Headrest Removal—Sometimes It’s a Pain in the . . .

Written by Don Stewart | 30 November 2008

A few years ago, I belonged to the SCOA (SVT Cobra Owners Association), an online forum. Many topics, both upgrades and standard maintenance, were always in play. You never knew what information a member would need or what someone was going to share. It was an informative and enjoyable experience. One of the best parts was the occasional opportunity to answer a question from another member. At one point, a member asked how to remove the headrest from the seatback of a 1999 Cobra. That seemed simple enough so I went to my ‘99 Cobra to get an exact procedure that I could share. Well to say the least, I was shot down. For the life of me, I couldn’t get the thing to release.

At about the same time, a local friend who owned a Mustang GT wanted to remove the headrests so she could install custom upholstery. Knowing that my hands-on approach had failed, we began pouring over the Mustang Workshop Manual and found a gem of information hidden among the otherwise comprehensive instructions for servicing the seat. In the form of a caption for a line-drawing of the headrest, it read, “Remove the front seat backrest head restraint.” Yup, that’s what it said and for sure, that’s what we wanted to do. But there was no more detail. Maybe Ford didn’t know how to do it either because all we gained was a drawing of the headrest assembly as it would appear if we ever got it out of the seat.

Our next move was to contact several local upholsterers for guidance. But they didn’t have a clue either. Their answers ranged from an honest, “I don’t know” to a ridiculous, “You have to cut the upholstery off first because the release is hidden deep within the seatback.” Thanks a lot!

By now there were two more SCOA members who wanted to remove their headrests. Wow, this was turning into an epidemic. In the space of a couple of weeks, there were four people wanting to do the same thing at the same time. Must have been something in the water. How else could you explain the sudden need to remove so many headrests?

Ok it was time to get serious. I’d removed many a headrest over the years and once you’ve done the job, you know that a spring loaded button in the seatback holds the thing in place. The trick is to hold the button in a retracted position while sliding the headrest post out of its socket. I’ve squeezed external release levers, pushed release buttons, inserted drill bits into release holes, and turned external cam mechanisms to move the button out of the way but Mustang’s better idea didn’t provide any of those options. You could hear the button working down inside the seat but there was no apparent way to reach it. Maybe the guy was right when he said you needed to cut the upholstery off.

What a ridiculous catch-22 situation. You couldn’t remove the headrest without removing the upholstery and you couldn’t remove the upholstery without removing the head rest. But wait a minute. Less than three years earlier I’d completed a ground up restoration on a “67 Mustang convertible. That job had some catch-22 situations of its own but I never let them get the best of me and I never broke or destroyed any parts. Sometimes it took a week to figure out how to do a particular job but there was always light at the end of the tunnel and the jobs were always completed.

So why should the headrest dilemma be any different? It was time to step back, take a breath, and methodically figure this thing out. First find the button by probing down along the headrest post. Once it was found, visualize a way to release it. And, by the way, since I was using my own car as a guinea pig, make sure the upholstery wasn’t damaged in the process.

Once the course was set, the tool of choice was a wire coat hanger, which in some households is extinct or at best, an endangered species. Our household falls into the latter category and I have dibs on all of them. I loan them to Mary just so I can find one when I need it. I always swap-in a plastic hanger for a wire one when I need to make a special tool. After all, giving up a wire hanger is one thing but finding one’s clothes on the floor is another thing altogether and according to Mary, it’s not acceptable. But these days with a dwindling supply, I use the wire hangers sparingly because they don’t seem to reproduce like the plastic ones do. Uh . . . hold it, that’s another story altogether so let’s get back on track. The topic is headrests, not coat hangers.

With a length of wire hanger in hand, I set out to probe for the button. And I found it! I still didn’t know how to get enough leverage to release it but now I knew how deeply hidden it was within the seatback. With more probing, I figured out which way the button moved and after some thought, came up with a theory for solving the leverage problem. The next step was to make a prototype tool and put my theory to the test. The tool would need to be shaped so that it was reliable and not a one shot test of luck. And, I reminded myself, it had to work without damaging the upholstery so an important part of making the device was to file all sharp edges to a smooth contour.

Believe it or not, the prototype worked so I made a more professional version. The tool is pictured with this article along with a procedure for using it. You’ll recognize it by its artistic design and its dedicated shape. Don’t laugh. It’s shaped just right. It works so well that I can pull a headrest in a minute or two from SN-95 cars where the headrest posts carry part no. prefix E7EB.

Success should always be celebrated so after gloating for a few seconds, I drank a glass of water and then shared my tool design with the four people who had been dipping into the same water source. I don’t know where all of the wire coat hangers came from but everybody made a tool of their own and over time, I received reports that each and every one successfully removed their headrests and completed their projects.

Now, by way of rewarding those of you who waded through this highly technical article, you’re more than welcome to copy the tool and try the procedure yourself, just in case your water comes from the same place. No thanks necessary. Good luck finding a wire coat hanger.