F-Zero AX Seat Cushion Repair?

[fox_tango]

Is there any info out there about repairing the seat cushion covers on the F-Zero AX machines? These seat cushions appear to be a bit different than the typical Sega seat in that there is a perforated vinyl (leather looking) cover attached to the seat foam. Of course, this is either completely gone or falling off of the machines I have. A lot of the other Sega games I've seen just have what appears to be an uncovered embossed foam of some sort.

I was considering ways to recover the foam, but haven't disassembled the seat. One thing I'm worried about is that based on looking at pictures of disassembled Sega arcade seats, it appears that the cushions are not bolted/screwed on in some way, but perhaps glued? I was hoping to tackle this like a motorcycle seat where you can access the hidden underside of the foam and wrap material around so that the visible side is all clean an pretty.

I found this material on Amazon which looks like the same style of material.
Amazon Link

I may try and tackle this and see what I can do, but was hoping somebody else already blazed that trail! LOL.

 

[nem]

All Japanese Sega sitdown cabs from around that era have those perforated cushions. They're stuck on with sticky double sided tape.

I would be surprised if you still couldn't get new ones from Sega.

Alternatively, @outrun2 used to sell repros of the cushions. I have a few of his and they're top notch.

EDIT: poor timing, you just missed a new batch of them. Still, I suggest you register on UKVAC and send him a message. He might do one more run.

 

[fox_tango]

How possible would it be to remove the foam from the seat plastic without destroying the foam? I'll probably do some exploratory surgery here soon. If I can get it off, then I'll have a shot at covering it with new material.... of course after I check with outrun2 and see if any repros are still available!

 

[nem]

I edited my message. I thought it was an open preorder, but he's sold out now.

I have no idea if you can recover the foam and not only have it look good but also stay on put. I guess you have little to lose, so worth a try?

 

[fox_tango]

I just registered and posted on that thread, thanks for the link! The silly thing is I've seen that thread a bunch of times as I was searching, but from the first page it just looked like sales of salvaged parts and some stuff he had around. I didn't realize that thread went for so many pages and went into getting so many more of those seat cushions ordered. I really wish I'd read it more thoroughly as I found it more than a month ago... I may have been on time for the current run.

Oh well, hopefully he does another run since it seems that these are a very popular item!

 

[outrun2]

I'm the 'OutRun2' guy that appears on the various arcade forums I mainly post on ukvac, but have been a member here for a while too.

I first started doing the repro cushions a few years ago after spending months, if not years, searching for some nice cushions to go on my restored cabs. Sega have been out of stock for many years on the nice Japanese style seat cushions - these are the ones attached with adhesive tape. They had the UK/Europe style cushions that are harder and attached with black plastic drive fasteners (18 per seat), but I believe they are out of stock on those now as well.

Arcade Art Shop has the last remaining stock of these I believe - they were around the same price of £140 per set at Sega when they did have stock. Olly has three sets in stock if the website is correct, but just note that you will need 18 of the plastic fasteners per set and will have to drill holes in the seat plastics to accept the fasteners as Japanese cab seats don't have the holes.

The cushions I do are very similar to the Japanese originals, but not identical - Japanese stuff is always higher quality isn't it?

The red cushion here is a Japanese original, the black is the repro..

A couple of images of the last batch..

They are pretty good - I have UK, Japanese and repros on my various cabs and the repros do look nice. For fitting, just remove any remaining old cushion, ensure the seat is clean and grease free and stick the repros on.

All the cushions I have left are assigned to forum members, but I do have a few more sets to order so there will be one more batch. This will probably be the last as it does take quite a lot of time and effort. I can add you to my list if you like, they are coming in at £45 per set currently, plus shipping (and of course any taxes you end up having to pay).

Let me know here on on ukvac and I'll keep you posted.

 

[fox_tango]

Hey Outrun2, that is awesome! I'll send you a message over on the other forum to get my reservation in. I need 3 black sets for F-Zero AX (and I'm thinking a spare set).

 

[outrun2]

Three F-Zero cabs? You're as bad as me with OutRun2 cabs!

I'll add you to the ever growing batch three list, could take some time though, a few weeks at least.