Project 'Overtime': Pro-Touring 68 Acadian (Nova) with L92 swap

[scherp69]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Well.... didn't we just bust the bank!

Thanks Greg. It wasn't too bad. I'm sure with you're bank, you wouldn't have even noticed

Originally Posted by waynieZ

Wow what a haul!! Very Nice and helpful haul at that.

Yeah it was a nice haul. Too bad the tools are going to sit for a while until I get to use them. Oh well, they will be there waiting for me. How's the Camaro coming along? Have you had a chance to get out to the shop lately?

I made some decent progress on getting the rear seats mounted. It may not seem like much, but it's been time consuming and they are alot closer to being mounted. Well one side anyways. Yes it's been a major PITA, but for some reason I've found it quite enjoyable. I've actually been able to use some of my new tools.

On a side note before I post the pics, for those that are using the new Photobucket and don't like the fact that they took away the easy links, if you go into your settings there is a box you can check off to get the easy links back. I just found it this morning. Now it's like the old one where you can just click on the IMG link and not have to go into each photo to get it.

Onto the updates:

I found my leather was getting quite dirty, so I decided to take it off the seats. It came off very easily. As shown before, the bottom is held on with plastic clips that snap over the round bar. Once all the clips are off, the leather is held on with velcro





First thing I did was add some sheet metal to where the back of the seat will rest. This will give it some more support



Next I realized that when the seat was sitting on the floor, there was a large part of it that had no support underneath it at all. This is due to the way the floor is. You can see under the left side of the skeleton that most of it is sitting in the air



With this, I decided to make the floor more level. I built a new section to raise the floor out of 16 gauge sheet metal. I also found out that an Ingersol Rand air sheer is not designed to cut 16 gauge.....gotta buy a new one now

Here's the new section





This pic gives a good idea as to what I was talking about with the floor being unlevel



I also added a brace in the center of the new section



It sits on the floor a lot better now. I've also had to modify a few sections of the skeleton to make it sit better. I didn't take pics of all the modifications as it would be different from car to car.



I decided to use round bar to make front mounts instead of the sheetmetal ones that I had made. I will add some rear support bars to these later.

[scherp69]

At the rear of the seat, I'm going to weld some bolts onto the floor and they will slide into the two pieces on the outside. The middle piece slides into the upper part of the seat. With these pieces, you'll just have to hook the front of the seats into the mounts, slide the rear of the seat over the bolts and tighten it down.



Here's with the rear part of the seat in place. You can see how much I need to cut the rear section down to make it fit better. Sits way too high

[aany001]

Wow Mike you have been busy. The car is coming along nicely and I love the rendering of the car it looks amazing!

[scherp69]

Originally Posted by aany001

Wow Mike you have been busy. The car is coming along nicely and I love the rendering of the car it looks amazing!

Thanks Steve. How's yours coming along. Noticed you haven't updated in a while.

Have some updates. I've still been working on the rear seats.

I finished up the floor on the driver's side. Once that was done, I put the two skeletons in place to see how they fit.



Once they were in place, I decided that I would need to cut them down. I decided to take 4" out of the back. I cut one frame down and here you can see the difference in height between the two



I started by putting the frame onto the work bench.



There were a few areas that needed to be cut out for it to sit flat





Once those sections were cut, I marked the frame where I was going to take the 4" section from. I decided to take it from the center as it was nice and straight



Before I cut the frame, I put it back into the foam and marked the foam where I would need to cut it



Then I cut the frame and I was left with two sections



I then welded the two sections back together and added some more round bar for strength



Then I started on the foam. I ran the lines around the foam as to where I needed to cut



Using a few exacto knife blades, I cut the section out. You will find that cutting foam with an exacto knife, the blades dull very quickly

[scherp69]

Using some upholstery glue, I glued the two pieces together





I then decided to move the velcro strip where the seat covers fit in the center. I started by marking the section 4" down from where it used to be



I then used an exacto knife to cut out the section. Once it was cut out, I glued the foam I just cut out into old spot and glued the velco into the new cut out strip. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to take the leather covers into an upholstery shop, but it looks like I will have to get them to make some modifications. I might move the velcro strip a bit up, but have decided yet.



Once I got both sides done, I put them in to see how they fit. I like!!!!



From behind



Now that I had them cut down to where they fit better, I started to make the mounts for them

I welded some modified bolts onto the floor to secure the bottom section





Then for the top section, I welded on some bolts that will go through the rear piece of sheet metal and I will put nuts onto the bolts from inside the trunk

[scherp69]

Here you can see where the bolts come through. I think I need to get some longer bolts as once I add sound deadner, they might not be quite long enough. I will also weld a piece of flat stock or large washers on the back to add some more strength to where the bolts come though



I just have a little more to do on the driver's side and both seats will be mounted. I am then going to start working on a console to go between the seats and arm rests on the sides to hide the deep tubs.

I've also spent a bit of time reorganizing the shop. I added a shelf and moved the stereo



Which allowed me more room to actually use my brake



I also found I was hating having to unwind and them rewind up extension cords and trouble lights. So I got some new retractable stuff. I also replaced the retractable air hose with a new Flexilla set up



This is so much better. Especially being right above my car.



Got this from www.toolrage.com It's a 54 light LED.



I also bought a new bracket to mount my Highway 22 wiring harness in the trunk. I originally bought one from Ironworks, but HPI Customs came out with one that has mounting brackets and more room for relays





I'm going to mount it on the driver's side, but just put it here to see how it would look



I also got a Highway 22 trunk mount kit from Tyler at HPI Customs



One other thing I did was swap out most of the male hose fitting on my air tools. The local tool shop had swivel fittings on for just under 5 bucks. They make a world of difference. I can actually lay my air tools down without them sounding like they have an air leak. It also probably helps that I bought a 2 foot lead hose to add to the end of my air line. It also has a swivel end on it.





I hope to get out to the shop again tomorrow and finish up the driver's rear seat and start on the console. Will post pics.

[E.rodz]

good to see you are still working on this! hope things start coming together for you!

[GregWeld]

Give a man a welder and he can make almost anything!!


Looking good Mike!

[Todd in vancouver]

Hey Mike, thought of you the other day when I saw a used car rotisserie on CL here at the coast if you are still thinking of getting one. Car looks awesome and keep the pictures coming.

[waynieZ]

Very Nice Mike, you've been a busy guy! I think taking the height out of the backs of the seat was a good idea. Nice job.