Hi Ron. Ideally the seat cushion foams come to within half an inch of the pan
clip flange, with the rear edge of the foam having a bit of a forward taper.
This should meet a similar inwards angle on the seat back foam at its bottom
edge.
The idea is always to CLOSE THE GAP ! Nothing worse than looking at a
beautifully restored car with every little screw and harness tag in place, but
with a huge gap between cushion and seat back that you could lay a salami
into. The factory trimmers resorted to all kinds of measures to fudge the gap
closed. My "museum" of factory original seats shows single or double strips
of Karvel carpet between the foam cushion and seat pan, as well as extra
dollops of cotton wadding between the top of the cushion and the cover pleats
at the back, all to close up the gap. You don't want to see the seat clips
like a row of bad teeth when you look down at your lovely newly trimmed
seats.
So basically you need to do whatever is necessary to close the gap. Add
strips of half inch foam using spray glue to the rear of the cushion foam to
build it up and bring it back towards the flange, add foam or wadding to the
top of the cushion at the back, or add stuffing between pan and cushion to
raise it slightly until it meets the curve of the seat back snugly. Don't be
afraid to take your electric carving knife to modify the cushion foam in
whatever way necessary. Its all fiddle and try.
The roadster seats used a great deal more wadding than the convertible seats,
which went to thin sheet foam for padding. This resulted in the earlier seats
having a "pudgy" slightly less uniform appearance, depending on how liberal an
individual trimmer was with the cotton wadding. The horseshoes on Healey
cushions were never really deep and pronounced, with original seats having a
somewhat "flattish" look.
Just out of interest, another heavily-fudged trim area is the gap betweeen the
two rear seat pans towards the front, where one can often find several sample
strips of unfaded original Karvel carpet underneath the surface, put there by
the factory trimmers to close the gap.
Best regards
Peter
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