Drivers Seat Base

With the fight I had to originally take off the seats, the thrill of triumph was quickly extinguished by the condition of the base of the seats. Seen here in all of it's ugliness, the base was partially protected with a waxol type of coating, while some of it was just plain rust.

Original Condition

As a sideline project, I would attack the base with a combination of hand brushing and wire wheels on afternoons when I had a bit of free time. I eventually got quite happy with the result. Time marches on and I moved to other fractional projects in my free time. The unprotected metal quickly began to powder rust again, though my free time had disappeared. I eventually made the time, brushed the rust off and sprayed it to afford it some level of protection.

First Spray

The first layer is this wonderful silver paint. I love the look it creates as it really looks like it isn't painted at all, just bare shiny metal. Unfortunately, it isn't really designed for outdoor, much less rugged handling.

Second Spray

To help protect the metal and the delicate silver paint, I spray a layer of clear coat on the piece. It really dulls the silver and takes away all shine to it. It ends up looking like a gray paint. Not really the effect I would like but it is protected at this point.

Installed

It really looks great on the assembled seat. All that remain is to acquire some Stainless Steel bolts, nuts, and washers to mount the seats to the car, I intend to repeat the sins of the past and use bolts that will drop through the welded on nut on the floorboard and put a matching nut underneath. I also will be using over-sized washers to attempt to spread the weight out over a larger area of the floorboard to hope to minimize the areas that are cracked.

Finalized Seat

Well, as you can see, you can't really even see this part. It likely will never be seen much, but I know it's there and I know it will last a bit longer with the tender loving TLC it received.