Seat Fabric

[krwalsh]

Ultrasuede meets the California fire standards. I have a roll of about 10 yards of Ultrasuede Ambiance in Sand 3584 color that I was going to use. It doesn't match the interior color (Zolatone Desert Camo) that we're using, so I'm going with a different color. If you're interested I'd sell it for $10/yard which is what I paid for it.

[koda2]

Appreciate the offer but the color won't work with the interior color I painted the plane.
I have a lead (maybe) on some simulated leather vinyl from a trim shop that is closing out.

Dave A.
6A

[Junglepilot]

I digress, but what about the seat cushions? These will melt and make a mess of your backside irregardless of the seat cover material. Jus' sayin'

About materials though...

Our base was required to do our own fire tests on seat fabrics [in a safety meeting]. Seat cover, head liner and panel vinyl from our fleet of Cessna 206's.

While there is a difference between "approved" fabrics no doubt, wasn't a lightyears difference over that of good grade automotive fabric. Pure cotton was best however. But that should not be a "duhhh" surprise. I considered denim (and've seen it on others). Would seem a heavy denim would be good alternative. Tie-dye the fabric first and you'll get noticed for sure;-)

Interestingly however, the wife of one of our pilot's pulled out of his closet some baby blue bell bottoms ala Saturday Night Fever [disco pants-100% polyester].

He was a gentleman when he discovered we'd found him out & allowed us the opportunity to put them rest in the welding shop (where we did our burn tests). He just said "Leave the gun...get the cannolis".

They went up like a summer day in Hiroshima! Woof and they were history. John Travolta would've freaked.

Point is, the blend of the fabric is the key. Compare those blends try to go with the lowest petr. based ingredient.

[koda2]

I am surprised this old thread got resurrected but since it did I will give you an update on my seats and some recommendations.

I finished my seats and the cushions are well above what I expected. They are made with various grades of Conforfoam and covered with 1/4" certified polyfoam for protection.

The final results though were disappointing because I gave up on trying to sew the fabric myself (I couldn't find an industrial machine) and contracted a local boat upholsterer who said he could do it. He was skittish at first but after explaining the difference between certified and experimental aircraft, fabric tests, automotive being actually better than the FARS, etc he agreed to do it. In retrospect, he didn't understand a word of what I had said.

I picked out a fabric that was one of the best burn-rated from my research, had him order it, and paid him half up front to get started. Once the distributor in the Fort Worth area found out it was going in an airplane, (or the upholsterer decided to back out),they (the fabric distributor) doused the perfectly good fabric in some chemical known to cause cancer so that it would pass some AC fire rating and charged me a couple of hundred dollars extra and made a nice profit.

To top things off the upholsterer put off the job for six months with one excuse after another and finally after riding herd on him on a weekly basis, I got the seats back. The workmanship was pretty marginal for someone who made his living doing that kind of work. In the end it cost me as much or more as buying from one of the commercial vendors doing RV work.

Lessons learned:
1) You can make a set of seat cushions as good as or better than anything on the market and if you do it right you can save some money.
2) The foam from Hi-Tech is good foam but their RV kit will not work out of the box, at least, it didn't for me. Fortunately, they are extremely good people to work with. Just make sure you know what you want before you order.
3) Most automotive fabrics that pass the California regulations and the other ratings are as burn resistant as anything; just do your homework. The only thing really needing scrutiny is the underlying foam.
4) Don't tell anyone the word aircraft. Its a way to get ripped off or stiffed.
If you can't do the upholstery yourself find someone in the experimental community to do it.
5) Unless you really have a need to torture yourself, just buy some Oregon Aero seats, or one of the other brands and have them covered. Save the angst.

If you want more detail about the info I gathered on burn testing, what fabrics are good, how the fire ratings came about in the first place, etc. contact me and I will see if I can dig out my notes or I have some pics.

Dave A
6A build