Rear bench seat broken - need suggestions

[TL7]

Guys,

On our 07 Outback, the bench seat has a really bad sway to it. I'm not sure if it's plywood, plastic, or something else, but whatever it is is broken on one end and drooping on the other.

When raised to the sundeck position, I guess too many people have stepped and sat on it over time. I've included a picture. Does anyone else have this issue? I'm not experienced at all working with upholstery. My thinking is to remove all the staples, remove the upholstery, either repair or replace the "board", then recover. Everything about upholstery makes me nervous, as I am not a very patient person and tedious things like this frustrate me. Would I be better off having this done professionally? Ordering a replacement bench seat from dealer? If the former is the best option, anyone know any good upholstery shops in the Houston area (southwest preferably)?

We plan on selling or trading this in for an LSV over the winter, so this is something I need to fix I guess!

[Roachman]

Have you spoken to Rinkers yet? They should have some guys that they use that can fix that pretty easy. I would definitely fix versus getting a new one.

[snowboardcorey]

The substrate is bent, its likely an aluminum honeycomb or similar material. Once its bent, its bent.

A simple fix would be to remove the skin and padding, use the substrate as a template and cut some marine plywood to the same size. Once you reskin the thing I would add a reinforcement bracket to the middle of the bottom (running lenghtwise).

A better fix would be a complete new seat. In my experience ordering a factory substrate to replace the bent one is not cost effective.

[Limishowman3]

Goto your dealer, they should be able to help you out. I had problems with the braces that supported the seat in the sundeck position. My dealer said this problem happens alot with the DD and took pictures of it and sent it off to moomba. Well not sure on if it gonna get fixed, but the dealership called the other day and said our seat was in( which a replacement seat wouldn't help), but they may be able to send you a replacement seat due to complaints about the problem.