How do you fix these chairs?

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm sure there must be tool to do this, but when taking off the cushions on a few of our outdoor chairs, I found that the plastic seat support thingies (not sure what they are called, maybe chair straps) had come off on one side. They seem intact, but just have sprung loose.

How do you get them back on with the hole going back over the pegs on the frame? I clearly don't have the strength to do it.

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[Roger Feeley]

Coils you put a clamp across the metal support and bring them close enough?
we have a tool for stretching our in-ground pool cover onto bolt that stick up from the pool deck. It’s nothing more than a piece of pipe. We stick the pipe through the hook on the strap. Then the end of the pipe goes onto the bolt and we pry. Could you find a very strong piece of tubing that goes through the hole and onto the peg?

[Roger Feeley]

If you gently warm the strap will it get more stretchy? More importantly, will it recover its original shape.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I would try softening the strap as suggested. If that works and you can reattach them, great! IF not, make yourself a lever with a slot cut near one end. Slip the strap through the slot and use the lever to stretch it far enough to place it back over the peg.

[John Kananis]

I would try this: submerge the strap in some warm water for a bit. Then take a set of flat faced vise grips, grasp at the very end and use the underside of the chair rail to leverage the band back over.

[Tom M King]

Heat gun back and forth along the strap until it's almost too hot to hold.

[Bill Dufour]

Caning? In theory the strap is attached at an angle then pushed back over the peg.
BilLD

[Thomas McCurnin]

Replace them with a zig zag spring. That would be old school, but what they did in the first part of the last century.

[Bob Coates]

When wife worked at an outdoor furniture store and they need to restrap/repair they heated the straps in a large coffee pot until soft and then stretched using gloves to hook. So as others have said get them warm, install and when cool will go back to being tight.

[Alan Lightstone]

It sounds like the warming them and stretching them is the answer. I'll try that when I ever can get a chance.