Got the front seats assembled and installed. Man is it smooth with new seat rails and rollers!
Installed new seat rails the other day, and finally started in on the wiring. Also got the old fuel caps out and installed Monarchs today. Every damn fastener came out easy save the very last one. Someone had stripped it years ago and it was hopeless. Had to drill down the center and use the easy out. Thankfully it came out without too much fuss.
Slow and steady!
Got the Atlee Dodge jump seats installed today. They look great and are awesome… So glad I went with these over the stock bench seats. Sending them down to Ron at Aviation Creations tomorrow along with the fronts and 3rd row to get upholstered. Going to do the same leather as the C170.
So obviously the first thing to do when you get new seats is to strip em down and give them a good once over. Luckily for us, both seats pass with flying colors and will be good to go for the restoration.
But all this talk about weight, the question is will it really be worth the fuss?
To answer the question, again, baseline weights are needed. Knowing what we are starting with will give us an idea of just how much we saved once they are back from Aviation Creations.
The Skywagon came with an articulating pilot seat, and a standard co pilot. We could of course gone really crazy and tossed the articulating seat for a standard seat to save even more pounds, but for this project, although we are weight conscious, we are not being insane. (There will be some comfort) So the articulating pilot seat goes back in.
So here’s the deal… Articulating Pilot w/ upholstery: 21 lbs. Co Pilot w/ upholstery: 14.86 lbs. Keep in mind that I suspect that the sheep skin is a bit on the heavier side, but out comes 35.86 lbs of front seats. The goal for the new seats (finished) will be 25 lbs. For the C170, Ron was able to shave off 6 lbs per seat. Hopefully we will be able to do the same.
But what about the articulating seat vs/ the standard seat? What are those guys actually saving who forgo the articulating seats in lieu of the standard seat?
Stripped, our un-upholstered articulating seat weighed 10 lbs. The standard seat (stripped) weighed 6.46 lbs. So is it worth the extra 3.5? I really don’t know, but for me… it’s stayin.
Thought I would share some of the design process RE: my seats. I Have been working with Ron Matta in AZ of Aviation Creations.
I asked him to help me with some ideas. I told him I wanted light seats that had modern comfort but yet had retro styling ques. He sent along these three sketches. The logo will be the same vintage logo I made for my yokes. We have tossed the orig wire springs and will use new synthetic blatters. The sub frames have been powder coated, and are on their way out to Ron’s shop. Ron has been awesome to deal with thus far. I cant wait to see the finished seats!
I am going with #2… Just need to decide on leather color.
