Seat mount butchered/Seat broke

[wangjjang]

Ok so my drivers seat broke cos im a right fattie. It looks like i snapped a little weld. Am I right in thinking it should be as shown in the second pic?

While im taking the seat off, i see this.....the larger bolt is very loose but wont come out.

This is what was attached to the nut. Is this an original part that was embedded within the metal?

Heres what was underneath

So...obviously that wasnt at all safe so its a good job i took the seat out. I suspect the mechanic that did my last MOT work found/made that mess when fitting the new seatbelt (which he screwed up) and put in those two smaller screws to anchor the seat.

Just took out the rest of the seats and theres nothing else like that one to be seen. Wondering how on earth that happened. Gonna pull up the carpet tomorrow to get a closer look.
Im thinking im gonna have to get a new chunk of steel welded in there to anchor the seat to. Or any other suggestions how i can make my drivers seat safe?

 

[wangjjang]

How? :/

 

[Bat21]

I had the same problem with my 80. The captive nut that the rear of the seat frame bolts to had sheared away from its captive surroundings.

A quick 10 minutes with the MIG welder soon sorted it out

 

[joinerman]

Hmmm, got me worried now, I'm taking mine out in the next week or so as it's going off to be totally reupholstered

 

[Bat21]

Pull back the carpet and check for fatigue cracks around the captive nuts while it's out.

 

[wangjjang]

I had the same problem with my 80. The captive nut that the rear of the seat frame bolts to had sheared away from its captive surroundings.

A quick 10 minutes with the MIG welder soon sorted it out

aha..thats very good to hear.

so what did you actually do with the welder? i dont think i have any captive surroundings left so i will have to rebuilt them somehow..unfortunately i cant weld so will try and find a mobile welder....and use this as an excuse to buy myself a mig welder and learn for next time

 

[Bat21]

.... so what did you actually do with the welder? i dont think i have any captive surroundings left so i will have to rebuilt them somehow.....

Fortunately for me the captive nut sheared off as I was trying to remove the seat. This meant I had a relatively easy job of just alining where it originally was and then stitched it back into place with the MIG.

In your case, unless what has 'pulled out' is the same size/shape as the hole it has left, I would consider getting some fresh plate and then fabricate a small piece that fits around the whole area (the square bit) that the captive nut was in. Then drill a hole in it and weld a nut onto the plate and bolt it to the seat rail, then place the seat back in and insert the 3 other bolts to locate the seat in it's correct position. Tack weld the plate in place then unbolt the seat and remove to give you access to weld the plate in place correctly

 

[joinerman]

Thought i'd whip my seat out dinner time, all the captive nuts are ok but one bolt must be made of cheese, just went round & round but didn't come out, pair of grips & a good tug & bolt has no thread, found a spare which seems to wind in ok , got a nice temporary seat while mine goes off to be retrimmed, wont use it on the road though as it's only cobbled in at the mo, with a little bit of bracketry & fettling it could be made to be permanant, seat belt holster doesn't take the yota one so would need changing, seat came out of a scorpio.

 

[Shayne]

I'm half pissed and I don't have a welder to hand so i'd drill out the hole to remove rust , paint it , then just use a self tapping screw bolt and a mild steel washer to hold the seat down job done .