Floyd Brothers 70 Challenger

[Blue]

That’s sorted it!

[Stu]

Yep! Just waiting on polishing compound, so I can get rid of the white swirls. Had a thought after that, I have some lens amber paint, might see if I can coat the inside if it won’t polish up super clear.

[Stu Twin]

And you nearly got to the end without any knob gags...

[Stu]

And you nearly got to the end without any knob gags...

It was tricky to write, without sounding like a Viz strip.

[Stu Twin]

Fnarr Fnarr

[Stu]

Bit more progress, this time interior.

After having the rear seat reupholstered a couple of years ago, the fronts were starting to come apart at the seams, so had been thinking about getting them done anyway. After running the season with lap belts, safety topped the agenda, so I decided to go with harnesses. I didn't want to put modern seats in, I like the high back buckets, but this makes it difficult to run the harness round without a cage to fix them to.

Got in touch with the new local upholsterer (the last one moved on) and had a chat and explained that I wanted to retain the buckets and most of the period look, but with belt slots for the harnesses. I will run these through between the rear seat back and base, welding a retaining hook in the boot. Took the seats up to his workshop and sat in them to get some chalk marks for height etc and we were pretty confident that a couple of slots from Cobra would fit through.

Job's a good 'un, or so I thought.

Fast forward to the vinyl covers being shaped and stitched and it was time to mock up the slots for inserting. (A quick aside, as soon as he pulled the old ones apart, he immediately said that the old covers weren't for those seats, he could tell by the foam, so gawd knows where they came from...)

A quick mock up showed that the harness slots we had got weren't going to work. There is a spring bar that runs up the headrest. He advised that this couldn't be cut without losing all the side bolstering, as the sides springs wouldn't have any tension. Working around this, the slots just wouldn't position correctly, the only option being to have them fouling each other, so that was no good. Back to the drawing board...

[Stu]

Couldn't find an off the shelf solution, so he set about designing something bespoke, that could be 3D printed.

In order to get the spacing correct, a cigar shape wasn't working, so he used CAD to come up with a shape that would follow the curve of the seat top, but give the correct length needed on the flat edge to space the harness, so that it wouldn't rub into my neck.

With the seat back cover loosely fitted, (and 3 hours of printing later...) it was mocked up again, with the flat at the bottom, which was the original intention. This didn't end up looking right, so we decided to flip it upside down and try that. It looked much better following the curve of the stitching and having the flat at the top, which still means the harness straps have space to sit correctly.

Happily, he's clearly good at this, as the newly printed slots back and front fitted perfectly through the frame, without having to mess with the problem spring. The original foam was cut to check and mock up more.

[Stu]

Whilst the final 3D print was going on (all 8 hours of it ) attention turned to the bases. Unfortunately, one of the bases wasn't in as good shape as I thought, so had to have a bit of minor welding. That done, the bases were covered, very happy that the original look has been retained.

[Stu]

Anyway, thought the process might interest some, they're all done now, so just need a wipe down and going to get them back in the car over the weekend, so I can test fit the harnesses.

[Pete]

They look very professional and worth all the effort!

[Blue]

An elegant solution!

[Stu]

Ta! Very pleased with them. They are not wonky, like the photo has somehow made them look.

I'll post up some images once they are in the car with the harnesses in place.

[Stu]

Despite a bit of faff getting them in, very happy with the look and practicality of them.

The girl was far from happy with her photo, though, so I have subtly edited it…

[Blue]

Looks very professional, have you got that bloody shifter in yet?

[Stu]

Not yet, I needed the seat in to be able to position it. Should start mocking it up tomorrow.