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I am redoing the seats in my 1970 Cutlass Supreme and the frames are out of a grand prix. My question is do my seats need the burlap gusset like the Gran Prix has?
At a minimum you DO WANT TO USE/HAVE the burlap panel that runs along the TOP of the rear seatback (upright half of the rear seat setup). I'm assuming you are going to use new layers of cotton batting to cover the seatback and the batting will wrap up over the top (horizontal portion) of the rear seatback.
This "catch panel" (my name for that particular burlap strip) will prevent the cotton batting from falling down behind the seat springs/frame when you install and hog ring on the seat cover. If you don't use a catch panel up there then the batting could fall down/sag down and the top of the seat cover will also fall in and look bad.
The "catch panel" is shown in your last pic above. Leave it in place if it's in good shape or make another one and hog ring it in. I make these panels when I do interiors.
Three layers seems to work fine. You'll need to cover the face of the seat springs w/some material to prevent the cotton from getting pushed through. That's what that large "wire woven/burlap panel" is there for. Cover it end to end, top to bottom w/one or two layers of new burlap or something denser/stronger like trunk lining material. Just the vertical face of the whole seatback....not the upper horizontal area where the burlap "catch panel" is.
Those strips are there to set the height of the spring assembly from the rear frame. Without them, it will stick up farther and be harder to install the covers, and for the top, it creates a "shelf" that holds the padding in place that would otherwise just drape under the spring assembly.
I have not seen the "middle" strips before, but they serve the same purpose, to keep the spring assembly pulled closer to the frame than they would be without the strips, so id keep them. at least the ones on the top.
The amount of cotton batting depends completely on the TYPE and thickness of the batting itself. It compresses down quite a bit once the cover is on, so you really need a thick layer when its uncompressed.
Some cotton batting is denser/thicker than others, it can be really hard to tell when you are ordering it what you are going to get. Basically if it hasn't filled out your cover, then you don't have enough.
FWIW, I stopped using cotton batting a couple years ago after my local supplier moved. I tried buying some stuff off the internet, but it was not as good or consistent as what i had gotten before, and the price was not awesome.
I switched to using high density foam in both cushions... Its a little more money, but Its consistent every time, and will be a day and night better feel for the finished product vs cotton.
I use 2 1" layers in the upper seat, 1st layer is trimmed to the shape of the spring assembly, the 2nd layer goes over the top and has overhang on all 4 sides.
For the bottom cushion i use a single 2" layer with ~4-5" overhang on the front and sides (the back has minimal to no overhang depending on the year of the car).
