers and the car has done about 125,000miles.

When getting in/out, I take my weight on the hand brake handle. That reduces scrubbing across the seat fabric. Ive done that ever since the 1980s when I had a car with velour seat covers. The "inside" seat bolster got ruined by hand pressure scrubbing the pile as I got in/out.

If you have the seat so close to the steering wheel that the frame gets forced as you get in/out, then you need to think about how you use the pedals. If larger people use the car then slide the seat back so they dont have to strain the seat when they use the car.

Many short people drive by lifting their whole leg. This tiring and gives poor car control. Legs should be fairly straight with ankles working the pedals. If your feet are too small for that, put some plywood or layers of corrugated card under a floor mat. You should not be lifting your whole leg to operate the clutch


If the seat frame is damaged you could carefully remove the seat upholstery and get the frame welded. Check costs with a trimmers.

 

[SkAtPanda]

Another option is to fit in a seat from newer Panda 312/319. Some info here.

 

[dac69er]

You should not be lifting your whole leg to operate the clutch.

Only sideshow Bob would able to achieve this!!!

Brake and accelerator fair enough, but not the clutch!

 

[DaveMcT]

Only sideshow Bob would able to achieve this!!!

Brake and accelerator fair enough, but not the clutch!

My ex had her seat rammed right up to the steering wheel she said it was the only way to reach the clutch. Not surprisingly she was painfully slow at parking into tight spaces and hill starts stressed her out. All she needed was a filler pad under the driver's side floormat then she could sit further back.

That made getting into and out of the car a lot easier (and less damaging to the seat) though she always had to slide the seat forwards and back.

 

[narbles]

Or you could remove the cover, cut and paste the good foam sides of 2 backs and reassemble.

This is what I'm interested in. I found another thread for a different model (Cinquecento) talking about how to remove the cloth which looks like it might be a similar process for the Panda 100 (sorry can't post URLs yet...).


I'd like to know more about this cutting of the foam. My bolster is off to one side with metal that you can feel. Are you suggesting getting additional foam?

 

[irc]

I repaired the driver's seat in my Panda Sporting with Hessian and foam glue after the foam split.
It was OK, but I could always notice it.
I was suggesting cutting the whole side off a scrap seat foam, and using it to replace the equivalent bit of split foam.
That way you could glue the 2 bits together somewhere less noticeable (like where the side part joins the thinner back part).
Then you wouldn't feel the repair every time you sat down, which you probably will if you just glue the split back together.
(Apologies for the rubbish description, but hope you get the idea)

 

[guywarrington]

Thanks for the info! I might give the above a go as it's really beginning to annoy me plus I heard a spring go a couple of days ago...it's not like I'm a 'heavy' guy and can only assume the seats are just poor quality. I've always said the Panda is made up of cheap materials put together very well, so might be true! I know two other people with Pandas (albeit not 100HPs) and the bolsters are the same and have less than 60k on. Weirdly it always seems to be the left shoulder one...maybe the driving position is slightly off centre (not a major surprise on any Italian car). I guess my other option is to get some half leather dark grey ones out of a 500 Sport and modify the rear bracket which might look ok. They seem more padded on those.

 

[irc]

Saw a damaged Ka with plain leather seats which would have looked OK in my Panda, but someone bought the whole car before I had the chance to make an offer on them. Not keen on having a "500" logo on my seats. Fine in a 500, naff in a Panda.
All the cloth ones I've seen are a bit "out there" for me.
Still looking...

 

[DaveMcT]

Get them repaired and reupholstered.

Push the boat out for a 500 Abarth interior -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...rth+seats.TRS0&_nkw=500+abarth+seats&_sacat=0

 

[guywarrington]

There are some plain 500 Sport seats that are half leather with like a ribbed cloth in the centre with no 500 logo. I missed out on some for £100 the other day on eBay.

 

[guywarrington]

There's some on now actually if you tap in '500 sport seats'.

 

[The Panda Nut]

The seat backs are NOT interchangeable but the foam cushions appear identical and probably are. It is quite a big job to get the cushions off the seat back frames. Seat squabs are identical and interchangeable.

 

[DaveMcT]

I suspect the foam cushions are moulded onto the metal frames. They are best repaired rather than ripped off and replaced. At least you can then see what shape the new material should be.

Covers are fitted inside out and sort of unrolled over the frame/cushion. I imagine they come off the same way.

 

[Asa James]

Yes, I’ve done it on mine. You need to strip the covers offf and swap the foams over onto the frame. I reinforced mine with tank tape and they seem slightly more supportive, have been fine for 15,000 miles and a few Trackdays.

 

[guywarrington]

I finally got round to removing the cover and yes I had two broken springs and the left should bolster had torn almost through so I set about cable tieing all the back up then just used foam adhesive to seal up the tear in the bolster with some extra cloth tape for good measure. Now the cover is back on and wet vacced it genuinely looks like a brand new seat again and far more supportive on the bolster and lower back. Recommend to anyone if you have similar. The problem of you buy a replacement seat is the same thing could happen again and even the Abarth 500 seats are essentially the same just with an integrated headrest plus they cost about a quarter of what I paid for the car!