Hay #tora57mitch here aka John I am in the process of reupholstering a set of C4 sport buckets seats and the lumbar bladder from the factory was nothing but a bunch of plastics pieces
Works like a charm. Ordered the Contec brand single tube adult and child sizesl off Ebay. Use the the vendor that is in Illinois. Plan on buying the 3/16 connector fittings for each bladder. I got mine at Ace Hardware.. Each seat was about $35 and took about an hour.
Very good instruction video, I will order the bladders on Ebay ( Good suggestion ! ) and install them in my 1999 Corvette C5 many thanks ! Need 2 pieces of 23.5 * 13.1 cm and 2 pieces 18 * 9.8 cm as shown in your video.
Yes, on Ebay the bladders are very cheap. I like the ones with the nylon sheaths. There is Velcro attached to the nylon sheaths that I used for the installation. Good luck with your project.
RUclips fiberglass repair. There will be a video to walk you through the basics and beng this isn't a visual repair, just structural, the finish work will not be nearly as intense. I would add some small strips of some sort of sheet metal epoxied to each side of your seat (on the inside, across each side of the break)to get it in postion to hold the broken pieces into place and allow that to set up. Nothing major just use some tin snips and cut some 1"x 3"(or what ever your area allows, I see it is broken in different places, not a straight line) out of some thin sheetmetal, could use like popcorn tin ( that everyone gives the 3 types of popcorn in at Christmas) or something of the like. You aren't looking for steel reinforcement, just something that when placed across the crack in 5 or so areas down the bolster wing across the crack, will create extra rigidity before appling the layers of fiberglass over the damaged area. The further you make the stips connect horizontallly the stronger your repair will be (but also the more glass work you wil need to do).Be sure to sand and prep the tin the same as the rest of the area you are going to be adding the fiber glass to, so that everything will bond well. These strips will also help prevent future breaks as this is obviosly a high stress/weak point. You might look on EBAy for the seat backs, this won't be a 5 minute fix and if you could find just the portion you need for your seat by the time you buy the fiberglass, gel, and hardener, sandpaper etc... (you get the idea) you may come out about the same money. But you may never find just that portion as well. But I am guessing you are a guy that takes pride in having fixed it himself and this isn't an expensive fix, just a little time consuming. I hope this helps you as much as your video helped me with my old poorly designed lumbar and bolster support.! Great and informative video BTW! Thanks for you help and insight.
Thanks very much for your suggestions and ideas on my fiber glass seat repair. I believe I understand all you are talking about. I have not considered both metal support elements and fiber glass. I will have to look into how to do fiber glass repair. I am sure I can figure it out. May do a video on the repair. I am happy my video helped with your lumbar supports in your Vette.
I did the fiberglass repair with a $20 Bondo kit. I didn't add any metal sheets, but used 3 layers of fiberglass. While it was still wet, I smoothed all the edges so I wouldnt have to sand it. Just be prepared for a strong smell while it's curing! I tried to get away with doing it in my basement while I was replacing my leather seats, and got in trouble with the wife.
In the video, go do time location 12:30. At that point you can see that I am using Adult and Child blood pressure cuffs. There may also be item ID or Model ID shown printed on the outer nylon coverings. I hope this helps.
Thanks for your help with the C5 seat air bladder repair in 2024 sir! You've done the Corvette community a great service!
Hi Sir, believe it or not your video are helping me in 2021, I have this issues on my 1998 C5, this video help me a lot to this repair.
Thank you!
Hay #tora57mitch here aka John I am in the process of reupholstering a set of C4 sport buckets seats and the lumbar bladder from the factory was nothing but a bunch of plastics pieces
Works like a charm. Ordered the Contec brand single tube adult and child sizesl off Ebay. Use the the vendor that is in Illinois. Plan on buying the 3/16 connector fittings for each bladder. I got mine at Ace Hardware.. Each seat was about $35 and took about an hour.
Excellent! That's the idea. I think this repair is better than the OEM bladders.
Darn good video on repairing the C5 sport seats, many thanks to you!
I would fiberglass your broken seat. Pretty easy. Could also use epoxy resin and fiberglass tape
Great idea. You can use plastic sheets they use for gun holsters. You can shape them with heat and glue them on to those wings.
Very good instruction video, I will order the bladders on Ebay ( Good suggestion ! ) and install them in my 1999 Corvette C5 many thanks
! Need 2 pieces of 23.5 * 13.1 cm and 2 pieces 18 * 9.8 cm as shown in your video.
Yes, on Ebay the bladders are very cheap. I like the ones with the nylon sheaths. There is Velcro attached to the nylon sheaths that I used for the installation. Good luck with your project.
Goddammit... You said infant size at the beginning of the video so I bought those. At the end you show us it's actually child size.
Actually, infant size cuffs are closer in size to the original bladders. I used child size, but infant will work as well.
RUclips fiberglass repair. There will be a video to walk you through the basics and beng this isn't a visual repair, just structural, the finish work will not be nearly as intense. I would add some small strips of some sort of sheet metal epoxied to each side of your seat (on the inside, across each side of the break)to get it in postion to hold the broken pieces into place and allow that to set up. Nothing major just use some tin snips and cut some 1"x 3"(or what ever your area allows, I see it is broken in different places, not a straight line) out of some thin sheetmetal, could use like popcorn tin ( that everyone gives the 3 types of popcorn in at Christmas) or something of the like. You aren't looking for steel reinforcement, just something that when placed across the crack in 5 or so areas down the bolster wing across the crack, will create extra rigidity before appling the layers of fiberglass over the damaged area. The further you make the stips connect horizontallly the stronger your repair will be (but also the more glass work you wil need to do).Be sure to sand and prep the tin the same as the rest of the area you are going to be adding the fiber glass to, so that everything will bond well. These strips will also help prevent future breaks as this is obviosly a high stress/weak point. You might look on EBAy for the seat backs, this won't be a 5 minute fix and if you could find just the portion you need for your seat by the time you buy the fiberglass, gel, and hardener, sandpaper etc... (you get the idea) you may come out about the same money. But you may never find just that portion as well. But I am guessing you are a guy that takes pride in having fixed it himself and this isn't an expensive fix, just a little time consuming. I hope this helps you as much as your video helped me with my old poorly designed lumbar and bolster support.! Great and informative video BTW! Thanks for you help and insight.
Thanks very much for your suggestions and ideas on my fiber glass seat repair. I believe I understand all you are talking about. I have not considered both metal support elements and fiber glass. I will have to look into how to do fiber glass repair. I am sure I can figure it out. May do a video on the repair. I am happy my video helped with your lumbar supports in your Vette.
I did the fiberglass repair with a $20 Bondo kit. I didn't add any metal sheets, but used 3 layers of fiberglass. While it was still wet, I smoothed all the edges so I wouldnt have to sand it. Just be prepared for a strong smell while it's curing! I tried to get away with doing it in my basement while I was replacing my leather seats, and got in trouble with the wife.
Any links you can share as to the exact bladders you used for this?
In the video, go do time location 12:30. At that point you can see that I am using Adult and Child blood pressure cuffs. There may also be item ID or Model ID shown printed on the outer nylon coverings. I hope this helps.
Exactly what am I ordering on eBay? Bp air bags or the whole blood pressure monitor kit?
The bags alone without the kit are very cost effective, a couple of dollars each. Good luck with your project.
Buy only the blood pressure bladders, not the kit. For each seat, you will need two of each size. I hope this helps.
Did you use single tube cuffs on all
Yes, all the cuffs had only one tube each.