Working Man's Burbon

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by HO455

Thanks Leon. Quieter would be good. I can hear a difference when I shut the doors at this point. I hopefully will get it out on a test run today or tomorrow.
Here is what it looks like trimmed off. (#1 photo) And I made this little block to bolt to the floor and to the bolt hole on the bottom. (#2 photo)
I hadn't planned on welding a plate. I only see the bracket as holding the seat base up. Am I missing something?

I don't think you are missing anything. That block should make it plenty sturdy. That's all I was thinking about.

LockDoc

[HO455]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

I don't think you are missing anything. That block should make it plenty sturdy. That's all I was thinking about.

LockDoc

Oh good! There is also a yet to be mentioned (or photographed) doubler plate on the bottom of the floorboard.

I made an interesting discovery today on the WMB. Someone in the past appears to have started to install a set of square body second row seats. I first noticed that some of the holes I drilled to install the seat back hinge were already drilled through the front flange. There were a bunch of holes in the flange so I chalked it up as lucky.

Then once I had marked the holes for the center base I noticed there were two existing holes that matched the holes I had marked with the exception of being 3/4" closer to the center of the truck. (Photo #1 green lines point to the holes I need to drill) When I looked at the area where the outboard latches attach there were two holes on each side that matched 2 of the 3 holes for the latch. (Photo #2).

So my first thought was "Did I screw up my lay out?". But after remeasuring things were fine. So I thought maybe they had slid the seat to the drivers side 3/4 of an inch. That theory fell apart as the seat's loop for the upper latch won't clear the 4th door frame. So I went ahead and drilled the holes for the center base and bolted it on.

Next step was to drill and mount the latch on the passenger side. To get the spacing I measured the seat base. There were easy to see rubber marks on it. I came up with 16.5 inches. Long story short the passenger side latch bolted right to the existing holes perfectly. I ran out of time to check the driver's side but I'm hoping. With the center being offset the bumper would have missed the seat base on my set of seats. There maybe different seat dimensions over the years or some PO just drilled it wrong.
The funny thing is other than the parts on the step there doesn't seem to have been any other holes drilled for the rest to the seats. Maybe they gave up after things didn't fit right who knows. I'm just glad for the free holes at this point.

I got some side plates made for the upper latches. ( Photo #3 & 4) I went with 14 guage but I may regret not using 12 guage. My concern at the time was not spacing the chrome trim for the side panels too far out. For which the 14 guage is working well, but I may have to put a stiffener behind each side. Once things are all together I will be able to make that call.
Last photo is the end of day, hinge installed, and two mounts in.

[HO455]

One of the hinge bolts when through in a bad spot and hit part of the body support. (Photo #1 It's a poor picture but hopefully everyone can see the problem) This was one of the previously drilled holes. I remember it as it had a 5/16" lag bolt screwed into it. Uhggg! I will have to get in there somehow and grind a flat spot for the nut to sit.

If you ever need to tighten up the bolts across the front and you have no help you need one of these. (Photos #2 & 3). I took a short 3/8" extension and on the square end ground two of the flats so a 3/8" wrench fit snugly. Then a flat washer (to hold the spring against the wrench) between the extension and the socket. The wood block compresses the spring and it holds the socket on the fastener. The wrench hits the body and I was able to tighten the bolts by hand from above. I tried to use an impact but it just blew things apart underneath. It actually worked far better than I expected it to.

[LockDoc]

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Good ole American ingenuity...

LockDoc

[HO455]

And some late night desperation.

[HO455]

Well my free holes turned against me. Once I got the center and both outside latches bolted down it was clear that the old holes were of no use. Not only were they too high the 4th door side was really cockeyed. (Photos #1 & 2).

I took the two latches and screwed them to a straight board in the correct spacing. (Photo #3) Then I only had to get the board lined up on the center base and make sure each end was the same height to mark the holes. Photo four shows everything as it should be, all nice and lined up.
The worst part of the previous attempt to put the square body seats in is that some FO ( Future Owner) will look at all the holes (Photo #5) and wonder if the PO who installed the seats knew what a tape measure was?

[HO455]

Now the lower side was set up time to finish the side plates and the seat back latches. I made some little angle iron pieces that are held down by a pair of the carriage bolts for the floor. (Photo #1)

The plate is held in position with three 1/4-20 screws on the bottom and 5 sheet metal screws on the top. The plate goes under the trim for the side panels.

