Seat Mounts; Pedal Board Brackets

Yesterday, I made a summary of the things that remained to be completed before I could move on to priming the new floorpan and battery box, and finally undercoating the car. I want to complete these tasks before I put the car back on its suspension to finish the rest of the visible repairs, i.e. fender/lockpost repair, door gap adjustment, rocker panels, and replacement nose. Discussion on 356Talk has shown that there is quite a bit of controversy over whether or not the 356 car body is strong enough not to noticeably flex when it is supported on suspension points rather than by others means (my rotisserie supports on the bumper mounting points), but it isn't worth taking chances. I'll make some measurements and observations so that hopefully I can add another data point either way.

Back to the remaining tasks. They included the seat mounts, the pedal support brackets, tow hook, jack receivers, and something I forgot to list previously, welding the back (bottom) seam where the floor pan halves meet. I thought it would take a day or two, and that estimate was pretty good. I knocked out the seat mounts and pedal stuff today.

I started with the seat mounts. On the way out to the shop this morning, I stopped off at my storage locker and grabbed a seat bottom. This was so I could use the actual seat to fit the seat rails onto the seat mounts, and get a perfect fit on the mounts before they were welded in place. A logical approach, and I'm sure one that is used by most people who have done it before. Don't just wing it and try to weld the supports into place where they look like they should fit!

I started by bolting in the inner seat rail, and then loosely bolting the outer seat rail assembly to the two mounts. I slid the seat bottom onto the two rails and lined up the rear of each rail so that they were the same distance from the rear seat bulkhead (10 1/2" or so in my case). There are weld-nuts inside the seat mounts that afford a small degree of adjustment after the mounts are welded in place, but best to center up the nuts with the mounts in their proper place to assure you are going to get a good fit. I then tacked the mounts in place, removed the seat and outer rail, and finished off welding in the mounts with lap-welds. Looking back over my disassembly pictures, it is somewhat difficult to tell if the welds were originally lap-welds or plug welds, but it doesn't really matter because everything is getting carpeted anyway.

After finishing the driver's side seat mounts, I moved forward to the pedal cluster stuff. There is a bracket with three welded bolts (studs) protruding from it that needs to be welded in from the bottom of the floorpan. It provides a secure mount for the pedal cluster unit to attach to. I began by attaching the pedal cluster to the front bulkhead; two studs protrude on either side of where the master cylinder hole is, and it can be temporarily held in place with just those. I then drilled holes for the bracket in each of the three cut-outs in the pedal cluster. From underneath, I test-fit the bracket through the holes, it was a good fit. To get the bracket nice and tight against the floor pan, I put nuts onto its studs from inside the car and snugged them down. Finally, I welded the pedal support bracket in place with a couple of weld beads.

To follow finish the area, there is another bracket that needs to be welded in to support the wooden pedal board. The pedal cluster was removed, and the bracket was positioned; two cutouts fit over the studs protruding from underneath from the pedal support bracket. Unfortunately, my tunnel repair on the left side had been a bit overzealous. Originally, the front of the left side of the tunnel was notched a bit. I simplified and removed this notch when I rebuilt it, not understanding its purpose. Now, trying to fit up the pedal board bracket, it became clear; there was insufficient clearance without the notch. I pulled out the die grinder with a cut-off wheel and put things back the way they should be.

Tunnel modification complete, I put the pedal board bracket in place, using an actual pedal board to insure proper clearance and positioning. A few tacks, and then the board was removed. A number of longer lap-welds secured the bracket. Again, I'm not sure if these brackets were originally mounted with lap-welds, or resistance spot-welded. I don't really care though, I just want to finish this kind of welding and move on!

The right (passenger) side was simpler, because I only had to do the seat mounts and toe board bracket; no pedals of course. I finished up the day by vacuuming out the interior of the car because it had become quite dirty after all the recent grinding operations. I'm starting to become aware of how important getting the body absolutely clean is going to be for primer and paint, so it seems best to keep up with it as I go along, rather than having to dedicate a pile of time to it right beforehand.

I believe I mentioned in a previous entry that I sent my front spindle assemblies off to Tim Berardelli at Berardelli Racing in Alexandria, VA to have the linkpin bushings reamed and replaced, and the kingpins redone. They came back today. How's that for fast service! They are nice and clean, and have been painted a nice medium gloss black. Tim was happy to use my own parts that I shipped with the spindles. If you need this service performed, I don't hesitate to recommend giving him a call.

So where am I now? I still need to do the jack spurs, the tow hook, and the bottom floor pan seam. Then cleaning, primer and undercoat. Then suspension re-assembly. I'll need to get my wheels done, and new tires purchased and mounted; I had my old tires removed several months ago (while the tread was in good shape, they are really the wrong size for the 15x4.5" rims, being 195R15s). Need to clean up the transmission, which I think at this point means pulling the axle tubes, blasting and painting them, checking out the bearings, and putting everything back together with new boots. Then I get to put that in and put the rear suspension back together, and then finally I can get the car off the rotisserie to do the rest of the exterior body work and paint!

Sounds so simple when I write it, doesn't it? My MBA program starts in 4 weeks...we'll see if the car ever gets done.

Posted by pbrown at July 29, 2004 10:14 PM