New Seats For An Old Suburban

[05duramaxhd]

I have the same seats for my BRC build. I went to Pheniox to pick up the seats and to check out Carbon Crrews truck. The guy that gets the seats gets them from a company that convers the vans to handicap accessible. The said they convert 15-30 vans a week and he got a contract to buy the seats. Nice guy. I have his card in one of my trucks

[swissarmychainsaw]

Thanks for the responses guys, it's helps keep things moving over here!

Been blasted this week, and a birthday and just getting back to it.

Originally Posted by 05duramaxhd

I have the same seats for my BRC build. I went to Pheniox to pick up the seats and to check out Carbon Crrews truck. The guy that gets the seats gets them from a company that convers the vans to handicap accessible. The said they convert 15-30 vans a week and he got a contract to buy the seats. Nice guy. I have his card in one of my trucks

He Delivers these things all over too. He sends his crew to swap meets and shows. Good dudes for sure. We should post his number.

Originally Posted by cheepin

Reverse the polarity on your welder.

I'm going to listen to anything this man tells me.

Originally Posted by slotard

... I think I'm the guy you sold the seat to.

Thanks for the offer on the welder! How's that Edlebrock treating you?

Originally Posted by Zach079xxx

... and these corny (I mean GREAT :P ) jokes!

I'm from Indiana, man what do you expect? :-)

Originally Posted by enaberif

Get some 80 and 120 grit flap discs for the grinder... Goes way faster and easier.

I took your advice and it has changed my life. I can't believe how well an 80 grit fappy disk works!

Originally Posted by Gregski

… also it don't look like you are cleaning your area before welding, remember this metal usually has some coating to keep it from rusting, or it is already dirty or rusty, and you can't weld rust or dirt, …

SO TRUE. I have changed my ways I promise (see fappy disk above).
Absolutely right. I was on FULL THROTTLE mode. Good call!

Originally Posted by Rich84

I've attempted this welding too it's not for the faint of heart..I almost set the garage on fire. Spark landed on an old towel I was using for a rag and it burst into flames..
Be careful whats around you.

Let's just take a moment to talk about fire safety.
Lessons learned:
1. Fleece Jackets are Flammable a F*&%$. Those little flying embers just ruin them!
2. Tennis shoes (like cheap running shoes) are probably the worst choice after Sandals for "welding shoes". Those hot embers just melt right through them and burn your toes! HOT HOT HOT
3. Your hair is actually pretty flammable!

Nick

[swissarmychainsaw]

Happy Birthday to me!
You know what's great about getting old? The birthday presents get *AWESOME*! Why is that you ask? Because you buy the cools stuff for yourself, and you just say "happy birthday buddy, enjoy".

So here is what the Craigslist gods found:


Had to drive about 1.5 hours to Sacramento to get them, but the guy was awesome. He had a 65 GTO Gasser, and a bunch of other old hot rods and cool stuff/garage. Kindred spirit and an awesome dude!

Here is what I'm running now (came with it), new rubber this year, but I can't abide the mud truck look for some reason.

[swissarmychainsaw]

OK, OK back to the seats. I have not forgotten!
(PS this week is supposed to finally have a break from the rain so I hope to get some more done)

Here is the underside of the seat with my bracket:


What's that you said? What's in the THE BOX?



Good Question.


Made In Germany!







WTF????
OMG!!!!
A SWIVEL SEAT FROM A Westphalia!!


Suddenly things got interesting!

[swissarmychainsaw]

The goods:


Trying to figure out how far to go to get to the bolt holes:



Prepping before the weld!





This is clearly the hardest part of welding. Getting that mess clamped together!



Spot welds starting to look a bit less hideous!





Flux Welding makes a mess of your material.





Gotta be boogers







Ok, more tomorrow, but I hope to have the Driver seat mounted up tomorrow!
BAM!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by swissarmychainsaw

What's that you said? What's in the THE BOX?

I donno "Fagilie" that sounds Italian, lol

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by swissarmychainsaw

Prepping before the weld!

Good Man!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by swissarmychainsaw

Spot welds starting to look a bit less hideous!

Yup, typical Flux Core pigeon poop, word on the street is there is some sort of spray you can buy and apply to your metal before you flux core weld it to make it easier to knock off the flux core overspray, but I wouldn't bother for what you are a doing.