I then bolted the larger of the two seat backs in position so I could position the latch for it. I used a angle meter to set the latch position. I measured the angle of the back of the factory front seat and came up with 70 degrees so that is the number I will use for the second row. Getting the latch positioned was straight forward. I just laid the seats back to slightly more than the 70* the front was. ( I am planning on getting new rubber bumpers so that should make it right at 70*.) I marked the back hole of the latch while holding the seat at the correct angle. Then I drilled that hole and reassembled to make sure it was correct then marked the outline of the latch. After removal of the plate I drilled the last two holes and reinstalled the plate with the latch mounted.

Getting the latch to work was much more work. Since I removed the spacers under the loop for the latch the latch wouldn't fit under the loop. (Photo #2) It took at least five tries to get the latch to work. Disassemble the latch, grind the hook a little, reassemble latch, bolt to the plate, lay seat back, stare at seat latch, remove latch, and repeat as necessary. I went slow as I didn't have any spare parts for the latches. I tried to add one of the shims to get things to work but then the loop hit the latch base. Anyway photo #3 shows how much material I removed to get it to work. See the faint blue outline of the unmodified hook under the modified hook.
Photo #3 shows the latch mounted and photo #4 shows the mounted latch and the seat back with the angle meter.

As much as I love the 3 door life. This particular project has tried my 3 door patience deeply. I no longer refer to the sides as the passenger or the driver's side. It's now the easy side and the HARD side.

[LockDoc]

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When you get all of the extra holes welded up and ground down no-one will ever know.

I have a lot of patience but I think I would have had the cutting torch out a long time ago....

LockDoc

[HO455]

I think with the rust on the top of the same piece that replacement may be the better choice. I will have to look closely at 04ls1GTO's thread on replacement and make a plan.

[HO455]

Now the hard side seat back was done its on to the easy side. Once bolted to the hinge it was apparent there was an alignment problem. The gap between the two seat backs was 7/8" at the bottom and 1 & 3/16" at the top. (Photo #1) The fix was to elongate the holes in the hinge to allow the seat back to sit straight. (Photo #2) This may have been the result of using seats from one Burban and the hinge from another. (Although the holes in both hinges and seat backs don't have the best alignment. Some of that "Great GM feeling" from the seventies) The hinge that came with the seats was tweaked pretty bad where the seat backs meet is why I ended up getting a second one.

Now the seat sat straight the next issue was the latch loop on the seat back wouldn't clear the latch base. (Photo #3). The photo makes it look worse than it was. My fix for this was to grind the bottom of the latch base down. A minute on the belt grinder was all that was needed as the base is aluminum. (Photo #4). I looked to see if I had mounted the seat backs sightly more to the driver's side if the loop would have cleared. There was only an 1/8"-3/16" of room on the other side and it might have been enough, but then the loop would have rubbed the door panel when you put seat back down. I decided this is the better trade off.

After getting the base to clear I had to modify the hook in the latch the way I did the other side. The last photo shows how I needed to hook to sit in the latch to work correctly. It was just a matter of marking and drilling the holes to bolt the latch down and this side of the seat back was done.

[HO455]

The seat bases have their own special challenge. Square bodies have flat floors (cause their square ) Where our "Glamour Trucks" have crowned floors. They drop about 3/4" over 2 feet. (Photo #1). Some some spacers of some sort will be required. To start I ground some wedge washers down to match the angle of the slope (Photo #2) then I put a round spacer on top of the each wedge. (Photo #3 this photo was before I installed the wedge washers)
Once the spacer plan was figured out it was a matter of finding the right spot to bolt the seat down. Lots of boxes to check off. How did the upholstery line up, how well did the seat clear the back when lifting up, how was the gap between the seat base and the back, how did the seat land on the bumper under each end, did the latch work. It took at least 30 minutes of jockeying the seat around before I was satisfied enough to mark the spot and drill the floor.

The other side ended up being even more difficult to get aligned. Much to my frustration, as I was thinking it should be a cake walk. Making the story shorter I discovered the seat is bent. (Photo #4) Possibly it happened when the original hinge was damaged. I attempted to straighten the seat but after taking the base off I realized I would have to build a jig and remove the upholstery to get it fixed. So for the short term I just put a spacer under one of the bumpers and once I had it aligned I attached it. This simple little paragraph took over 2 hours in real time.

