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Well with light duty allowed from the doc, its back to work on the TD upholstery. Seat back foam cushion was installed prior to my shoulder replacement. Today I started with the seat cushions. Had to purchase two pieces of foam per seat because the local store doesn’t carry the thickness I need. So with both pieces for one seat glued and cut I figured I’d stuff the foam into the seat to stretch it out a bit before gluing it to the seat wood bottom. About got it installed in one but because the pool deck is cleaner, I worked outside and it started raining. But at least its a start. Hopefully the pics will post correctly.
This shows the thickness of the two pieces of foam. Total of 6 inches. That’ll giveme an extra half inch of comfort.
These are the seat bottoms. The angled edge goes against the tunnel IIRC.
Installing the foam in the seat bottom. This is far as I got due to rain.Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackLookin good!!! Really like that piping.
I suggest you do the mod (Schu’s???) that uses straps woven across the bottom seat frame. Combine that with the thick foam, and it should be pretty comfy…
Early FF TDr on 69 VW pan
Slowly coming back from the ashes...Along these same lines – does any one else feel that their driver’s seat (on the factory bases) seems to tilt toward the center of the car? I seem to find myself inching toward the right side of my seat as I drive. Maybe just cushion deterioration or is something off kilter?
I measured and remeasured the fiberglass seat bases from my FF in order to make a pattern for my wooden bases (to give more headroom). The fiberglass bases are even, so that is not the source of the tilt. Use a small level to check your floorboards — maybe they aren’t level. Also, some builders seem to install the seats so they point inwards, which might also account for your perceived tilt. Regardless, a small spacer on one side of the seat base ought to solve your problem without reupholstery.johnsimion2015-09-28 00:30:07
Thanks John. That will make a good winter project for me.
While pondering the seat problem I realized that many modern car seats have edges which are higher than the center, helping to keep your butt in the seat. I don’t think that became commonplace in production seats until the 70’s, so its not authentic for our cars.Kall, Authentic? Really? You may have us confused with some other outfit. We are tdreplica.com. I can hardly imagine anyone suggesting that I wouldn’t want that TDr with the comfortable seats that hold you in place because the originals used to let your sore butt fly out the suicide doors more easily.
(Seat belts were not “authentic” either.)
Royal2015-09-28 15:06:07
Absolutely, Roy. You can personalize it a lot while still making it look so authentic that only a TD expert can tell the difference. The outside of my car tracks the original better than most TDrs, and the inside uses a real TD instrument panel, but other than that … well, let me put it this way: I can’t fit into a real TD without looking like a clown at the circus. I’ve tried it. My head is above the windshield and the steering wheel is about 2″ from my chest, while my knees hit the dashboard every time I move them. I love the style of the real TD but ownership would literally be torture. So I say to heck with authenticity. My TDR is at the upholstery shop right now … before it went there, I lowered the seat bases by 2″, made a new seat back that is tall enough to serve as a head restraint in a rear-end collision, they’re putting in both lap and shoulder belts for me, and I have a stereo hidden in the dash with four other speakers that are far from hidden. The seats are being contoured to hold me in place (both top and bottom, regardless of the original) and the upholstery material is two-tone dark and light tan that goes well with the British Racing Green Metallic paint. Neither the paint nor upholstery are original, but it certainly looks like people (self included) imagine that a real TD would look like. And I doubt anyone under 50 can tell the difference between an air-cooled Beetle and a real TDr, and so to them it also sounds authentic. Of course my car will never fool anyone who knows a real TD from a hole in the ground, but I’ll bet it will fool 99% of the public. Heck, half the fun of owning a replica is explaining what the heck it is. “Well, it’s a replica of a 1952 MG TD constructed from a Fiberfab body kit that was bought in 1983 but not assembled until 1997 in Utah as a red car using a 1971 VW Beetle and a 1965 Beetle steering column, and then completely rebuilt by me in 2014-2015 in British Racing Green Metallic paint from a Mini Cooper, together with electronic ignition, disc brakes, GPS speedometer, and modern safety gear …”
This is one of the great things about this on-line club. Some people are sticklers for authenticity, others are more laid back. Since the members rarely get together there are few opportunities for fist fights to break out.
Like the man says: “if you don’t have fun it’s your own fault”.
😉About looking authentic…I took my TDr to Moss Motors to try and find some wheel adapters that would fit. And as I was getting out a real MG TD pulled in. The driver said to me, “Looks good, your restoration is coming along nice. Any problems with rust?”
I said “no”….No trees were injured in the making of this message, but some electrons were inconvenienced.
My seat base issue is the rearward angle. I did remake the bases from wood to the same measurements and angle as the original fiberglass bases with the modification described by schu. I find that I am pitched backward and intend to raise the back of the base 1 or 2″ to flatten the surface. Haven’t got windshield or roof in but expect to be O K. The N I B foam I have is very thick and soft. I feel like denser material would have been better. Has anybody else altered the angle of the seat bottom with happy result?
I lowered the backs of my new seat bottoms a couple of inches more than the fronts so I would have more of a bucket seat feel. I like the result lots, but it may be better because I also redid the seat back so it goes much lower and reclines a lot. It thus mates well with the lowered bases and gets me away from the steering wheel. For me this not only gives much more room, it also gives an actual sports car feel compared with the original bases and back, which just felt like a cramped old car.
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