TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Dec 10, 2025 1:29 pm

I need to repair the lower horizontal bar on the rear portion of my 1957 flat-back seat. There's a channel that the upholstery gets tucked into, but I'm not clear on a couple details:

* does the upholstery get clamped in any way, or is it just held in the slot by friction and hope?

Ok, I guess it was just one detail.

I was originally going to try to patch it, but I think that would be a disaster. I can get 3/4" thinwall tubing locally, which would be really close to the 20mm that the original seems to be. I don't feel this is one of those areas where it's worth the extra hassle to source the exact metric tubing.

Thoughts?

Wed Dec 10, 2025 3:30 pm

Hey Thom

I'm also in the midst of repairing my middle seat. My seat covers on my 65 2/3 middle seat had this plastic material on the end that was quite firm. This was jammed up in the tube and the tube was chrimped down slightly to close it all in. It was *very* difficult to get out and required me to gently use a long screwdriver to get it out.

Here is the material - its the white plastic..

I've not yet got new covers but will use the same technique to stuff in the material and close up the tube. I don't think you'd need to weld in new tubing you should have more than enough.

Thankfully for my project, I just found an old bug rear seat with springs+metal material to replace my rusted middle seat

Wed Dec 10, 2025 4:07 pm

What's left of my tube is ragged and paper-thin

Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:41 pm

In the hem of the rear of the middle seat cover are reinforced material strips that cause the cover to stay locked in the slot.

Both the upper and lower cover have that reinforcement. There is no other way to hold the cover in there that I'm aware of.

You might be able to slice a new tube and wrap it around the old tube and weld it in place for added strength; the slotted tube is hidden when the cover is on.

Wed Dec 10, 2025 5:48 pm

Does the reinforced hem of the seat cover slide into the slot from the side? That would make it much easier for you (and the factory) to get it in there. Or is that impossible the way the cover is constructed?

-Wade

Wed Dec 10, 2025 7:08 pm

Get as much slack as you can. It only takes a little then push the strip in. It kinda almost flips itself to form a flat tee grip

Wed Dec 10, 2025 7:59 pm

Got the first one in tonight