Joel K
Supporter
Now that the body is pretty much located, time to install the seats and the intercooler brackets.
Video on installing the cooler brackets and seat fitment discussion…
The good news is the intercooler brackets mounted with 1/2” clearance to each side of the body and about 3/8” from the rear fender liners. So even if the body needs to be shifted a bit they are mounted for good.
Pic of the cooler brackets installed. Two M6 screws go through the bracket and frame rail. The middle cap screw just screws into to bracket for looks. No need to drill more holes than necessary through the frame. At some point, I’ll fab up a lower sister bracket to the bottom frame rail. Loving the look of the twin rear coolers…
Close up of the cooler bracket…
Now for the not so good news. I’ve invested a lot of hours into fitting the seats in the car with the side impact bars and recently decided to throw in the towel and ordered a pair of Tillett B5 seats.
Turned out I incorrectly assumed the passenger side impact bar had the same orientation as the driver’s side. I removed the bars early in the build and myopically focused on the driver side since that had the wider gentleman’s seat which posed all the fitment issues.
I planned to angle the driver’s side gentleman’s seat toward the center console to line it up with the steering column. Then widen the center console on the passenger side to accommodate the width of the shifter.
Once installed, I now realized the passenger side impact bar is angled in behind where the passenger seat was going to be mounted. Thus not really leaving enough room for a wider center console.
I thought about trimming the seats some more and removing the aprons fully, but felt there would still not be enough room once the seats were upholstered. Here is a pic showing where the side passenger seat needed to be placed, thus crowding the center console…
Here is another pic which shows where I intended to place the seats. Never noticed the passenger seat was right in front of the side impact bar attach point which is a steel tube. I did not want that sitting directly behind the seat…
Sort of disappointed that the seat modifications didn’t work out, but on the bright side I gained some good fiberglass experience which should pay off when I get to a few body mods I have in mind.
Anyway, was excited to receive the Tilletts. Turns out they fit me ok and will work out. Another 1/2” by the hip bones would be ideal, but the height of the seat and width of the bolsters fit fine.
Pic of all the seats. You’ll notice the Tilletts sit 2” taller than the stock seats with the Tillett TB2 Brackets and runners In the lowest position. Going to replace the stock brackets with custom ones like Ken Roberts did to increase the recline…
Next post should cover fabbing up the new seat brackets and install.
Video on installing the cooler brackets and seat fitment discussion…
The good news is the intercooler brackets mounted with 1/2” clearance to each side of the body and about 3/8” from the rear fender liners. So even if the body needs to be shifted a bit they are mounted for good.
Pic of the cooler brackets installed. Two M6 screws go through the bracket and frame rail. The middle cap screw just screws into to bracket for looks. No need to drill more holes than necessary through the frame. At some point, I’ll fab up a lower sister bracket to the bottom frame rail. Loving the look of the twin rear coolers…
Close up of the cooler bracket…
Now for the not so good news. I’ve invested a lot of hours into fitting the seats in the car with the side impact bars and recently decided to throw in the towel and ordered a pair of Tillett B5 seats.
Turned out I incorrectly assumed the passenger side impact bar had the same orientation as the driver’s side. I removed the bars early in the build and myopically focused on the driver side since that had the wider gentleman’s seat which posed all the fitment issues.
I planned to angle the driver’s side gentleman’s seat toward the center console to line it up with the steering column. Then widen the center console on the passenger side to accommodate the width of the shifter.
Once installed, I now realized the passenger side impact bar is angled in behind where the passenger seat was going to be mounted. Thus not really leaving enough room for a wider center console.
I thought about trimming the seats some more and removing the aprons fully, but felt there would still not be enough room once the seats were upholstered. Here is a pic showing where the side passenger seat needed to be placed, thus crowding the center console…
Here is another pic which shows where I intended to place the seats. Never noticed the passenger seat was right in front of the side impact bar attach point which is a steel tube. I did not want that sitting directly behind the seat…
Sort of disappointed that the seat modifications didn’t work out, but on the bright side I gained some good fiberglass experience which should pay off when I get to a few body mods I have in mind.
Anyway, was excited to receive the Tilletts. Turns out they fit me ok and will work out. Another 1/2” by the hip bones would be ideal, but the height of the seat and width of the bolsters fit fine.
Pic of all the seats. You’ll notice the Tilletts sit 2” taller than the stock seats with the Tillett TB2 Brackets and runners In the lowest position. Going to replace the stock brackets with custom ones like Ken Roberts did to increase the recline…
Next post should cover fabbing up the new seat brackets and install.
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