seat repositioning.

[Challenger392]

Thats the look I want to see at the top of the hill.

Emphasis on actually making it to the top

[Challenger392]

Progress. After much drilling pounding grinding sanding and filing I finally got the new holes cut in my seat. Put the seat in the car, and after 15 minutes of struggling managed to get myself, with all my safety equipment on, in the car and strapped down. Something tells me after the drivers meeting in the morning I will be last in line by the time I get all my stuff on. Good news is #1 I fit in the car #2 all my safety gear fits and #3 It appears (to my brothers and my eye) that with the new holes in the seat everything lines up as it should. I used zip ties and some high impact foam to keep the belts in place.
I have a couple questions though, Is it a problem that the belt ring that secures the belt to the frame bar is on the drivers side of the seat? I can try to put it on the other side but clearance is so tight I dont know if it will fit. Ill have to double check but im almost positive it hits neither me, my Hans, or the seat. Next Question, before it had been mentioned that it may be a good idea to weld up the old hole to keep the seat strong. After cutting the holes the seat appears to have not lost really any of its strength, (my holes dont cut through any structural ribbing). Also just below the old harness hole and just above the new ones are a bracket and what will soon be a head rest. Both points are welded/bolted directly to the cage and offer support to my sholders and head. All this to say, Is it really neccisary to take the risk of having someone try to weld a patch over the hole in my seat? Im just a little warry as I have welded aluminium before and know how easy it is to burn through and destroy (don't want to have to buy an new seat). If your still reading this thank you for your time, I would have broken it up with pictures but my current location apparently blocks both flikr and dropbox.

[KevinGale]

Something tells me after the drivers meeting in the morning I will be last in line by the time I get all my stuff on.

I know that feeling!

[Challenger392]

Being last in line may be a good thing. That way they can pull me out of the trees while they bring everyone else down

[sachilles]

You then realize you have to pee.

[walterclark]

Welding .125" 5052 is pretty low risk unless the operator doesnt weld aluminum regularly. I dont think these seats are over built to begin with so I would be looking for any excuse to strengthen the seatback myself. The problem is it all comes down to opinions until the seat is subjected to enormous loads in a crash since none of us are equipped or prepared to do testing on it. I would hate to be the one with the wrong opinion if the seat then folded.

What sort of belt ring are we talking about and how does it look now?

[sdwarf36]

If you are unable to (or don't want to pay someone else to ) weld it, you can always rivet it. As an oldtimer once told me, "you don't see any airplanes welded together--do you?"

[walterclark]

Rivets can be a good thing since they do not weaken the metals to be joined like welding can do if not done properly.

Just a caution regarding rivets. Yes they work well and have been proven safe on airframes. However the joints are well engineered in terms of proper rivet material, size and spacing, and they are done with high quality rivets intended for such use - not the blind rivets at the local Ace Hardware. Those are fine where no stress or safety are involved.

Here is a good article regarding aircraft rivets (part 1) and in particular blind rivets (part 2).

http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ht-86-12.html
http://www.zenithair.com/kit-data/ht-87-1.html

There is a ton of information on top of these although I didnt find one that reduced airframe engineering to a table or formula for the rest of us to use to figure out what and how many to use where in safety critical applications.

FWIW. I bought semi-hollow 1/8" rivet setting kit off here: http://www.arbortime.com/. These use a pair of dies and a c-clamp to set rivets but I mounted one of the die in a vice and used the other die freehand with a ball-peen hammer to set the rivets holding all the Dzus connectors on my car. It is sold for hobbyists restoring pinball machines and old toys. These type rivets are easy to set and have great shear strength provided you pick the right length for the thickness of the materials you are joining.

[Mopar 151w2]

I have had very good luck with the 3/16" dia, large head rivets as sold by hundreds of racing vendors. In this neck of the woods, they are known as "Kraze Rivets", as Kraze Korlacki was one of the first to repackage industrial rivets for race cars. http://www.krazespeedequipment.com/

Speedway Motors carries them, of course... Also of note in the Speedway catalog is the El Cheepo Chinee air rivet gun

These cost little more than a good manual rivet gun, and it is much easier to hold everything in place and aligned, because these big rivets pull down HARD, even for a big galoot like me - they will destroy a cheap manual rivet gun. I'll gladly loan mine for a short term, and I have a few rivets around, as well. In central NH, you might find the rivet gun at R&R Wholesale in Hooksett, and maybe the rivets. If they don't have rivets, Dave Joyce (top shelf fabricator) in East Derry will have some. Jimmy Renfrew from R&R drives (+sponsors) Dave's "Pro Stock".

[Challenger392]

I still have to check with my welder on how much he'd charge me to weld it, and to whether or not he would be comfortable doing it. If he can't weld it it looks like I'll be doing some riveting. I'll just dust off my airframe books from maintenance school, those have all the structural considerations I need to make a structural repair. If the repairs are good for fixing stressed structural panels in an airplane, they should be good for the seat. Although not having to find the time to do it may well be worth the money to have it welded.