zehnd

Earlier in the year I had installed some late power sport seats into my early car. I ran the power right from the battery, that method bothered me, so we rewired right to the fuse box.

Since one project leads to another.

The seat anchor was all cracked, which made my seat loose and unstable.

I decide to have a large washer, welded along with the original nut back onto the body of the car.

Half way through the project I decided to take photos, so I do not have any early photos of what it looked like before we welded the large washer, sorry.

The large washer


The washer welded onto the body.


The seat nut.


Measure the distance.


Welding the nut


Wire brushed.


Painted


Final view


A few notes.

Use wet towels, disconnect the battery, and use black paint not red.

I'll repaint when I repair my my seat cushion.

One other note I did not grind the weld smooth because of the sparks that would be thrown.

Mark Parker

Zehnd,,I see your weld looks like one of mine.....smooothh

zehnd

Mr brother-in-law welded, I supervised. There wasn't much to weld to and if he went too long, he was afraid of burning the metal away.

Solid as a rock now.

SoCal Driver

Don. The later seats, post 85's, are consierably stronger than the 83's and will pull the anchors out of the floor if they are not square and level.

Also don't use the seatbelt anchor on the seat. Cut it off and use the anchor point on the side of the center tunnel.

Again; the seats will pull out of the floor in a accident.

The blind nuts in the front are supposed to move around a bit. I'm in the process of making a heavy gauge metal and floating blind nut replacement for the front two hold downs on my 83. This can be welded in place or bolted through the floor.

zehnd

Thanks SoCal, I am currently using the ones attached to the seat. I will change that.

I am curious why the floating blind nut move around.

When you get your hold downs done, post some pictures

Granite 944

Ya know.....I was just getting ready to do the same sort of repair to my seat anchors! WHAT TIMING! Did yours look anything like mine does right now? Pic shows my drivers side inboard anchor, but I also have to repair/replace the outboard one due to a broken nutplate that spins freely.
The PO had the bolt and bent bracket strap stuck in under the hole to hold seat down with. Bolt stuck up so high, my wife couldn't move seat forward forward enough for her (a darn shame too!).

I've been kinda dreading getting into this repair, wondering just what would be the way to proceed. I hadn't even thought of using a washer! I'm kinda thinking maybe that would be the way to go! I want to try to find some 6mm allen head bolts for the seat mounts also. I also wonder just how many other people have had to repair their seat anchors?

I have an AC welder/generator. I'm not much of a welder, so I'll probably have to practice up on some scrap stuff before I start (porcupine welder, yep, thats me!). Solid as a rock Huh! Great Job!

Granite 944

SoCal, I would really be interested in seeing a picture and description of what your building for your repair!

zehnd

Mine wasn't that bad. We were wondering if a person made a [ shaped bar that went right across, faced down with the two holes for the seats and either welded or bolted to the floor. The front may be raised a bit.

But if the floating nut and the level thing causes a problem, this may not work.

Granite 944

The nuts under the deck I believe, are referred to as floating nutplates. I sure know how to install these since I work in the aircraft industry. I just might have to look around a little in order to find metric sized nutplates (maybe). For this one repair, I probably should use heavier gauge steel for it. Maybe 1/8th steel plate bent over both sides of the top, welded to lower part of seat channel, and just shim the back up to compensate if needed?

SoCal Driver

The sheet metal of the double floor boards in the early 944's is less than a 1/16" thick. I guess I should throw a dial caliper at it.

Basically what I'm in the process of doing is matching the profile of the lateral rib the blind floating nuts are (were) in with 11 gauge steel. Kind of a open U shape with to flats at the ends of the U.

The blind nuts are actually 1/8" strap steel held in place with button head screws on each side going from top (the bottom of the U -- it's inverted) through over size holes and into the 2" long strap steel at each end. This gives the blind nut the float needed to get the seat frame to fit (no seat is perfect because of the movement the welding incurs). The back blind nuts don't float.

You have to cut out the area around the front blind nuts to get the new blind nuts to sit into the lateral floor rib.

Come to think of it I don't recall if the 86 I took the seats out of had floating blind nuts. Don't think it did. Must have some "adjustment" in the sliders on the bottom of the seat.

As soon as I can get a sample together, possibly later this week, I'll post some pictures.