The Webmaster Zone

The welds holding the bottom of the seat frame to the rails have come apart in three corners (drivers side only) so I pulled the seat out last night after work. Pretty easy, slide the seat all the way back and undo the front screw/bolt, slide forward and do the same to the back. Removed the two nuts holding the seat back to the bottom and carted the bottom part up to the apartment for a closer inspection. Originally I was worried that I couldnt' get it welded back into shape because of the (flammable?) material etc in the way, but on closer inspection it seems dead easy to take the whole seat apart - remove leather cover clips, remove foam, remove springs and diaphragm. The diaphragm is ripped so I'll replace that, and get the frame welded on Friday. Barring any problems, another DPO bodge fixed. Update [Aug 7, 1998] All done... took the bare frame to a couple places near home, one body shop wanted $75 to weld the frame!! I laughed in his face, and took it to Octagon Motors where I picked up a new diaphragm and they recommended a welding shop across the street. One hour later and $10 poorer I had a reconstituted lower seat frame. Pays to shop around. Got home and put it all back together, wire brushed the rust off the rails and smeared a bit of grease from the kingpins along the edge to ease seat adjustments and bolted it into place. The seat has never felt better, no doubt due to the new diaphragm. Mark I seats are dead easy to work on, too bad I don't have some extra cash or I would have replaced the torn leather covers and put in new foam while I was at it. Oh well, another time. Fixed another broken (cut?) wire in the loom at the back of the car, now I have license plate lights... everything electrical works now! I feel like I'm winning the war ;-) Its off to Seattle tomorrow, it will be nice to have a radio for the long straight drive down the I5.