I could show you the pictures of me setting drive line angles, but they're pretty boring. A bunch of shots of a magnetic protractor is about all you'd see. (who can read those tiny lines anymore?) A digital inclinometer is on my Christmas list in case anyone is feeling generous.
Panel alignment is also pretty boring work, so we'll skip that too, except for these quick points.
- 1973 A-body doors weigh 1665 lbs each (I'm guessing). Man, are they a PITA to align. But with a bit of time and a second set of hands to tighten the hinge bolts, my doors have never shut better. Hinges were rebuilt by me in 2010.
- I'm impressed my fiber hood that's been off this car for a good 3 years, actually fits in its spot after the fenders were remounted. I actually have a picture of that -
Once fastened, the same low spots that existed before, exist now.
The "interesting" topic, is the new seats I decided I wanted on a whim. I have to warn you though - there are very few pictures (I have 1 of the finished product) and a lot of foul language is used. Like George Carlin and Pulp Fiction Sam Jackson got into an argument kind of language. Read at own risk. And don't say I didn't warn ya.
The old Jaz seats were great. Affordable, well made, strong, semi comfortable and easy to install. So yeah, of course I wanted to replace them.
In all honesty, long drives were starting to wear on the wife and me with the old seats. This gave me the opportunity to update the car's look while making it more comfortable. Win win! (Next year, it'll be wheels to REALLY update the look, but for now, the seats will fit the bill). Kirkey 55s, here we come.
Funny, they don't look comfortable. Good thing I bought the covers with the contoured foam. Makes all the difference.
As you can see, they sit about the same on the floor bracket, so how hard can they be to install?
The Cambridge dictionary defines impetuous with the following:
impetuous - /ɪmˈpetʃ.u.əs/ - adjective - likely to do something suddenly, without considering the results of your actions. Acting or done suddenly without much thought.
Yeah, that sounds about right. That's me. At least for this seat purchase anyway.
Other than the height off the floor, these stupid $#&$*( ^$*()#@ , $^&forsaken seats had nothing in common with the old ones. And while that doesn't sound like a big deal, allow me to illustrate the 4 main reasons why it is.
1. ) I'm 5' 8" on a good day in heels. (At least my license says so)
The new seats have contoured foam that while comfortable under my legs, now angle my knees slightly upward, instead of allowing them to just go outward. That means I need to sit a bit closer to the wheel to reach the pedals. And when the roll bar's down bar has to pass in between your shoulder and your elbow to pass technical inspection at the race track, this presents a problem. With this, I'd be too far forward for the bar to be considered legal. And a new down bar / roll bar is out of the question.....
2.) The cross bar also has guides welded through it for seat belt bolt retention. 2 for each side.
With the old seat, it sat perfectly between those two spots. Now, because the new seat is wider, I cant center it because its already as far over to the drivers side as it can be. Any closer and my arm isn't protected by the down bar; it sits on top of it. I guess that's really OK, since the further to THAT side I go, the less it centers up on the steering wheel anyway. $#&&. Maybe its me, but that is the $%^& I notice when I look into the car.
3.) With bright red Kirkey logo centered in the headrest, its real easy to tell from the outside of the car if the seat isn't level. Not saying the old ones weren't, but if they were, no one would ever notice. I can think of 100 other things Id rather do than level a seat with a 47 year old floor.
4.) And finally, if that wasn't enough, the Kirkey butt bucket is lower in the seat than the Jaz. I need to gain some height or else I'll never see over that scoop. (ha, like I can now!)
Am I the only one that makes up silly requirements and then sticks to them regardless of much more work it creates? I keep fixing-forward hoping it will get me where I need to be. It eventually does, because I make it happen, but its done with a lot more effort, stress, and time than needed. The requirement I'm talking about here was to NOT move the existing brackets on the floor. I didn't want to drill more holes. Not a ridiculous requirement, but given all I've done to get these seats to fit and look good, life may have been a lot simpler if I just moved the brackets to a more advantageous position. (Not that there is a ton of room to do that mind you)
The problem too is I like symmetry and staggering the seat brackets wouldn't have looked right. And most importantly, the seat is a safety item - its gotta be smartly constructed, with the "what happens in an accident" scenario always playing in your mind. Too many pieces, too many fasteners and you may end up with weak link you didn't count on.
For that reason alone, my first inclination was to call a race shop and have them reinforce the floor, weld in a halo off the floor and bolt the seat to that. I imagine that would have been a lot quicker and safer. As a matter of fact, this whole setup was all supposed to be "temporary" anyways, just to get me in the car for testing. I spent so much time on it, I'm not sure I'll swap it out now.
I'll shut up now and show you some pictures. (I went and took some more. I felt bad I only had 1)
I have to say, this will be the most comfortable I've been in this car since its bench seat days. The shifter is easy to get to and visibility is great over that scoop.
I do have to be careful...with the height Ive built in, the seat is barely below the main halo bar. Hard to tell in this picture, but its about 1/2" below the bar. Not ideal. Tech may have something to say about that.
I'll be using these under the car to act as washers.
There are certainly a lot of ways to mount a seat. This is my interpretation of one way to do it. There are likely slicker ways to make it happen, but its level, solidly mounted, and puts me in all the right positions to focus on the driving.
Now I just have to modify those pedals so I can reach.....