How-To Remove / Replace Seat Cushion 03-06 Front Seat

[Sgt Jarhead]

A picture is worth a thousand words… or something like that.

Here’s a breakdown with some photographs on removing the driver side (the steps are identical for the passenger side seat).

Quick Tip: you might have to slide the seat forward or back to have a better angle to reach some of the plastic inserts.

Tools used to remove the seat:
13mm socket
T50 bit socket
Ratchet
13mm ratcheting wrench

The T50bit/13mm sockets and ratchet were used to remove the two bolts behind the seat while the ratcheting wrench was used to remove the two bolts to the front seat.

*Might need to use penetrating fluid pending how difficult the bolts are.

Tools used to remove the cover/foam seat:

Cutting Pliers
90* Pick

Once the seat is off you’ll remove the plastic insert at the front of the seat. I grabbed a handful of the material from the base of the seat and pulled towards the plastic insert and using the 90* pick pulled the plastic insert off.

Using the same method, locate the plastic inserts on each side of the seat inbetween the seat base and foam seat:

At this point you can pull up the seat cover starting at the front and cut the hog rings 2 at a time as you move your way to the back. You’ll find 3 hog rings on each side 6 total all marked in red arrows. You’ll notice the hog rings are wrapped around a long wire that’s attached to the seat cover giving the cover a tight fit to the foam seat, keep this in mind when it comes time for the installation of the new hog rings with foam seat.

The blue arrow indicated a strip of Velcro that’s attached to the seat base. Carefully remove the felt from the seat against the Velcro.

While working the seat cover back you’ll have to work around the seat belt and lever. I ended up removing the plastic inserts found at each side towards the back of the seat (only took photos of one side):

Finally there’s the large plastic insert found at the back which likely took me the longest trying to reach it with the 90* pick through the seat base and again pulling the material towards the plastic insert:

At this point the foam seat should be able to be easily removed:

 

[Sgt Jarhead]

***Prior to installation, multiple forum members had mentioned removing four 13mm bolts surrounding the metal base attached to the seat risers after removing all the plastic inserts found around the seats. Removing the metal base from the risers make the installation of the new foam seat much easier. Or to take it a step further removing additional bolts to remove the entire back seat. I’ll leave this up to you though my instructions are with only the removal of the seat cover.***


Now you would replace the old foam seat with the one supplied from Summit Racing and put it back together with the following tools:

Hog Ring Tool (or long flat nose pliers though can be more difficult)
Hog Rings (a small bag on 10 were supplied by Summit)

The reason hog ring pliers are much easier is the way the hog rings sit into the pliers and close onto itself compared to using flat nose pliers that could potentially make the hog rings go flying when attempting to close them.

Another quick tip on the use of the hog ring pliers while watching a YouTube clip on its use. The gentleman advised using a rubber band to assist in holding the hog ring in place while working to installing the seat cover back onto the new foam seat. With no rubber bands in sight I opted for the next best thing, my wife’s hair tie.

You would start by putting the new foam towards the back of the metal base until the lip of the foam seat is sitting over the metal base as shown.

Next I suggest you remove this clip (marked with a red arrow) before you put the plastic insert from the rear seat back in place. It seems to get in the way/make it a bit more difficult with it remaining in place. You would use the same method of pulling the seat cover toward the direction of where the insert would go. At this point the plastic clip you removed can go back in.

You would then begin putting the hog rings to the foam seat. This is done by running the hog ring through the metal
wire from the seat cover first (there should be a slit in the seat cover that the wire runs through, which should fall directly in place with an exposed wire on the foam seat) followed by pushing the hog rings straight down to the wire attached to the foam seat and closing the hog ring pliers until the hog ring wraps both the wire to the seat cover and foam seat. You will feel like you’re fighting the seat cover pretty damn hard to get them onto the foam seat. You’ll do this working each side one at time. Towards the end do not forget to put the strip of felt from the cushion back onto the new strip of Velcro on the seat cushion. I noted the seat cushion from summit allows 8 total hog rings to go on.

At this point you can put on the plastic inserts from each side of the foam seat that go inbetween the seat base and foam seat.

Followed by the two rear plastic inserts on each side of the back seat.

And finally, pull the seat cover of the front of the foam seat and the plastic insert back into place. You will likely be pulling and tugging to get it on, don’t be afraid to fight it a bit.

You’re done! Now to put it back onto your rig and enjoy the new heightened bolstering and no longer sliding out of your seat.

 

[LJtobey]

Nice write-up! Thanks for doing this. I removed my seat and seat cushion today. I could have used this. My seat cover needs a repair in the fabric near to seat back recliner lever. So it is getting repaired at my local upholstery shop. I’m going to have them install the new foam and the cover. I should have it back on Wednesday.

 

[tr21triton]

great write up Sgt Jarhead, thank you for taking the extra time to take pics !

 

[Joe Blogs]

Great write-up. I just did the same job today.
I think I screwed up somewhere along the line because I can't get the seat to roll and tumble after I completed the cushion replacement. I must've disconnected something along the way. This means I can't get at the back two bolts to secure the seat in place. Everything else is fine but it's just her in place with two bolts instead of four because I can't get at them without the ability to roll and tumble the seat.

Any suggestions?

 

[Joe Blogs]

Great write-up. I just did the same job today.
I think I screwed up somewhere along the line because I can't get the seat to roll and tumble after I completed the cushion replacement. I must've disconnected something along the way. This means I can't get at the back two bolts to secure the seat in place. Everything else is fine but it's just her in place with two bolts instead of four because I can't get at them without the ability to roll and tumble the seat.

Any suggestions?

Disregard. I found the little lever under the seat. I don't know why I didn't see it yesterday but it jumped out at me as soon as I looked at it today. Job done.

I did notice when I removed the seat covers that the material is very worn and won't last much longer so I ordered a set of new Bartact seat covers today.

 

[Sgt Jarhead]

Thank you guys for the feedback. I’ve learned so much thanks to this forum. I’m glad I was able to give back to the community even if it’s just a smidge!