SaxMan's Winter 2014/15 Project Thread

[SaxMan]

With snow in the forecast for tomorrow, I decided it was time to call it a season with Baby Blue and start the winter maintenance / upgrades to Baby Blue. This winter, I'm going to be focusing on the interior, recovering and repadding both seats, fixing a few gremlins behind the dash, etc. The only major mechanical issue this winter is the replacement of the gas tank. Everything else is routine maintenance, tune up, etc.

I yanked the passenger seat out tonight and stripped it down. I got the covering and the padding of the bottom of the seat. The metal framework is definitely in need of restoration before I put the new upholstery and covers on. There's a fair amount of surface rust on the frame, but so far it all is coming off with a sanding block easily. The padding was still intact, but not pretty, and the webbing underneath the seat was completely disintegrated.

Back inside the car, the passenger floor plan is in pretty good shape. It appears that it was replaced somewhere along the line, but the repair looks to be one that was well done. I'll clean it up before putting the carpet and the seat back down. I figure I'll get the passenger seat completely done first and then move onto the driver's seat.

Lots of pics to follow soon!

 

[nomad]

Don't toss your original padding till you are sure you like the replacement. In fact don't toss anything till the project is done. Some of it may be needed. In general those seats usually only need the suspention replaced unless the covers are, of course, shot. I've added more stiffness to them by cutting out section's of old inner tube and sliding them on to the wire's. BTW I have lots of seats for part's. Recent large parts accumulation due to the sale of a storage unit business from a long time Spridget addict!

Kurt.

 

[SaxMan]

The covers have many tears and repaired holes in them...it's definitely time. Yes, I don't throw anything away until all the new parts are back together again. I don't know how many times I've saved myself because one of the older pieces of hardware ended up working better than its replacement. Might take you up on the offer for suspension pieces, the ones that were under the seat were rubber mats that hooked in to the frame, and they have fallen apart. It looks like some work was done on the seats before, but I'd bet the covers are original.

 

[longbridgehealey]

Hi Dave, supposedly the floors were replaced by the last owner (before me) and according to Joe over at Chris' Vintage Restoration a pretty good job was done. Good luck with the seats! If you do any work up under the dash be careful with the wiring from the combination horn/turn signal switch. It was always a problem��

 

[nomad]

The covers have many tears and repaired holes in them...it's definitely time. Yes, I don't throw anything away until all the new parts are back together again. I don't know how many times I've saved myself because one of the older pieces of hardware ended up working better than its replacement. Might take you up on the offer for suspension pieces, the ones that were under the seat were rubber mats that hooked in to the frame, and they have fallen apart. It looks like some work was done on the seats before, but I'd bet the covers are original.

You have the rubber bladder type of suspention as a opposed to the late rubber strap's. All of the suspention design's give out and I wouldn't have any that are any good. I may have some good cushions and I know I have some good back's and frames.

Kurt.

 

[SaxMan]

Okay -- first question -- I pulled the seats using the four bolts that hold the seat rails to the floor pan. As I loosened the nuts, the rear bolts began to spin. That wasn't a problem as I could just grab the bolt with a needle nose plier and loosen the nut the rest of the way off. When I put the seats back in, how do I keep these bolts from spinning as I tighten them up? I was thinking of putting some loctite below the head of the bolt. Or, if I use new hardware, the nut will probably tighten up smoothly so the bolt doesn't spin?

Hi Larry -- The floor pans do appear to be new and well done. I found some VB part labels on the seat rail pieces, so they've definitely been out of the car before, but I don't think anything was done to the actual seats themselves.

Kurt - yes, I have the rubber bladder suspension, and, as I had mentioned, had completely disintegrated. No wonder I was sinking so far into the seat!

 

[nomad]

Original seat rail's screwed into weld nuts but I imagine the replacements dispensed with those. Find a friend to help!

Kurt.

 

[glemon]

If you don't have any friends may I introduce you to the home mechanic's buddy, Mr. Vice Grips?

 

[SaxMan]

Seat frame proved to be a bit more rusty than I originally thought. I spent about 90 minutes sanding, grinding and hitting it with a wire wheel to clean it up. It was a bit annoying, but at least it showed that my decision to go after the seats this year was a good one. I'll put a fresh coat of paint on it before test-fitting the new parts. Yes, I know no one will see this, but I figure if I fix it up right, I won't have to worry about fixing it again for another 45 years.

