Lower front seat frame cracks

[mustang7173]

All,

Finally got to dis-assembled, remove vinyl, from my front seats. The first time I dis-assembled the seats, I found the small cracks. I inserted small metal strips and welded. The round, I find the cracks showed up again and in other spots. This time, I purchased some 18 ga. sheet metal and I am going to fabricate a wrap around plate on the outside to provide more strength.  I highly recmmend to inspect your seat frames before installing your new upholstery!

Keep you posted.

 

[JimB73]

I found the same issue on my drivers seat when taken apart. I had a metal plate welded to the inside of the seat frame corner to try and stiffen it up. We'll have to see over time if it holds up. The leverage generated when someone leans back in the high back seat is a lot on frame. I don't think they used very good metal in these seats nor did they anticipate that they would still be used 45 +years later.....

 

[mustang7173]

Hello JimB73,

I agree! One area that I did not think is the hog ring oval shaped hole where bolster wire is inserted! This is a weak point that the engineers probably did not think about!

I will upload pictures when we finish adding metal supports!

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mustang7173]

All,

Got some 18 ga. metal and fabricated the metal to wrap around the outside edges to add more strength.







Off to the paint process. Then, install all necessary materials for recovering.

 

[JimB73]

Wow, Nice! Hopfully you will be set!

 

[Omie01]

I cut a "C" shape piece to fit inside the corner horizontally, then I installed a small strut in the middle of the rear wall that goes from the top of the pan to the bottom so the main part can't twist, and finally installed 2 small struts on either side so the sides can't bulge out either. Hopefully all of that work holds up. The high back seats are torture on these lower pans. Good luck!!

 

[rackerm]

I had to pull the frame back into the correct position and then I welded the cracks and then welded a big washer over the top corners. It added enough reinforcement. I don't have a picture of it, so I used one of your pics to illustrate it.

 

[mustang7173]

Hello Omie01 and rackerm,

The more you eyeball it, the more you see that the design was not very robust at the back end section. As we can see, there is not much metal there for strength. As one forum member reminders us, it was not designed to last 45 years. Glad to see other forum member providing good, "what you can do fix them" solutions.

I went to the Local Fabric Outlook yesterday and picked up some Marine vinyl, muslin, 1 yard of Jute Padding, and 1/4 inch foam. The Marine Vinyl will replace the burlap. I stopped by a local Upholstery shop and notice one of the techs had glued 1/4 foam on the drivers side lower seat foam. The tech stated, that the extra foam will help keep the foam from collapsing over time due to the driver in and out of the seat. He does it to the passenger side seat bottom also.

OK - maybe light bulb moment here!