$my seat mount debacle$ (1 Viewer)

[bsmith123]

When i got the BTB seat mount I had hoped to have a quick solution to my seat mount problem going from a bench to buckets in a 71 even if it was a bit spendy at 400 bucks

I got the mount and it is all stainless 3/4 inch so no prob there but if you do not have a welder or a trailer to take your truck to the welder think twice plus stainless can be welded with mig but tig will look a lot nicer

It comes in 14 or 15 pieces and there is like no way to mock it up and hold it all steady so you can cut the pieces to the right length or mark them for welding off site.


This could of been made so much simpler by having sockets the pieces slid into so you could mock it all up


For what I got other than the quality of the tubing I really feel now I should of got the mig instead and made up my own out of plain steel then painted them. Lots of advice in that direction but I was hoping for an easy way out and did not listen

In this case the solution was neither easy or cheap! But, fortunately some good guys from our welding shop at work are coming to my rescue by doing some side work

If you have everything to make this work on site or you can take it to the welder it might be worth it, but I cant help feeling that making the kit was the easy part and it wasnt made easy for me---at least not for the price.


When it is done it will be a good looking mount no doubt just costing me too much in hassle and $$$

Just thought I'd share so you can be prepared if you are thinking about it

 

[Vitesse_6]

Bummer, That is a nice looking seat mount

 

[Isotel]

wow - $400 is alot for a seat mount..


Would this be a product that you guys would be interested in? if we could make it out of 1" Round tube?? i know we could beat their price by a bunch!

 

[Senor Aguas]

Yeah, I'd be very interested in something that would allow for aftermarket seats to be positioned as low as possible with the factory tank in a '67. Corbeau sells a kit for the later models, nothing for the earlier ones as far as I know. I haven't checked out BTB.

I'm planning to build my own, but definitely would consider buying if it was available.

 

[Shawn Russell]

I was thinking of also getting one of the BTB mounts. I did not see anywhere on their site that it was a "kit". For the $400 price tag, I would think it was ready to go..

Thanks for the heads up. I will NOT be getting one now...

Shawn

 

[centerlineseal]

I'd be interested in a setup for a '72 with the passenger side internal tank. Was planning on fabbing my own, but if a minimally sized tube kit was out there for a decent price, I'd look pretty hard at it.

 

[jrfj40]

I'd be in. my 72 with internal tank (ps) and toolbox (ds).
is in need of some buckets.

 

[CruisinMT]

for $400 that seat mount needs to be at least 3x bigger

 

[Rodeo]

If someone could build one for cheaper I would buy one for my 72. I'll be watching to see when you get one fabbed up and ready to sell!

 

[BELMONT148]

I would be in for my 71'. But it would need to have standard flat stock so you can mount all types of seats. I have a set of Volvo seats that need to go in my rig. Just to lazy to fabricate a mount.

Jeremy

 

[Chula Vista 71 FJ40]

Would be interested-

I've also got a 71 that is waiting for a set of volvo seats, so would definitely be interested

 

[Senor Aguas]

A pre bent tube kit that you could cut and weld would be great for me and cheap to put together I would think.

 

[Toyota Man]

I have a 1970 that I want to put bucket seats in. I would be very interested if the price was pretty good.
It seems to me like a square tub would be easier to mount a variety of different seats to though. But I don't have any experience in this so i could be wrong.

 

[bsmith123]

tube

Well round tube isnt really an issue for this one --if you look on the top there are two heavy flat pieces of steel that just about any kinda mount could go on----on the front and back it runs the full length from drivers to passengers side

Really it is not bad it is just the fact that it is not put together in a way that helps you out


I've got a borrowed MIG and Sat I've got some help coming

 

[hill]

id be curious to keep an eye on this thread as well

 

[bsmith123]

seat mount

If it was plain steel I could of rented or borrowed the mig and welded it up I suppose--I made a call and Sunbelt actually rents small migs for around 40 bucks a day

But since it is stainless we are going top tack it up with the mig and then tig it. We as in I am going to help while he welds since he is a full time welder and machinist for aircraft work.

 

[Dirtsquirt]

you could just mig it

Mig works well on stainless. I use .023 stainless wire. I have a roll of 308L stainless wire for welding the nonrusting type stainless.
300 series.
That and a small bottle of trigas. (helium,argon,co2) mix.
Small roll of wire 25.00 if you know the guy at the weld house
even remotely he will lend a tank if you buy the contents for a short period. another 25.00 approx.
For 60.00 you could do it yourself.
Good luck..

 

[bsmith123]

Frame install and modifications

well, turned out it wasn't stainless looked like at first but it wasnt

anyway I am happy to have it in after all, heres some pics.

If you notice the drivers side upright post is set back a little to allow use of the toolbox yet it is still plenty strong

the inboard drivers mount goes over the trans cover but I didnt want to cut and fit it in so I stuck a shim under it and bolted it down there was a small gap on that leg anyway so it worked well

The seats recline and move forward and back. One point is that the pass seat is set inside a little more than needed it could have been a little closer to the door but I didnt want to mess with the support tube and weaken it when I mount the seats I can fit a 6 inch console or maybe 8 inch if the lid is higher than the seats. On those legs I picked up the OEM mount points

The seats are at a good height and I can adjust them up or down about 2 inches with different holes in the attachment to the seat frame---just got to fab up the brackets for that now on the drivers side they would fit underneath but on the pass side it sits too low to the tank for the brackets so i will install them on top. I can still make the seats level with the holes in the seat rail brackets

It would be easy to go too high with the seats if you didn't watch it though so I kept it pretty low to the tank

This thing is pretty heavy duty compared to the OEM bench tubing since we welded the tubes all along the flat metal I left out some of the tubes that ran across the front as they were overkill and it gives me better access to the trans cover and under the seats

Legs are painted with primer and rustoleum hammerd metal and the flat metal painted with chassis black to blend into the seats a little better

 

[bsmith123]

a few more pics

heres a couple more pics

I like the tube supports cause they look kinda OEM but for the price and still having to put it all together and weld it I should of ran down the ironworks and got the metal myself--live and learn right?

I cant say I wasn't given that advice so I am passing it on now having learned the hard way!

On the other hand it looks like there is enough interest in premade mounts to buy a welder and make some seat mounts to pay for it --if I wasn't moving in July!

 

[bsmith123]

mount

yeah I am thinking if I had not had my bench seat hauled off right away I could off made the mounts out of it

But i thought I would be able to buy seat mounts at the time but I could not find any to work and keep the tool box and am not sure it the later mounts would work with the gas tank in the cab

Yeah it was a lot of money but its over now and I can get onto more important stuff