Any new progress, Ken?

Welcome back!

Please post the pics of the rear seat install when you tackle that project... we get a lot of people asking how to do that fairly often.   

Thanks for the update, and good luck in the garage!

OK it is late so I hope this all makes some kind of sense!

First after reviewing some of the cluster pics I had seen I went back to my dash layout and with the help of my son we began to play around alittle and came up with this for a layout.  Still have some work to do on it but I really like where it is going.

 
Next I have been working on adapting the 2006 GTO seats to the LeMans. On the front I cut out the factory front brackets. When I did I found that there was a captive nut on the outboard side of the floor for what I presume was for a bench seat. It just so happens that it is in the perfect position for the outboard rail to attach.




So after a bunch of measuring and shimming on the inboard side to make the seat level it turned out that the captive stud bracket that I had cut off the outboard side with a little modification was the perfect thickness to level the seat. So after having my son put the seat in and setting in it at various positions I finally marked and welded in the bracket on the inboard side.



This is what one side looks like without the seat in on the passanger side:


I had to cut the brackets of the seat rails in the back because they made the seats sit way to high. I am having some new ones made. When I get them back and installed I will post that as well.

So hear are the lovely bride and myself pretending to cruise:


Next I began looking at the back seats. I had seen on the web were someone had put these seats in a 68 model and had the car body lower seat brackets cut out of the newer GTO and used them. I have not had much luck finding a body locally that anyone is willing to cut up. So I started searching again and found where someone else just modified the bottom seat frame to work with the existing body brackets in a 68 or so Firebird. So that is the approach I am taking now.

After stripping both the upper and lower frames of the foam and leather I began looking at placement, mounting and what modifications it was going to take to get there. This is what I have found so far.

The seats will need to be cut apart as they are too narrow as an assembly to even come close to being able to use any of the oem bracketry in the 67.

The seat bottoms on the inbaord side fit with the floorboard quite nicely. However the outboard side not so much. So this area will need to be modified to get the seat bottom lower and closer to the floorboard:


This hoop and the turn rearward in the floorboard bracing are the big offenders here:




I think I will be able to modify the seat bottoms to fit the floorboard and also I think I will be able to weld in a rod to be able to use the front hold down brackets. I mocked up what I will need with a piece of old brake line:


I also noticed that I might be able to use the rear hold down bracket as well doing the same thing by welding in a rod between the seat bottoms in the back and that rod will be covered by the console I am planning on having between the seats.

Next I began to see how the seats would line up with the ones in the front if I were able to figure out how to use the 67 upper hold down bracket where the upper and lower seat come together. The placement is a little to the outboard side but not bad. I think I will continue in this direction as well.






This is basically what one side will look like but the whole seat will be about an inch lower.


Ok I gotta go to bed. I am starting to see double  and Photobucket keeps locking up.

Kevin,

Thanks for the compliments!

I am thinking about using carbon fiber board as the base material. I can get it thick enough, so therefore I am thinking strong enough, to mount the gauges to the back of it. Will probabley tie in the console with the same material.

The rear seats are ending up to close to the body once I put an armrest back in. I will need to move them a couple of inches inboard. I will post some pics but in your expert opinion do you think I can use a piece of plate steel to tie the the seats to the original bracket or should I cut it off and relocate it?

Not sure on the height of the seats now that I am moving them in. Debating with myself at this time. I will let you know who wins!

Ken

Here is the lower seat frame with the flat stock washer welded in along with a couple of ugly additions to the cross rod. I put those on because the seat bottom wanted to wonder a bit from side to side this keeps it tight against the seat bracket.




Here the foam has been trimmed from the seat back to better fit up against the body.




I did have to trim one apolstery clamp to fit the modifications to the lower seat frame.


Here are a couple of shots of the finished passanger rear seat. One shows the relationship of the seat to the OEM arm rest which I currently plan to use.




I finally got started on the driverside rear seat.


All was going very well until I broke my tubing bender just before needing it to bend the cross rod. Well that's where the old saying comes from "Use the right tool for the job". I just don't have the right tool and the cheesey light brake line tubing bender just did not stand up to rolled steel rod.


So this is where I stopped today.


Will get back at it when I can. But it may be a few weeks