been busy today

[shh120m]

After hours of cuting, grinding, welding... and so on i got bored and decided to have some fun and start making a pair of seats. Iv made up my seats from plywood to which im going to place a thin metal plate to the upper side of the seat bottom to carry the captive bolts. Im then going to raid the wifes knicker drawer for some tights and staple the material under tension over the seat frame to form nice comfy curves. Then i intend on aplying a couple of layes of fiberglass, then skim and paint. The finished result will be heavier than a set of proper bucket seats but at the moment, the seats only weigh 2kg each, i hoping that they will be no more than 5kg each once finished. Its also going to save a few quid as well.

Big thanks to andy from saturn for inspiring me to get cracking on my build, I was grinning all the way home after he took me for a blast in his roadster, in the wet!



nathan

[Locky]

Looks very nice, Years ago i found a website that sold seat spares and they sold the plastic inserts for the holes for the harness in the seats but i cant find it, ive searched the manufacturers websites but no such luck, anyone had any luck?.....

[mr henderson]

I'm impressed at the seats, I hadn't thought of making them of plywood.

However, are you sure you need to fibreglass them, I understand wanting a good coating but I think that something like flowcoat on its own would be easier to do and quite adequate.

[Locky]

And it will be lighter, the ply looks to be marine or wet grade ply, if so they sill last well getting wet.

[Talonmotorsport]

Might I suggest instead of using very thin nylon ie tights that you use cotton based fleece, find it on ebay for £4-5 a square mtr. It's thicker and the resign will soak in to it and hold it better, if you use the nylon it will fall through. Just some thing I picked up from watching far too much 'pimp my ride' 'chop shop' 'custom my ride' ect.

[flyerncle]

Did the same thing in cardboard a while ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30468413@N03/5111147179/

Be aware of the seat belt holes and roll bar mount for the belts as I believe it can fail the IVA for the wrong height.

[shh120m]

thanks for the input guys, il definately get some proper stuff rather than using tights, i too got the idea from pimp my ride! plus my wife might think i have a problem if all her tights go missing

I definately want to fiberglass them just to mould the shape a little and make them look less agricultural.

Iv got to take them apart again now, like a tit i made the seats 450mm wide and the gap is 450mm, however i cant get them in so im going to lose half inch from them to get them to fit and allow better access to harnes mounts.

Just a quicky about the harness holes, does anyone know what hight they shoud be in regards to iva?

thanks

Nathan

[flyerncle]

Not sure Nathan but I do know Spud's bar is higher as he is 6ft 5 ish.
Have a look at the manual online it may help and I am sure someone will know the answer,you could always mould your own seat from the wooden one.

[shh120m]

well, after a quick play with fiberglass, iv decided to buy some seats rather than spending hours making a mess, and breathing in the horrid fumes. Also i dont want to put tens of hours of hard work into something that may look shite at the end. If anyone wants the plywood seat iv made they are welcome to come and collect it, be warned though its not exact in any way, shape or form because i thought that the fibreglass would hide the gaps etc. It is good to sit it in the chassis though and feel what the build is going to be like when finished. Im a 32 waist and its faily slug, so no fatties!

nathan

[twinturbo]

Chuckle....

I toyed with exactly the same idea of ply and glass. but did not even get to the drawing board stage..

My seats are tucked up in the loft, I only bought them to ensure the runners would be mounted in the right place, they will not be back out again till next year.

Same goes for the body, that's being ordered next week, mainly so I can check bonnet clearance. I then have to store it safely till needed...

TT