Wampus Cat

[TxCajun]

Bench Seat Pivot Bushing/Spacer

I received a seat upholstery order from ricksupholstery.com, and I'm excited to see what it looks like installed, so I've jumped ahead to preparing the bench seat. There wasn't much left of the old upholstery/foam, several broken springs, frame rust, and a few other issues.

The previous owners/drivers of my truck must have been big people because the bottom seat frame where the back attaches and pivots was cracked on both sides, and the weld nuts on the inside of the frame for the pivot bolt were either broken or missing.

I welded the cracks in the frame and made some nut plates for welding on the inside of the frame to replace the original square weld nuts.

One of the bushing/spacers that fit between the seat bolt and the arms of the seat back was missing and they don’t appear to be sold by the usual parts vendors.

I don’t have access to a lathe so I went looking for something that is near net shape that I could easily modify. I found that a piece of 1/4 inch schedule 40 pipe is the correct outer diameter to fit in the seat back frame hole, and the inside diameter only has to be opened up slightly with a 3/8 drill bit to fit the pivot bolt. All you then have to do is cut a short piece to the correct length and file or sand the end square, and you have an almost exact copy of the original steel bushing/spacer.

A short piece of quarter inch schedule 40 pipe or nipple is only about two bucks.
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[TxCajun]

Bench Seat Tracks Modification

I’m 6’ 2” and decided I’d like the bench seat to be a little lower and moved further back. I’ve seen the “fixed” brackets that are offered by some vendors for lowering the seat, but I wanted to retain the adjustability.

I made a fixture from steel angle to which I could bolt the stock seat track to retain the orientation of the mounting bolts. I then scribed a line about 1” up from the bottom and cut the supports with a grinder cut-off disc. I then hammered the remaining “feet” flat and then trimmed them to match the width of the vertical supports. (Since these supports are angled, when you cut them off, the resulting mounting points are narrower, so the “feet” have to be made wider.) When re-mounting the seat tracks, I also moved them rearward about ¾” relative to the feet. I tacked the seat tracks to the modified feet, and then mounted the seat tracks and seat in the cab for a test fit to make sure everything aligned.

After I was satisfied with the fit, I finished fully welding the feet to the tracks, cleaned them with a wire brush and pressure washer, then a spray coat of semi-gloss black.

This modification lowered the seat about 1” and moved the rear most adjustment position about ¾” back.
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[TxCajun]

Seat Frame

Replaced a few broken springs by bending new ones from some "S shaped" seat spring material that I picked up somewhere in the past.

Wire brushed and pressure washed the frame, then primer and paint.

The old foam is deteriorated and smelly. The 18 support wires in the bottom of the foam are rusted and broken. I've ordered some .045 diameter music wire, and I picked up some upholstery foam to try to make a replacement.
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[SCOTI]

Nice work on the tracks. I'm watching to learn on the seat build-up as well.
Thanks for sharing.