Great job, keep it up!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by swissarmychainsaw

Ok, I am the last person on this forum to give welding advice, but if I had to, looking at this pic, it appears your wire speed is too fast, you may want to slow it down a bit. Also try a continuous bead. So start and either push the puddle or pull the puddle but don't go bizz - stop - bizz - stop - bizz - stop

also play around with the gun angle are you welding at a 90* angle or 45* angle, I honestly don't know what angle you ought to be at, but try different angles, and remember don b skierd!

again not criticizing, just trying to help

[345HP87SSAC]

How is it going? I plan on two sets of those seats soon. DId he still have a lot of them in stock?

[swissarmychainsaw]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Ok, I am the last person on this forum to give welding advice, but if I had to, looking at this pic, it appears your wire speed is too fast, you may want to slow it down a bit. Also try a continuous bead. So start and either push the puddle or pull the puddle but don't go bizz - stop - bizz - stop - bizz - stop

also play around with the gun angle are you welding at a 90* angle or 45* angle, I honestly don't know what angle you ought to be at, but try different angles, and remember don b skierd!

again not criticizing, just trying to help

I appreciate the thoughts, so no worries.
I have been playing with the wire speed and voltage a bit.

What you see is mostly a series of spot welds.

I tried the "continuous" thing, but after a short go I can't 'see' where my puddle is going. AND it does not look much better!

At this point, I'm just trying to get the two surfaces mated. As you'll see tomorrow, my spot welds were very weak on a piece and it came off pretty easily.

I DO have it nearly mocked up enough to mount the seat.

Pesky work, keeping me from my project!

More soon! Thanks again!

[Trust_me]

Nice work ����

[enaberif]

What on earth do you use for a welder and wire? I use flux core on my Hobart 140 110v welder and they never look that bad.

I think you need to try some better wire or get a better flux welder lol. You should never spend more time grinding than welding.

[slotard]

Originally Posted by enaberif

What on earth do you use for a welder and wire? I use flux core on my Hobart 140 110v welder and they never look that bad.

I think you need to try some better wire or get a better flux welder lol. You should never spend more time grinding than welding.

While I do agree that his welds aren't great, if you want good fitup you'll likely spend more time with a grinder than a welder (but it'll mostly be before you weld).

[Gregski]

whats the latest?

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by gregski

whats the latest?

x2

[84chevyguyid]

"I tried the "continuous" thing, but after a short go I can't 'see' where my puddle is going. AND it does not look much better!"

I have the same problem with a wire feed, cant see where I am going. I have an auto darkening helmet and have it set on the lightest setting and got a magnifying lens and stuck on the inside and that helped a bunch.

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by 84chevyguyid

and got a magnifying lens and stuck on the inside and that helped a bunch.

I didn't know you could get those, I was wishing I had something to magnify what I was welding yesterday

[y5mgisi]

Following along.

[swissarmychainsaw]

It was a dark and stormy night...

Drilling the mounting hole is the seat swivel:




Checking to see how they line up:



With the "Custom Bracket (TM)" on:



The seats have a stud that sticks out of the bottom which I will use to mount.
Here the hole needs to be reamed out a bit to get the stud to pass through.



Holes on the "Custom Bracket (TM)" line up perfectly. Miracles!




One thing not shown:

The seat swivel for the Vanagon seat (the big black thing in these pictures) comes with a Track for the Vanagon seats welded to it.
I needed to cut off the small welds and remove these so I had a flat surface to mount my seat to.

Had to go to the Hardware store and but some cut-off disks for the Dremel.

[swissarmychainsaw]

Good News, Bad news.

The good news is it's all mocked up and if you HAD to, you could do a victory lap around the neighborhood.



The bad news is the Seat is REALLY tall. Like hard to touch the ground.
I had heard that these seats were tall, but was not sure how this would factor in until it was mocked up.



So I'm going to likely rebuild the bracket, slamming it, so it's just off the floor.

Might take a trip to the local welding shop and see about hooking up some gas to my welder.
Since I might repair my rusted floor while it's all apart.

[slotard]

Gas helps a lot in my experience, but I'm not a fan of how the Craftsman setup does vs my Lincoln 175, even running the same gas/wire.

[Gregski]

keep at it

[w-cummins]

good work on the seats they will look nice when your done! Does your truck have the barn doors on the rear??

William.....

[wildwilly4x4]

maybe a helpful tip from what I've learned from welding over the years, and take it with a grain of salt, as I do not consider myself a "welder", although I can weld pretty good. Don't watch the arc as you are welding. Watch behind the arc for what your puddle is doing, and practice making what you just welded change, so that you can get a feel for how to move the gun to make the puddle behave how it should. Its hard to not watch the arc (at least it was for me), as you make a weld. Practice makes perfect, although the quality of the machine also makes a huge difference.