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Old 12-31-2019, 02:36 PM   #74
thejameshimself
Scooby Newbie
 
Member#: 379868
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Houston, TX
Vehicle:
05 9-2X Linear
Midnight Black Mica

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Part 3 - Seat Latches

At this point the seat backs were correctly(ish) mounted at the base, but the latches did not align with the hooks on the rear shock towers. The solution was to move the hooks up, which required taking apart the whole trunk, fabricating some extensions out of various scrap bits of metal, and cutting new holes in the carpet for the hooks to pass through. Obviously this setup adds a big lever and welding or drilling new mounts for the hook pieces would be better, but I doubt anyone on the internet will judge my craftsmanship.






Part 4 - Seat Bottoms

With the seat backs finally finished I could move on to the seat bottoms. I was hoping to recycle the old seat bottom with the new backs, but the difference in thickness and different cushion shapes killed that idea. Once I realized the new seat bottom had to be used, I yanked the leather cover off by removing all the metal hog-nose rings and started cutting all the metal mounting loops that interfered with the tub of the old chassis. Before/after images:




I also had to deal with that metal brace from the first post, so I marked where it hit the seat with a sharpie then cut a grove using a guitar string. The guitar string made a much cleaner cut than the bread knife.





At this point it was just a lot of test fitting and cutting random support pieces inside the cushion. Below was a picture during the process where I just started losing my mind and cutting everything.



At this point the new rear seat bottom no longer interfered with any of the pieces on the tub. However, the new cushion was so thin that it sagged in the middle. I ordered some seat cushion foam from Amazon and glued it to the bottom with contact spray. Even with the heaviest foam I could find, the Amazon cushion material is too smooshy, so the seats sink quite a bit when you sit in them. Rather than address this, I just moved on.

Also, there is no longer a mechanical connection holding the seat to the tub of the car, so I used contact spray to glue the bottom seat into position when I was done. Is it obvious I was running out of patience with this project?

Ultimately everything came together fairly well, enough so that people don't break the seats when they sit in them and no one has been able to tell the seats were not stock.

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Last edited by thejameshimself; 12-31-2019 at 06:22 PM. Reason: Added pictures
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