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Anchoring the Rear Seat Pans

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T

twas_brillig

Jedi Knight
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Each of our squab seats has 4 cross-headed chromed screws, a bit less than 3/4" long, along with a trim washer sticking through them. The seats are not fixed in place as the screws do not seem long enough to penetrate the steel body. I've felt around the underside of the body plus used a mirror to try to have a look (not particularly successfully) and can't find any holes for the screws with this somewhat cursory inspection. I assume I should remove the screws, place the seats, predrill some small diameter holes, and then screw them down. Am I missing something here? Thanks, Doug
 
I recently helped a guy restore my BJ8 which won gold concours so was done very authentically. I remember him having to sit on the seats so that the bolts penetrated enough for me to apply washers and nuts from underneath. The holes were already in the body so no drilling was involved. Are you talking about your 3000 or your bugeye?
 
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NeilJ said:
I recently helped a guy restore my BJ8 which won gold concourse so was done very authentically. I remember him having to sit on the seats so that the bolts penetrated enough for me to apply washers and nuts from underneath. The holes were already in the body so no drilling was involved. Are you talking about your 3000 or your bugeye?
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BJ8 Car seat attachment is different, so they are not ugly.:smile-new:
 
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On my BT7, I have used an ice pick to locate the holes in the body through the rug and sound dreading. You do need screws lolonger than 3/4" to attached the panels.
I never liked the look of the exposed screw heads on the rear seats so on my last restoration, I welded bolts to the bottom of the pans and installed them like the BJ8s.
 
As a matter of preference, if not originality and necessity, the four stainless (#10?) screws were JB welded to the seat pan, then the seats were reupholstered. No exposed screw heads is a cleaner look. Reupholstering the pans was interesting: there are holes in the middle of the seat to catch seat bottom material with needle and thread. Good luck.
 
Rob Glasgow said:
On my BT7, I have used an ice pick to locate the holes in the body through the rug and sound dreading. You do need screws lolonger than 3/4" to attached the panels.
I never liked the look of the exposed screw heads on the rear seats so on my last restoration, I welded bolts to the bottom of the pans and installed them like the BJ8s.
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I did just the opposite. My BJ8 already had several of the rear seat studs broken off when I bought the car. I didn't like the idea of having to remove the rear wheels to access the nuts to remove the rear seat pans, so I installed anchor nuts on the seat structure to accept screws from above. That makes it much more convenient to remove the right rear seat for access to the fuel pumps (I have two), the fuel filter, and the differential for adding oil without having to put remove the wheel or put the car up on jack stands. With a yellow and black paint job, obviously I'm not particularly Concourse (or Concours) - oriented. The chromed screws and cupped washers look reasonably original to anyone who doesn't know.
 
Thanks guys - I picked up some longer stainless screws and we were able to probe and find the various holes and the seat squabs are now securely mounted. Question though: my intention was to transfer the 'cups' from the original screws onto the longer replacements, but couldn't remove them. I was thinking that I'd try to removing the 'new-longer' screws and replacing them with the orignals now that they are screwed down (in case the shorter lengths will now work); if this doesn't work, are there any suggestions regards transferring the 'cups'? Thanks, Doug
 
FYI: we used 8x1 oval head Phillips stainless sheet metal screws; they look the same but take a slightly different screwdriver. Doug
 
Rob Glasgow said:
On my BT7, I have used an ice pick to locate the holes in the body through the rug and sound dreading. You do need screws lolonger than 3/4" to attached the panels.
The bottom of them I never liked the look of the exposed screw heads on the rear seats so on my last restoration, I welded bolts to the bottom of the pans and installed them like the BJ8s.
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What if your seats are already covered with leather - would u still weld on the bottom of them ?
 
I think if you peeled he leather back from the hole locations you could carefully tack some screws to the pan. Another suggestion is to peel the leather back and use some JB Weld to fasten the bolts in place. Use oval head bolts and insert from the top side. Then glue the leather back in place.
 
Rob Glasgow said:
I think if you peeled he leather back from the hole locations you could carefully tack some screws to the pan. Another suggestion is to peel the leather back and use some JB Weld to fasten the bolts in place. Use oval head bolts and insert from the top side. Then glue the leather back in place.
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Thanks for the tip
 
One can buy the trim washers separately at a quality local hardware store. I like having the seat pan easily removable to get to the fuel filter on my BN4 (which should have the exposed screw heads anyway).
 
John Turney said:
One can buy the trim washers separately at a quality local hardware store. I like having the seat pan easily removable to get to the fuel filter on my BN4 (which should have the exposed screw heads anyway).
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That’s a good point , u never know when that fuel pump will give out
 
I have used some hefty self tappers at the moment and only 2 per seat, as I am always removing them to get at things. When I get around to buying in the proper seat covers for front and back I might consider welding in studs on the tractor seats.

:cheers:

Bob
 
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