Seat Rails

[kolls]

Okey! Here's the deal. I tore the carpet out of my spider and stripped the floor pans all the way down to the metal. Once i did that i found a large hole on the inside passengers rail and under it ( really bad even across the crossmember that the rail sits on is rusted out). The rail came out with the seat. so now i have to fix it with some sheet metal and welder. The rail is rusted beyond repair and i was wondering what others have done to make a new rail.

[ROOK1]

I had/have the same problem. Find someone that is parting out a car and see if they are willing to cut out a section of floor rails and all, (that's what I did thanks Matt) cut out your bad section and weld in the new section from the parts car. This will be much easier since it is already the correct shape and has the proper built in nuts for mounting the seat.

[mbouse]

excellent tip, Rook. now i know a new part to salvage from this parts car come spring... Sorry, Kolls. it is fridgid here, i'm not cutting out seat rail mounts for a few weeks. but, if yer project can take another direction for a few weeks, i'd be happy to forward you a seat rail mount.

[kolls]

well here is a pic. And mbouse i can wait a few weeks if you are willing to do it. I know its gotta be cold up there right now.
There is still alot of wire wheel work that can be done for now. as you can see in the pic.


most of it is just surface rust. comes right off with wire wheel

[azygoustoyou]

Don't breathe that stuff. You'll regret it later.

[bwilson27]

What do you mean, Brady?

[ROOK1]

Its hard to tell in that picture but is that a hole in the floor or the seat riser rusted out?

When the time comes have Mike send big sections of the floor so you can determine how much you need. Matt sent me 2 sections about 2 foot square basically from the outer rocker to half way up the hump. All I really need is the risers and part of the cross member since my floors are in pretty good shape. I will probably cut mine out and replace the the whole cross member section with the risers and leave my existing floors. If I were you I'd try to do each side in one piece no matter what the size is.

Maytag has offered to come up to my place and do my welding for me so I'll be working on mine soon. I'll post pics of my process from beginning to end when it happens. I have started part of my riser removal but held off til I knew where I was going to have the work done as I may have needed the risers for the seat.

[maytag]

ROOK1:
Since you're cutting-out the old stuff, are you allowing for a flange to weld to? If it's not too late, then ideally, you could flange either the existing floor to accept the new riser 'assembly' (with the floor peice) or flange the new one going in to rest on-top of the existing.

Does that make sense? if not, shout-out, and I'll make a sketch and post it.
What we're tryying to accomplish is getting the risers in the correct position relative to the floor pan, but still having an overlap, so there's plenty of metal to weld to.

And if you need a flange tool, I've got one you can borrow, assuming you've got a compressor?

[azygoustoyou]

I meant if your using a wire brush to clean it. You won't want to breathe it. I sometimes forget and jump into working then realize later I should have wore a mask or respirator.

[ROOK1]

Maytag:

I haven't done much to mine as of yet, I have removed part of one rail but left the floor. My plan is to replace the risers individually if the cross member is solid or as a unit if not but definitely leaving the floors uncut if possible.

[kolls]

Thats a large gapping hole in the floor board. yes the crossmember is rusted out. I am glad i tore the carpet out to put new carpet in. I would of never found this.

[manoa matt]

The sheet metal for the seat towers is very thin and even with a Mig welder on a low setting it is easy to burn through. You may want to cut away the floor pan material around the "new" seat tower just enough so that the new seat tower and a surrounding flange will fit over the area of the removed existing tower. That way you can weld the thicker floor pan metal to the same thickness existing floor pan metal.

[kolls]

I am hoping that mr. bouse will have one where he can cut out a piece big enough with the rails intact. but we will see. that would be the easiest to weld back in because you are right them rails are really thin.

[mbouse]

i'm not getting to that car until february... while you wait (if you can wait) send me a life size sketch of the area you want cut out.

if you need my address again, send me an email.

[kolls]

Would there be anybody else here who would have a salvage car they would be willing to cut out a piece of the floor for my car.