Stiff Wire Around Seat Trim

[GASoline71]

So now that I have secured the fact that I am back in the game of getting Creeping Death back on the road... I got a few questions.

The seat had been sitting in the bed of the truck outside with a lot of other stuff with a tarp over it. Well... you can only guess as to how well that kept moisture out of there living here in western WA.

So when I pulled the tarp last night... the seat was nothing but a big pile of mold and water. So I cut all the hog rings and removed the cover from the frame. The seat foam is in relatively good shape... but it's water logged (see pic). So I don't have a clue how I'm going to get that dried out. Granted I won't be ready for a seat until the summer (and I might even go buckets), but I am keeping the foam for now. How is the aftermarket foam? I'm sure it's expensive. Which is why I might just go to bucket seats if the cost gets crazy to redo the bench seat.

The seat cover was shot anyways. Back to the topic of the thread... there are stiff wires that are inserted into long sewn seam pockets along the trim of the seat. Do I need to cut those out and keep them? Or will a new cover come with the wire? Or will an upholstery shop put new wire in there?

Thanks!

Gary