Passenger Seat Design and Moulds
Steve Tillet had developed the driver's seat for me, based on our 40 deg seat buck, and his seat is perfect. But the pass seat had to now fit between the optimized driver's seat position and the inboard chassis tubes.
So first step to package the driver seat belt mounts, was to build a CAD model of the Tillet seat. So 2 options, scan the driver's seat or make profile templates, and convert this into CAD. Scanning is the high tech process, but cardboard templates was the quick process!
Once I had the driver's seat model and belt package completed, I then modified the width and length of the driver's seat CAD to package on the pass side, with a slight local recess to package the handbrake.
Then as with all the bucks I developed a set of interlocking templates, which Tel then cut from 12mm ply. Once locked together Tel filled in the gaps between the templates and ran the first layer of filler. Needs a couple more of days of prep, and then we will lay-up the pass seat. Just hope it's wide enough!
Passenger Seat Manufacture and Fit
We completed prep on the passenger seat mould and then laid-up the first seat. Separating the seat from the mould required an appropriately sized piece wood and a large hammer, and started working around the periphery of the seat, and after a few minutes of carefully applied blows the seat came free!
And for our first attempt at making a seat, it looks pretty good! First thing was to prop it against the garden wall and see if I fitted in it, as the width had to be reduced from the driver's seat. And yes I fitted, and was able to get out as well!
We then took it into ARRK to see if my CAD designs actually fitted in the car. We had to trim the flange (which we had manufactured at 15mm) down to the design size of 3mm around the handbrake and next to the passenger chassis rails. But then it dropped straight on the onto the mounts, with about 3mm of clearance to the diagonal floor chassis tubes!
We have provisional bonded to the mounts and once 100% happy with the fit, we removed and fully glassed the mounts. Tidied-up edges around the handbrake, and added a radii to the periphery and painted gloss black to match the Tillet driver's seat.
