I found a lot of bits of stuff on the floor and it turned out to be disintegrating foam coming out of the holes at the base of the headrest(s)
Can I expect the seat material to be disintegrating similarly? It is about 20 years old, but the seats feel fine.
What is the easiest fix? Can someone fix just the headrests? There doesn’t seem to be any way of removing them, short of dismantling the seats.
It is not unusual for.the foam in seats to crumble. It becomes very dry and powdery.
From your photo your seat coverings look in top condition and therefore any good upholsterer should be able to just change the innards.
If you choose a normal furniture upholsterer you will need to discuss with him/her the necessary fire retardent nature of the foam needed. I am led.to believe it is of a different spec from that used in a domestic situation
It certainly does look as if the headrests should come off the seats, which would make it a much simpler job for the upholsterer and much cheaper for you. Taking the seat out is the next best thing. Upholsterers don’t tend to like working in situ if they can help it.
Look at page 7.25 of the POH, if I am looking at the correct thing, these headrests should be removable by sliding vertically. The POH I’m looking at is from 1988, so perhaps the GT is different, but, looking at your picture, I’d still expect them to be removable.
Once removed, have your hangar elves take them to an auto upholstery shop with a clue, and be done with it.
If the seat bottom feels right, it probably is. Based on my experience, I wouldn’t do anything with it till it felt wrong. Mine did, got them redone. Getting “appropriate” materials is sasier with CAR3 than Part23, but in reality anything of quality made for cars of today is going to be better in every respect, except perhaps longevity, from what Mooney or Socata put there in the 1980s / early 2000s.
Remember to give your hangar elves cookies with milk.
If they are indeed not removable, take good pics and go to said upholstery shop and ask them for an opinion. Smart craftsmen have their ways. The seats are probably from some French car, so I’d stick to that…
A friend of mine does fixes like this but he lives in Slovenia – I guess it’s too far to fly for that. He mainly produces upholstery for gliders. He renewed complete upholstery of my TB20 few years ago.
If the headrests are indeed removable, it’d make the process simpler. Then again, when has distance ever stopped Peter? ;-)
Emir wrote:
it’s too far to fly for that
negative Sir, this is what I’d call a mission 
Warning: Foam stiffness.
While undergoing wing recovering, our Group Jodel DR1050, (LAA Permit) seat cushions were given to a local upholsterer as a copy for replacements. The originals were destroyed. The new ones looked identical.
Inspector checked full-and-free movement of controls. So did I at preflight. On the test flight I thought everything was OK, but did a wheel landing. Airtest by another Group member was similar.
Later I realised the foam was softer, and squashed enough to restrict back stick movement when I was flying. Cushion had to be modified.
negative Sir, this is what I’d call a mission
Ay ay captain, you’re right especially when OP is in question 
Get some sprayglue and all will be ok (for another year).
I have the same problem. Let me know what you end up doing.
