The seat cushion side bolster seemed to be soft and unsupportive on the outer driver’s seat. With 172,000 miles on the vehicle, it seemed like a repair might be a good idea.
The basic process is to remove and disassemble the seat. Remove the cover from the cushion and then cut out areas that are degraded and softer than they should be. I had a spare cushion from another vehicle that I could cut up and use “parts” from. The primary piece was then glued in and fabric glued above and below the splice to give additional support and strength to the repair. I used 3M Insulation Spray Adhesive 78 to hold things together. The donor bolster was not from the same type of vehicle and there is usually some trimming required to match the old cushion’s contours.
The repair took longer than I expected it would, but I think the results were quite good and should last a long time. A new cushion was available for about $200 and would have required the same amount of disassembly and reassembly. The donor cushion was free and the additional time to cut out and splice the old cushion was the only real difference in procedure.
