We panic bought foam! (Uk) due to apparent shortage of chemicals used to make it. Now feeling that we’ve been done by some clever marketing and higher delivery prices

At the beginning of every project , we tell customers that we make foams on the firm side to achieve a good finish and provide longevity due to softening. I think when you start the conversation this way , fussy customers are far more receptive. Your not pulling the wool over their eyes as it’s just a fact that the firmer the foam , the better the finish. If you look at modern seats , they are like concrete but are designed so well with regards to shape/lumbar etc that they are comfortable I have to admit that it’s hard to achieve Ergonomic comfort in a lot of classic Americans due to cabin size and layout, I guess it’s up to us to get this point across. We always push the point that the softer(more comfortable!) we make it, the less crisp it will look over a period of time . I think that’s a fair and genuine approach.
We’ve never done it ourselves but I’ve seen people cut holes out of the base and used webbing I guess to add softness/bounce . I would imagine that holes by themselves would only act like breathers ( which is no bad thing!) and aid the cover to return but without adding softness which you require.

Yep we’re not far away in Farnborough fire away if you need anything

Your right , we found the product through aviation work which is 70% of our business. I guess we just have to find the customers who are happy to pay for good materials. Sometimes we take the hit ourselves just to make the job easier and for piece of mind . We find it really hard to find customers in the U.K. who want to put money into a nice interior (for their American) it’s a shame as I see our American Friends doing incredible work but as we all know it takes time/money .

Agree with my pal Gareth on this ☝️ To this day we have never used backing tape on anything. I’ve seen jobs we’ve done that are so old (15+years)the Leather has worn through before the seams have split in high use seating, let alone dash panels that are bonded and little to no stress.

We use Kydex. Not sure about shipping prices but the 2mm is a great product for door cards etc. Deals well with heat and doesn’t react with the adhesives we use . Also can be machined through with a decent thumper. It’s quite pricey but so far haven’t found a better product. We tried Boltaron which seemed good but reacted badly after time with our adhesives. That’s not a knock on the product but just didn’t work well for our way of attempting to use it.

Hi Cody, just thought I’d chime in on your question about the top stitch on the center triangle section. We would always leave the seam (on) for top stitching as it gives a much more stable surface for your foot to sew on. If you are using scrim on your fillers we cut the first outer stitch on the inside and trim back the foam first (reducing bulk). Then once you have top stitched you can trim back the salvage at this point. When it comes to a point(triangle part on your seat) you can mitre the seam prior to the top stitch so as to avoid any pinching of layers underneath. Hope this is of help and makes sense with my long winded explanation As a side note to this way of doing it , we find that this has the opposite effect to what you are trying to avoid (Fat bulky looking top Stitch) so depends on what you are going for.