[Robby04ZX5]

Hey guys, this is a strange question... In my wife's car (she has a ZX3) her drivers seat back is SLIGHTLY bent. Looks like someone may have been frequently grabbing it from the back seat to exit out the passenger door. At any rate, I was wondering if there was ANY way to fix it. Most people I've talked to say just get a junkyard seat, but 1) I'd like to fix it if I could, and 2) she has an amazing black interior where the door panels match the seats and I don't want to mess up the look. Her's definitely wins the looks contest over mine. Let me know guys, thanks!

 

[thenorm]

take the seat apart to see the problem.
the upholstry is held on by hog rings. cut them with some side cutters.
if it is unrepairable, then put your seat cover on a junk yard seat frame.
if you dont have hog pliers to reattach the cover., you can use zip ties.

 

[cbdallas]

I bought a 1990 Sentra years ago and discovered that the seat was so uncomfortable because the right side of the seatback was leaning further back than the left side. I can only assume some really "stout" guy made a habit of reaching into the back seat.

I moved the seatback to a more upright position, got in the back seat, wedged my right foot against the top right side of the seat back and bent it back to where it belonged.

 

[felixthecat]

I've had to reweld my seat back a few yrs ago, squeaky seat back & found where the welds were undone.

 

[Robby04ZX5]

Wow, you guys have all been very helpful, thanks so much!

Thenorm, thanks for the how to! If I DO end up going with a junkyard seat, this is going to be REAL helpful!! The seat DOES have a pretty bad tear on the front near the adjustment lever, but I can figure something out, maybe resew it or something.

Cbdallas, I've tried pulling it from the front but I've never tried pushing from the back! I'm a little worried about breaking it further, but I MAY give it a shot, I'll just start easy on it. Thanks!

Felixthecat, a friend of mine told me it was possible that a weild could have let loose. He seemed to think it wouldn't be worth fixing if that were the case and suggested just trying to find a junk yard seat.

Thanks again for all the help, really got me past my limited thinking on the issue!!

 

[amc49]

If the seat back is further back on the side toward console then the classic seat back fail these do. The welds crack apart from the extremely thin sheetmetal used there. The weld does not crack, rather the metal next to it. The seat reclines but anchored only on the driver side, as driver gets in car he normally leans back on the inboard side to center himself up to plop properly in place centered in seat. The entire seat back stresses at that corner and the bottom opposite side down by reclining handle since one side of seat is firmly supported and the other simply floats in space. Can be rewelded but commonly may be as many as 10-15 cracks there. Junkyard seats will commonly be broken same as well, I looked long and hard before I found one with only one small crack to reweld it to go in mine. The seat back cover simply unsnaps but a fit getting the back of it loose where it ducks in deep about 2/3 up, that one will test your patience and seat cover is junk if you wreck that plastic bar. It goes on super easy but made to be very hard to get off. The hog rings are easy and you may even find yourself gluing up foam as it tends to tear the pad apart when the seat starts warping. Common for the inboard edge of foam to tear loose from the rest of pad.

These give on one side because broken; no way will you be rebending that back right. It may do so but you just broke it more and right back where you were before but worse. I say that after cutting maybe 20 apart in the yards.

 

[Robby04ZX5]

If the seat back is further back on the side toward console then the classic seat back fail these do. The welds crack apart from the extremely thin sheetmetal used there. The weld does not crack, rather the metal next to it. The seat reclines but anchored only on the driver side, as driver gets in car he normally leans back on the inboard side to center himself up to plop properly in place centered in seat. The entire seat back stresses at that corner and the bottom opposite side down by reclining handle since one side of seat is firmly supported and the other simply floats in space. Can be rewelded but commonly may be as many as 10-15 cracks there. Junkyard seats will commonly be broken same as well, I looked long and hard before I found one with only one small crack to reweld it to go in mine. The seat back cover simply unsnaps but a fit getting the back of it loose where it ducks in deep about 2/3 up, that one will test your patience and seat cover is junk if you wreck that plastic bar. It goes on super easy but made to be very hard to get off. The hog rings are easy and you may even find yourself gluing up foam as it tends to tear the pad apart when the seat starts warping. Common for the inboard edge of foam to tear loose from the rest of pad.

These give on one side because broken; no way will you be rebending that back right. It may do so but you just broke it more and right back where you were before but worse. I say that after cutting maybe 20 apart in the yards.

A LOT of good info, thanks! Well this is leaning me toward another option I was thinking about, aftermarket seats. I've had a few cars in the past I've modified in different ways, but I never got into interior modding. Are there any decent (and affordable) aftermarket seats? I've seen "universal" aftermarket seats but that kind of scares me since I'm looking to keep the factory position (more or less) and ability to move the seat. Anyone here have experience with aftermarket seats??