Got to get something done or I am never going to catch up with Ben's build post numbers!
Still frozen and white out there. -7 last night and the water in the truck is frozen. Engine started first click on it's 12v so there.
Following a conversation with a new 80 owner on here (Welcome Gary, by the way) I set about making some seat brackets so that I could sit further back. Now JW kindly sent me a guide from the web that used a kit. Man I lost interest at step 107. It seemed very involved. Then Gary sent me a link to something incredibly simple.
Here's the first bit. a very simple bracket. You make two of these. They're 8" long, bent at 70 degrees parallel at 50mm from each end, drilled 10 mm 20mm from each end.
Next I made a supporting leg. This was slotted for adjustment. I had to go around the heat exchanger so some fine tuning was necessary. This takes the weight on the seat against the floor pan. One I got them settled in and square, I actually tacked them with the view to fully welding them before painting. But having the adjustment made things a lot easier. If I made another pair, I suppose I could copy the set dimensions and make them from a single piece. But as many of you will know, making one offs is the hardest bit.
I did the same on the other side too. Much easier to make and set these without the seat. Get them in and level, remove the whole thing with the leg still bolted in place, tack them, remove the slider bolt and THEN bolt them to the seats.
Because it's fiddly under there, nip them at this point so that final tighten one settled is one or two turns on the spanner.
Here's the bracket in place. Get the idea now?
At the back, there is no need for brackets really. I intend to just drill straight through the floor and bolt through as Toyota did with a big fat plate under there so that it doesn't tear through. The sill side runner does need a small spacer though at it's higher one side than the other on the original mounting points. I made the brackets to give about 4" additional rear travel. They don't need that much. With it fully back I can barely reach the pedals. Come forward half of that and it's perfect. But going back all the way does mean you could have a snooze in the driver's seat without discomfort. But your rear passenger might feel the pinch.
So effectively all I have done is move the holes, not modify the seat at all. Easy to take out. I will see if it will swap to the auto with electric seats. That would be neat because on a long run, that is very hard on my knee. So I need to finish the rear mounts so that I don't eat the airbag in a crash and paint them up. Pretty easy to make if I am honest and something that I think would be of interest to other 80 owners. Set up to make a few sets and it's one thing that you very probably could just knock out (as people tend to say). I can't see any MOT issues here and like I say they are removable in minutes.
Forgive the slightly rough appearance, these are very much prototypes and proof of concept. They really need a jig making.
