When we moved the machine in the shop the first time we added that as we dragged it with the tractor/bucket for final positioning. Never took it off in case we had to move it out from the wall for a larger panel....
Man your attention to detail blows my mind. I don't have the patience to do stuff like that, but I also know how therapeutic it can be to spend time on the details.
Thanks for the kind words! Moving on to closing up the ends of the outer seat riser... Quite a bit of stretch to get this corner to match up to the seat riser... Then the corner was Tig welded in place and another test fit with the bucket seat..
Unfortunately we wont be using them at all... Well, let's back up and punt one more time. The owner of the 55 stopped by about a week ago and sat in the mocked up bucket seat. She said it sat too high, so our version 2 seat brackets were out. Cutting the floor pan was over-ruled (for recessing the brackets) so we opted for a 14 gauge flat seat pan directly on top of the floor, which also gave us a shape we could eliminate the "step" in the floor. Next is to add the wedges to the rear ramp for attaching the rear of the track slides...
Final design on the bucket seat brackets... and owner approved today as well. One down, one to go.. This is made from 14 gauge cold rolled steel and puts the seat about as low as we can go without cutting the floor pan.. Video of the seat bracket: Seat test fitted:
Don't think I showed this on the other side, but here's how we find the center of the bend for dimensioning the seat bracket.. Bent up and a test fit... Relief cuts made for the next fold..... then rolled through the bead roller and then the brake is used to fold the outer flange. Here, all welded in place... The front hole pattern is laid out to match the drivers bracket, and then some perpendicular lines laid out for locating the rear risers...
Got a new apprentice that started this past Saturday.. Her mom even thought it was a good idea! She's getting the driver's seat bracket all prepped for SPI epoxy primer, while I worked on finishing the passenger bracket..
Getting down to the nitty gritty on the seat brackets, number two is all but done, need to weld in three hex nuts and touch up some media blasting. Hoping for good weather this weekend so we can spray some epoxy primer on them and get these installed... And the last two pipe clamps came in at Napa (installed with lock nuts), so we can now throw some air to the planishing hammer and try out the new fixture..
Seat mounts are nothing short of amazing. Once again, thanks for sharing your skills with us. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Thanks! hope they do the trick. This weekend we got the three hex nuts welded underneath seat bracket number two, fourth hole is a bolt through...... 1/4" tall spacers fabricated to make the seat tracks level, then tacked in place on the front holes.. Prepped and hung up for epoxy primer... OEM seat bracket holes in the floor pans open to the inside of floor crossmembers. Rather than weld them closed and warp the floor pan, we opted for these fancy hole plugs. SPI epoxy primer applied... When it's 39* outside and the paint booth is sucking the heat out of the building, this is how you keep the temps up to a balmy 75* in the paint booth.. We'll let the seat brackets cure for a few days and then get started on plug welding them in place..
Got started on drilling plug weld holes this evening, here laying out the hole patterns to align with the floor crossmember where possible... Once drilled to match our piloted burnishing brush, the paint surrounding the plug weld gets cleaned to prevent weld contamination..
Getting some seat brackets welded in... Plug welding... But before we get all the front seats in and make it harder to access the back, lets get the seat riser plug welded in for the back seat... Next, our rear seat that came with the buckets was slightly oversize for our widened wheel wells. Some quick measurements showed we need to lose about 2" in width.. Then the rear corners needed relieving for the wheel tubs..... Some 3/16 diameter stainless rod was used to reconnect the pieces in the new rear corners Some fire prevention for the foam.. With both sides fitting individually, time to join our sides back together... Video of the surgery results.... With the overlap of material trimmed, this part is looking pretty good!
Great job as usual!! What size are the plug weld holes and where did you get the little wire wheel to clean the holes? Thanks for your great detailed posts!! Ryan.
For plug welds I use a letter A bit and run the machine a bit hot. The wire wheel is available at McMaster Carr, search for piloted end brush. Time and materials
With the 55's rear seat bottom narrowed to fit the wheel tubs..... ....time to do the same for the seat back. First to blow it apart.... This had a multiple fold down, arm rest in the middle, non 55 looking arrangement. The arm rest will be first to go, and we'll attach the fold down sections together.. The frame is sectioned in the middle, a tube driven inside, and TIG welded around the perimeter.. Then the seat innards are trimmed accordingly to make a one piece back.. Then some 14 gauge strips are cut out to join the two sections together.. That should work, tomorrow we'll work on the new pivot brackets..
In removing the section of foam on the seat back we find the cushion has a wire around the arm rest void. As we are removing the arm rest altogether (when it gets reupholstered) we removed the wire.. The previous pivot for the seats had a tapered pin hex bolt that secured into a hex nut that was welded onto the pivot bracket, which can be seen here: Due to our width constraints, we need to remove all that excess hardware.. So we chose to put the "securing nut" inside the seat, and use a simple pan head allen screw through the 12 gauge bracket.. Here's our Pivot "axle" inside the seat back.. Here's the test fit of our 12 gauge steel pivot bracket. Radius was used on the bends to match the tube. The tube was originally round, and the side uprights were flattened out using the MH19 hammer to buy us some more clearance between wheel tubs.. The bead shown on the bracket was done on the Lennox Nibbler. This should give us a bit of clearance on the edges to help prevent binding of the upholstery. Bead turned out pretty well for 12 gauge steel! Some TIG welding to put the parts together: Video of it in operation: One part down, next we'll tackle the brackets to the floor.
Back in the shop this evening, time to make some bolting brackets to hold the seat back frame to the floor.. Locating... Brackets TIG welded on.... This shows it in place, we have about 1/4" clearance at the tight spots.... The cleco's were removed and 1/4-20 AVK rivet nuts installed in the floor... Missed that picture... Next will be the top support....
Now for the top of the seat frame... We started with some 3/8-16 standoffs that are 5/8 diameter, and turn them to 1/2 diameter to fit inside the seat frame tube... Then holes are drilled in some 1.25 square tubing... Tacked in place and a nut used for added insurance... Seat latches plug welded in place... Side pieces formed.... The side pieces will be trimmed, fitted, and welded to the wheel well...
Thanks for keeping us updated. Your good work on the unseen parts speaks volumes about your integrity. I hope the owner knows how lucky she is.
Nice job on the Fabricating of those pieces they fit great, u might actually be a good body man lol Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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