 

[SaxMan]

Some pics from Wednesday night:

Hey! Where did the seat go? The rust is from the seat rails, not the floor pans. It will clean up quickly.
DSC_0003 by onyxsax, on Flickr

The missing seat found after a brief search:
DSC_0007 by onyxsax, on Flickr

View of the bottom of the seat with disintegrated suspension:
DSC_0008 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Foam, frame and seat cover:
DSC_0016 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Close of of the corrosion on the seat frame:
DSC_0017 by onyxsax, on Flickr

 

[SaxMan]

Cracked open the top half of the seat. The frame was in far better shape. It looks like someone had this part of the seat open before, as the foams did not appear to be the stock foam, and it was attached to the seat frame using a spray adhesive.

The headrest was another story. After fighting to get it out, I opened it up. TONS of this green stuff came pouring out. At one point, I thought it was someone's clever ruse to sneak marijuana in the car and they completely forgot about it. There was also a lot of white cottony stuff. On the bottom, someone went ape with the tacks to attach the covering to the headrest. I haven't pulled out so many tacks in so small of an area since I was yanking them out of the Cessna Bobcat that was tacked and re-tacked as an instructional airframe. The metal was in okay shape...better than the bottom frame, but not as good as the back frame. Pics to follow.

 

[SaxMan]

Pics!

Top half of the seat on the operating table:
DSC_1101 by onyxsax, on Flickr

View of the foam after the cover has been removed. Can anyone confirm if this is or is not a stock foam?
DSC_1105 by onyxsax, on Flickr

The seatback frame was in overall better shape, although there was corrosion at the bottom:
DSC_1106 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Headrest with the two dozen or so tacks on the bottom part of the wood:
DSC_1109 by onyxsax, on Flickr

This was what the inside of the headrest looked like. I literally poured the contents of the headrest straight into a garbage bag.
DSC_1111 by onyxsax, on Flickr

 

[SaxMan]

Today was painting day! Here the bottom frame gets a coat of paint. I was going more for protection than appearance, since all this is going to be covered anyway:
DSC_1113 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Even though the top frame was in pretty good shape, I went ahead and painted it again.
DSC_1115 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Completed seat bottom frame:
DSC_1118 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Completed seat back frame:
DSC_1121 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Between paint coats, I started cleaning / detailing the passenger floor and footwell:
DSC_1122 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Repainted head rest:
DSC_1125 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Next step -- putting in the foams, recovering the seats and putting it all back together!

 

[longbridgehealey]

You and that car were meant for each other��

 

[SaxMan]

...and five days in, we hit our first snag:

I started fitting the foams to the frames -- so far, so good. I couldn't find foams for the headrest, but wasn't overly pressed, since I can recycle the old foams for that. When I went to put the covers on the seat back, there was a big problem: no holes for the headrest tubes. Worse, no material to cover the headrest. The kit I purchased was specific for the '69 Sprite, which has the bucket seats with the headrests (the only year the Sprite had them). I double checked the catalog, this was the correct part number for the '69. Either this kit was mislabeled or the catalog is wrong. We'll see what VB has to say tomorrow.

Larry: Yes, thank you. This car really is a perfect match. It's together enough that I can enjoy driving it during warmer weather, but there's enough that can be fixed or improved upon to give me endless winter projects when I can't drive the car.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

So now it's time to visit your local upholstery shop. I took a sample of Bugsy's new seat kit with me and they were able to match up the fabric exactly.A great color match as well as grain match. I did have to buy a yard of fabric 44 inches wide that cost me about $50 with shipping but I have an exact match for my dash. You can do the same with the headdress.

 

[longbridgehealey]

David, if you go that route try Joe's Upholstery on Patrick Street in Frederick.

 

[SaxMan]

David, if you go that route try Joe's Upholstery on Patrick Street in Frederick.

Looks like I'm going to have to go that route. After communicating with VB, their "1969 Only" upholstery kit doesn't come with the parts that made the 1969 seats unique -- the headrests! Why even bother having a "1969 Only" kit?

I'll got ahead and put the seats back together, sans headrests, and then take the two headrests to the upholstery shop, both for foams and coverings.

 

[longbridgehealey]

Give Joe's a try. They've done a number of the car's seats and tops in our club, and are very reasonably priced. Good luck!

 

[SaxMan]

More pics!

Test fitting the seat bottom foam:
DSC_1202 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Test fit of the seat bottom cover:
DSC_1203 by onyxsax, on Flickr

Test fitting seat back foams:
DSC_1204 by onyxsax, on Flickr

I decided to recycle the seat clips. They all had varying degrees of surface rust on them. A typical one on the left, and after grinding on the right.
DSC_1207 by onyxsax, on Flickr