[HO455]

And here they are installed. I am not satisfied with the spacer situation and that will have to be revised. The seat belts have yet to be installed and the carpet is waiting on the spacer fix. If I had access to some expired Chockfast Orange I could make a pair of moulds and pour some epoxy spacers. But nothing that easy is on the horizon.

They are about 1 & 1/2" lower than the original seat but the foam is maybe half as firm as the original seat is so you sink even lower when you sit on it.

And the last photo is the previously mentioned doubler for under the center base support.

[Average Joe]

Nice install on the seat! Looks eerily familiar.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Nice install on the seat! Looks eerily familiar.

Until you look under the hood. No big block here.
And thanks for the complement.


And after bunch of Imagineering I failed to come up with a better alternative to mount the air tank than bolting to the bottom of the floor. I did manage to find these large headed carriage bolts with nice flat heads. (Photo #1)

With things pretty much together I went out for a test ride. First thing I noticed was as I walked around the truck with it idling was that it seemed really quiet. I thought maybe since it had been a couple of weeks since I had driven it it was just me, but when I got back the girlfriend commented on how it sounded quieter than it was. Maybe it was all those bolts rattling before.

The next thing was just driving at 15 mph the truck feels much smoother than before. The new shocks and mounts really are noticeable at highway speeds. And it is nice not to be hearing that old track bar rattling.

I had thought that there would be a noticeable reduction in highway speed noise but that doesn't seem to be the case. Although it was nice today and I had the windows down, mostly to keep from being overcome by fumes as some of the sealer is still gassing off. Maybe when the windows are up I may notice some reduction.

Another noticeable change is that the body seems to rock side to side more than before. It may be the shocks but, the new floor may have stiffened the body so it isn't flexing anymore.

The one failure of the project is the new compressor mount. When the tank is near empty the compressor is definitely louder than it was before and about the same when the pressure is at the turn on point of the pressure switch. I also failed to cure my air leak on the tank side of the distribution valves. So more work to do.


I would also like to thank the folks involved with these two threads. They were very helpful with my little project.



http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=213960

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ight=fold+flat

[ManNamedJed]

Nice seat install. Mine has square body seats installed by the PO. Makes me wonder how they did it. He said they 'bolted right up'...

[HO455]

Thank you sir. Mine did "bolt up". After much cursing and fiddling about.

[ManNamedJed]

I guess, depending on how you look at it, everything eventually 'bolts right up'!

[HO455]

That's right. When someone asks me how I can do projects like this I tell them it's just nuts and bolts with some tape measurements thrown in.
My sister's response is always "You said the J-word" (just). It seems that she has learned that things don't "Just" go together as expected.

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by HO455

Thank you sir. Mine did "bolt up". After much cursing and fiddling about.

Right?!

It had been quite a while since I did mine but I do remember it taking at least one full weekend. BTW, I had to open up my latches a bit as well. I guess i forgot to mention that detail. D'oh!

[HO455]

It's all good! I believe you were posting from memory. It certainly is easy for me to forget all the moves necessary to do things like this. Especially the parts that didn't end up being a big hassle.
Do you remember if you used any spacers under the seat bases? If so what kind?

[Average Joe]

Originally Posted by HO455

It's all good! I believe you were posting from memory. It certainly is easy for me to forget all the moves necessary to do things like this. Especially the parts that didn't end up being a big hassle.
Do you remember if you used any spacers under the seat bases? If so what kind?

Yep.

Iirc I used 2" wide flat bar. Maybe 3/8" thick? Ill have to double check that though.

[richard2717]

VC
I finally got those rear panel brackets shipped out today UPS. they should arrive Tuesday

Richard

[HO455]

Thank you sir! PM me with what I owe you. They are predicting rain here for the next 7 days so I won't be setting up the saw horses and making new side panels any time soon.

[HO455]

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Yep.

Iirc I used 2" wide flat bar. Maybe 3/8" thick? Ill have to double check that though.

Thank you for checking Joe!

[richard2717]

Originally Posted by HO455

Thank you sir! PM me with what I owe you. They are predicting rain here for the next 7 days so I won't be setting up the saw horses and making new side panels any time soon.

Nothing needed. Enjoy them if they work out for ya, if not pass them on to someone who can.

Richard