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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
I know it seems that I'm jumping around in my restore/rebuild journey, but as many know, I am a total newb at this and it's winter here in Virginia and my car basically came to me as a box of parts.
First I'm sorting, then I have a dashboard in the making, while half of the body is bolted down to the frame and the other half is swaying in the breeze. I've been spending my winter organizing, studying and learning and planning a mode of attack on a car, that for the most part, the major systems have already been restored (brakes, steering, suspension). But in my travels several things have taken place:
My dash is getting covered (in leather no doubt) at no charge to me. Pity I don't get to do it myself, but I had gone to a vinyl expert (does some really wild vehicle wraps) to get advice and meet his welder. My brother in law (the vinyl guy) wanted to do the whole thing in CFG (carbon fiber graphite) and was going to do it on the spot but I begged off since I want as original as possible (within budget). He made a call, and someone he throws business too said they could do it. Before I knew it he's taking my dash from me and in back to clean it up (a tiny amount of smoothing and a dent that was so small I didn't even see it). He came back out and said he'd call me in a few days when his friend finished it. I had already shown him the pics of the dash in the original condition since we had been talking about the grain (and color) of the dash. But I digress (per usual).
So the welder and I hit it off, and he's going to come over and check out the project. He's offered to do whatever welding I need (since he's on my brother in laws payroll) and I'm actually pretty excited. I have to finish bolting the rest of the body down and getting it all aligned before he come over to weld. About this time I get a text from my dad, and his interior kit has arrived from TRF and he wants me to see (we both get rather excited about our cars).
I head on over in time to catch the mailman and he has yet another package from TRF for my dad, and it's a new ignition switch (another story, another time) to go with the key-matched set I got him for Christmas. The one that was on his car was some JC Whitney special he installed way back when and actually forgot he did it. So we're sitting there chatting and I'm drooling over his interior kit (mine is black, but his is the most awesome biscuit tan (a bit darker and redder than you normally see) and I see my seats sitting there on the shelf untouched so far and I get a wild hair to really go through them. There is some rattling inside and I pull the lower cushion up to find the rails and bolts loose (PO must have stored them in there) and the pans are a bit dusty and there's some rusty dust. I wipe it up a bit and there's black paint showing through, hmmm. The bolt holes are nearly pristine, and except for the paint being a bit dull, the pans look pretty good, on both sides (in and out). I expected a lot more rust based on the amount of rust dust that was laying in the bottom of the pan. The seat bottom has horsehair showing through, so I turn it over and low and behold, my springs are barely recognizable as springs. Crap. I pull the other bottom out and not nearly as much dust. The fabric is worn and split but I can't see horsehair easily. Those springs are pretty oxidized but very nearly savable. I notice the bottom cushions very much resemble each other in shape, but the stitching pattern is different, and to make me even more confused, both seats fold.
Ok, so somewhere in the past 59 years, someone played musical chairs with seats. I am very nearly certain that they are TR seats as the pans and backs look exactly like my dad's and every other seat I have seen on the internet (including Jon's recovering thread). Two seats that fold might be pretty cool, but those springs.....
Besides restoring seats back to original, what other options do I have for rebuilding seats. I have the recover kit (still in package) and two pretty good pans and backs (though one seems to also fold backward but I haven't really gotten the seats torn completely down yet). Are the springs replaceable with some form of modern foam or system that I could build myself? Inquiring minds want to know
Sorry I forgot to snap some pics of the seats, but I will do that on my next day off.
First I'm sorting, then I have a dashboard in the making, while half of the body is bolted down to the frame and the other half is swaying in the breeze. I've been spending my winter organizing, studying and learning and planning a mode of attack on a car, that for the most part, the major systems have already been restored (brakes, steering, suspension). But in my travels several things have taken place:
My dash is getting covered (in leather no doubt) at no charge to me. Pity I don't get to do it myself, but I had gone to a vinyl expert (does some really wild vehicle wraps) to get advice and meet his welder. My brother in law (the vinyl guy) wanted to do the whole thing in CFG (carbon fiber graphite) and was going to do it on the spot but I begged off since I want as original as possible (within budget). He made a call, and someone he throws business too said they could do it. Before I knew it he's taking my dash from me and in back to clean it up (a tiny amount of smoothing and a dent that was so small I didn't even see it). He came back out and said he'd call me in a few days when his friend finished it. I had already shown him the pics of the dash in the original condition since we had been talking about the grain (and color) of the dash. But I digress (per usual).
So the welder and I hit it off, and he's going to come over and check out the project. He's offered to do whatever welding I need (since he's on my brother in laws payroll) and I'm actually pretty excited. I have to finish bolting the rest of the body down and getting it all aligned before he come over to weld. About this time I get a text from my dad, and his interior kit has arrived from TRF and he wants me to see (we both get rather excited about our cars).
I head on over in time to catch the mailman and he has yet another package from TRF for my dad, and it's a new ignition switch (another story, another time) to go with the key-matched set I got him for Christmas. The one that was on his car was some JC Whitney special he installed way back when and actually forgot he did it. So we're sitting there chatting and I'm drooling over his interior kit (mine is black, but his is the most awesome biscuit tan (a bit darker and redder than you normally see) and I see my seats sitting there on the shelf untouched so far and I get a wild hair to really go through them. There is some rattling inside and I pull the lower cushion up to find the rails and bolts loose (PO must have stored them in there) and the pans are a bit dusty and there's some rusty dust. I wipe it up a bit and there's black paint showing through, hmmm. The bolt holes are nearly pristine, and except for the paint being a bit dull, the pans look pretty good, on both sides (in and out). I expected a lot more rust based on the amount of rust dust that was laying in the bottom of the pan. The seat bottom has horsehair showing through, so I turn it over and low and behold, my springs are barely recognizable as springs. Crap. I pull the other bottom out and not nearly as much dust. The fabric is worn and split but I can't see horsehair easily. Those springs are pretty oxidized but very nearly savable. I notice the bottom cushions very much resemble each other in shape, but the stitching pattern is different, and to make me even more confused, both seats fold.
Ok, so somewhere in the past 59 years, someone played musical chairs with seats. I am very nearly certain that they are TR seats as the pans and backs look exactly like my dad's and every other seat I have seen on the internet (including Jon's recovering thread). Two seats that fold might be pretty cool, but those springs.....
Besides restoring seats back to original, what other options do I have for rebuilding seats. I have the recover kit (still in package) and two pretty good pans and backs (though one seems to also fold backward but I haven't really gotten the seats torn completely down yet). Are the springs replaceable with some form of modern foam or system that I could build myself? Inquiring minds want to know
Sorry I forgot to snap some pics of the seats, but I will do that on my next day off.
