My friends drivers seatback bolster is broken. Just wondering if the drivers and passenger seatbacks are interchangeable without any major modification. Its an autox car, and sliding out of the seat on right turns is annoying. Thanks in advance.

 

Covers are the same, Foam needs a notch on the side of the tilt lever mechanism, frame has the tilt lever on the opposite side. I can provide you with a picture of my fix as I just did that for top and bottom of my seats which, ironically, I cannot use in my hatch as the rails do not fit.

 

I read a DIY somewhere out there that made everything back to normal with the handles on the right sides.

It was alot of work, but any efer knows its worth it.

 

I busted the left driver's bolster on my '89 Civic DX hbk. Not only are the levers opposite, so are the ratchets/teeth that hold the seatback in position so you could not swap a left seatback for right. Maybe a whole seat with rails and all. Also, '90s had a entirely different seat on the Civics even though they looked the same from the top. They were made opposite of the '89s so watch out if you go salvage yard shopping. I suppose the difference is because my '89 was made in Japan and '90s were made in Canada. Must have bought seats from different venders. I never did find a seat to use. They were either wrong or already broken.

 

Yeah, I was referring to 89 CRX SI seats I bought for swap. But it just makes sense that both back support and seat frames differ. BTW, blkb18, what do you have, hatch or CRX? I ended up swapping foam and covers. Only problem now is that I did not pay attention to alignment of cover as I was attaching it and it looks kinda crooked. Silly since aesthetics was the reason for this project...

BTW. If you decide to patch your own foam instead of swapping (in your case if it is just a bolster that would be the quickest option as you do not even have to take the entire cover off), and your bolster is ripped to the frame and not ripped off or completely worn out - I would recommend glueing extra foam in - it is easier to retain shape this way. I tried cutting replacement chunk and swapping it, and it was not as easy. One more thing, I used both Bostik contact cement, and 3M spray on adhesive - and they both left hardened glueing surfaces which you can feel through fabric. Think how you gonna glue things and what kind of glue should you use.


Modified by radex7 at 11:33 PM 9/21/2008

 

Its a 89 hatch. I will have to take off the seatback cover and take a closer look. It feels like the actual bolster support is broken, not just missing/torn foam. Thanks for all your input.

 

I kept banging the bolster with my hip while getting in and bending the bar inside the seatback, I would bend it straight again, eventually it broke and dropped out. Then it really had no support. Another model(CRX I think) had heavier bars in the bolsters.