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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Resto: Front Seat Construction.

Well I have given the front seat timber frame construction a fair bit of thought, I have asked a few questions on a Chevy forum, recieved a few photos from different blokes around the world who tune in here following my progress regularly and spoken at length to my mate Ray about it who restored his back in the early 70's, "ya not old really mate".... so why all the chat and head stratching I here you asking?? well, being a tallish bloke myself and nudging just under the 100kg mark, I want to construct the new seat framework and position it 1" further back from the original 1928 Chevrolet design to give more leg room as these vintage cars can be a little cosy up front, but you must also get the spaces and joins in the timber floor correct before you start which will house the under seat metal storage tray in the front, one things leads to other so it must be right from the get go...
I am learning that this repositioning of the front seat is a common fixture when a restoration is underway, best and only time to do it really and although 1" does not sound like a great deal I have been told that it is a big improvement and also Ray has been told by a motor trimmer in Melbourne which he has used over the years that you can also use 1" less padding in the seat back which is then compensated with a more high density yet still very comfortable padding which you will then gain 2" extra leg room in total....... BONUS!! -

So with some new timbers in my shed, photo's printed out, the few remaining pieces of Monty's original front seat frame also close by, I will be giving it a good crack this weekend if all plans out well... Thanks for following.

UPDATE:

Well after a few hours work on this lovely saturday I got the lower seat frame section completed and it wasn't without a few colourfull swear words flying out of the retso shed's door so my wife kept reminding me of, thanks babe....
So with my trusty old wood saws laid out on the concrete, the radio volume cranked up a few notches and btw the notches were significantly increased way up passed eleven when any Foo-Fighters song came on and surprising the work load increased for the next 3 mintues, great band but it has to be loud, and with all this set in place I was soon making some good progress


To be honest I stuffed up a few cuts earlier on, yes I measured them wrong and cut them to short but only just.... buggar it!!, should always measure twice.. "learn by your mistakes"...

The long botton wide piece in this photo has a good few different angles on it which btw is the first bit you need so it was a little slow to shape it up but once that was done it was all easy from then on..


The 2 x top side pieces added and also the rear section cut and sitting in place.


And this is the finished product for the construction of the lower seat section and I only have the main timbers sitting there loosely and not screwed down tight yet, also I have to make a couple of cuts for the under seat metal tray to fit in properly due to the fact that I have positioned this seat frame back a further 1" as I explained earlier.... I have brought the seat back 13" directly from the timber cowl posts to the lower timber panel on the front seat down at floor level.


Next on the cards will be to make up the "lattice" type timber insert that sits on top of this frame and the front seat springs sit on top of that, then all thats left of the front seat stage is the curved seat back section itself, it looks a little tricky!
But it's all good and I am very happy with todays result which has given me a little more confidence to tackle the next step...

Dad would of been turning 73 tomorrow, 12th February......  Happy Birthday dad, Love ya.. xxoo




3 comments:

  1. what are you going to do about seat springs? do you have the originals or making new ones.
    I made up my new front seat 16 years ago, the very first job I did on the chev, but I dont have any spring bases, lucky I have the rear seats intact....
    Peter

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  2. Yes I have the 4 sections with springs still intact hanging up in my shed so that's a bonus. There was no material left on them only a small amount of stuffing which I removed when I quickly cleaned them up... Cheers

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  3. yes nice job watching closley maybe checked crossbeams in a little more 1 centre m,tre at lest to give a more stable platform for screwing looks good thow? watchin like a HAWKray burringbar 27 chev resto?

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