Home > Projects > Recaro

Introduction | Seat Bolster Foam | Seat Center Foam | Backrest Foam

Through a lot of internet searching I found a company in the U.K. that sells new Recaro bolster foam for a few of the more modern seats.  One of these sets is for the Ford Escort Turbo RS and Capri and looked pretty close to the shape of the E21 sport seat so I ordered a complete set of 6 pieces to replace all the bolsters on both seats.  Since these pieces are not an exact match I knew I needed to replace all the bolsters so the seats at least match each other.  Otherwise is would be obvious that a couple of pieces do not quite match the original.

The company is Capital Seating and they offer a pretty wide range of Recaro repair parts.  The company accepts Paypal or bank transfer.  All payments are in Pounds.  Capital Seating was always prompt and polite when replying to inquiries I emailed them, but they did not contact me when my order was delayed due to one of the pieces I ordered being on backorder.  I would recommend following up on any transactions to ensure you have the latest information about your order's status.

The exact parts I ordered were:

• 0515072300    Bolster Foam - Left Hand
• 0515082300    Bolster Foam - Right Hand
• 0530001100    Outer Backrest Foam - I ended up not using this piece

About 8 weeks after placing the order my parts arrived in 2 packages.  Shipping from the U.K. was about £35.  Not cheap but this is the only source I have found for these parts.  It only took about 10 days to get the pieces once they shipped, the rest of the time was waiting on the backordered parts.

Here is one set of 3 pieces to redo one seat.  The backrest foam appeared to be an almost perfect match.  The seat bolsters will require more extensive modification to match the originals.

Seat Bolster Foam

The seat bolsters are not an exact match and will require modification.  The thick part of the bolster is only about half as deep as the E21 seat's bolster.  I will be picking up some high density foam and extending the bolster to match the shape of the original.  The pocket for the bolster support is also only about half as long as needed.  I could have attempted to fabricate these parts from scratch but they are a relatively complicated shape and my fabrication skills are not good enough for me to be happy with the results.  Modifying an existing piece should be easier.

The bolster on the new piece is only about half as deep as the original. This will need to be built up. Overall length, width, height are the same.	View of the inside of the old and new pieces. Except for the depth of the bolster, it is a pretty good match.	Width of the new and old pieces are similar. The top of the new piece needs to be built up a little and made more rounded to match the original.	New piece layed on top of the old to show the shape of the area that needs to be built up.

Before starting to cut the foam I created a set of jigs to help me hold the foam and create consistent cuts on all four pieces.

I traced the shape of one of the original bolster covers on a piece of heavy cardboard. I then traced the shape of the new bolster foam to create a template of the material to be added.	I squared off the shape of the piece to add. This made gluing the pieces together easier.	The sides of two cutting templates created from the original tracing.
I stapled the cardboard to a board of the proper width to create a cutting jig for the foam pieces.	A picture of the new bolster foam in its cutting jig. These jigs will allow for consistent cuts to be made on all four pieces.	Another view of the ne bolster in its cutting jig. This view shows the material that will be cut off.

Then the main filler pieces and the bolsters were cut using the jigs.  The filler piece was cut from 4 inch thick high density foam.  This is wider than the bolster and provides plenty of access material for shaping the filler piece later.  An electric carving knife works really well for cutting and shaping this foam.

Cutting the main filler pieces. The cardboard jig and the electric carving knife work really well for this.	All four main filler pieces cut out.	Cutting the bolster foam to accept the main filler piece.	The main filler piece sitting on the modified bolster. The filler piece will be shaped after gluing the pieces together.

After cutting the bolsters to shape in the jig, I then trimmed the bottoms of the bolsters to fit the seat frame.  The biggest modification was to lengthen the slot where the bolster support on the seat frame goes.

The slots in the new bolsters needed to be cut to fit the bolster support of the seat frame. The bottom edge of the bolster also needed to be trimmed to better fit the seat frame.	A view of the bottom of the modified bolsters. Notice the longer slots.	Modified bolsters now fit to the seat frame and ready for gluing the main filler pieces.	Another view of the test fit of the bolsters.

The two pieces were then glued together using contact cement.  This was a mistake as the contact cement was soaked up by the foam.  I went though most of the can simply gluing these pieces together.  This amount of cement resulted in a thick stiff seam in the foam that was very easy to feel through the bolster cover.  To correct this mistake I ended up trimming the bolster in such a way as I was able to lay other pieces of foam to cover up and pad these stiff seams.

Regular contact cement was used to glue the main filler piece onto the bolster. If I had to do this job again I would use a spray adhesive.	After the pieces were glued together the slot for the bolster support was cut into the filler piece.	The glued together pieces installed on the seat frame. The next step was to trim the filler piece to shape.	Another view showing some layout lines to guide cutting the filler piece.

If you look at the pictures at the top of the page showing the new and old bolsters next to each other you will notice that the new bolster is not as rounded on the top as the original.  I shaped the filler piece to conform to this more angular shape to allow me to glue an additional filler piece to round out the bolster top.  This filler helped cover a major portion of the glue seam.  For this work I used a spray adhesive that worked much better than contact cement.  The entire bolster was than wrapped in 1/2 inch thick foam to further hide the glue seams and fill out the bolster.

A 1 inch thick piece of foam was placed on the bolster to help round the shape to match the originals. This piece also helps cover and hide a big part of the original glue seam.	Final shaping of the bolsters. A test fit of the bolster cover showed that there was still need for a little more padding.	The bolsters were wrapped with 1/2 inch thick foam. This filled out the bolster and also helped to further hide the original glue seam.	Another view showing the finished bolster foams.

I test fit of one of the original covers went very well.  The outer 1/2 inch foam wrapping is pretty much fully compressed by the cover and gives a nice smooth filled out feel that also hides the heavy glue seam.

Seat Center Foam

The foam for the center section of the seat was in pretty good shape.  It was a little broken down on the bottom from the seat straps wearing on it and it was also a little compressed in the middle.  I refurbished this piece by adding a half inch layer of new foam on the top and reinforcing the bottom with a piece of burlap.

Top of center cushion foam. A little compressed but still solid.	Bottom of center cushion. A little broken down and one tear along the rear edge (right side of picture) caused by seat frame.	I added a half inch of high density foam to build up the cushion to its original thickness.	A layer of burlap glued to the bottom will reinforce the bottom of the piece.

Backrest Foam

I thought the backrest foam was a really close match to the original.  You can see from the pictures below that it looked really similar.  I ran into trouble though when I tried to install the new covers onto the seat backs.  It is not very obvious from these pictures but the new bolsters are about 1 inch narrower than the original and also about 1 inch taller that the original.

Bottom view of the new backrest foam next to the original. The shape is nearly identical.	Top view of the new backrest foam. Again, the shape is nearly identical to the original.	Side view comparison of the new and old foam. The new foam might need to be trimmed a little on the side to match the original.	New foam test fit on the seat back frame.

There are a few subtle changes that need to be made to get the new foam to fit the backrest frame.  The slot in the lower sides needs to be trimmed a little and a slot needs to be added across the top of the foam.

Original foam mounting slot on the lower side. Notice is is straight.	New foam mounting slot on the lower side. This needs to be trimmed to straighten out that curved portion of the slot.	Original foam top mounting slot. Notice the horizontal slot across the top to receive the lip on the upper rear seat frame.	New foam does not have the required horizontal slot. This will need to be added.

I decided to not use these new back pieces.  I repaired the outside bolster on the original with some glue, burlap, and some new foam.  Ordering these back pieces was a pretty expensive mistake.  Oh well, live and learn...