Whether you make or buy, give some thought to safety. I believe it was A.J. Smith who escaped a skull injury in a bad landing with wet wings on the last day at the Worlds in '72 in Yugoslavia. The Nimbus II headrest had one or two steel brackets buried beneath the padding and when his head hit the headrest, they emerged.

I removed a bracket on the factory metal frame of my LS-3 headrest. I believe it was there to mount a mike but I thought it could be a crash hazard..

My ASW 24 came over without a seatback/headrest (in order to get me in the cockpit) but I wanted something under my head in case of a hard flat impact.. I was advised not to use soft, bouncy foam padding because that would tend to cause a sharp rebound if my head hit it, with possible neck injury.

I couldn't use the impact absorbing foam available at the time because it got very hard when cold, and unlike the same stuff in a seat pad, my body heat would not keep the headrest warm. My head doesn't actually touch the headrest unless I look straight up.

I finally settled on a packing foam that had some impact-absorbing properties. Whatever you use, think beyond cosmetics and the comfort of occasionally resting your head on it. Using an automotive headrest might make sense, depending on how it is constructed.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"