Seat Bases
Friday, April 1st, 2011 |Need help in raising your car seat? Well then, you’ve come to the right place! Supporting and raising your car seat is rather simple and can be done in many ways. In fact, you can even do it in many different styles and design where each is capable of sustaining different amounts of weight and pressure. Thus, this article aims to give you a general guide on how you can raise and support your car seat.
Before we begin, let us understand the benefits of raising the car seat. Often, a low car seat has the potential of contributing to a number of road accidents. This is because some car hoods are rather high and might block your line of sight. Besides that, you might also have to strain your neck when you need to look at the car mirrors and what’s in front of you. By raising the car seat a little to reach an optimum height, you will not only solve these problems but also have an extra compartment space below the seat for additional components.
Once you’ve got that down, let’s proceed to designing the support braces. It is always wise to take the several of the same measurements to obtain the average value. Then, with these measurements, build mock-ups of several hot rods designs that you would like to use as the brace. This will allow you to find the minimum clearance that you will need to mount the brace to the bottom of the seat and also the design of the brace which suits your purpose. Good planning is important to determine the quality and functionality of the end product.
By now, you should already have a design in your mind. If so, then it’s time to head to the workshop and get some work done. Since you’ll be altering the base of the seat, you will have to remove the seat from its original position first. You will need some tools for this step because some seats are bolted to the floor while some are welded to it. Depending on the type of connection used, you can either unscrew the bolts or cut off the seat base.
Now that you’ve removed the connection, you should be able to see the original base of the seat. If so, then you have a choice between two options; remove the entire original base and replace it with a new one or attach the brace onto the old one. Technically, replacing the original base with a new one is much easier and flexible. So, here’s how to do it.
First, you’re going to need a new base which can be fabricated from a 20 gauge metal sheet. Then, drill a pair of holes with equal distance apart on each side of the sheet. You might also need to add several flat bars to reinforce the base. After completing the base, fabricate the pair of metal braces from the designs you’ve sketched earlier. Don’t forget to drill matching holes with the base on one end of the brace. Once that’s done, all you have to do is weld the base to the seat then bolt the brace onto the base and finally weld the other end of the brace to the floor of the car.
The second option is also not a hard method to try. To attach a brace onto your old car seat, first you need to find that something to act as the brace. The easiest way to do this is to find a 1/8th flat bar. You can proceed to shape the bar to fit the car seat base and when you have that, it is time to weld that brace to the seat base. And like the first option, you will need to drill matching holes for the base and the brace to bolt it to the floor of your car. You may then proceed to weld it to give it the support it needs.
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