Stock seat project

[TLCox52]

Finally acquired some rough sawn white oak for my seats!!!
Cost me 10 pounds grass fed beef burger...
All cut to spec, stained, and ready to seal up.

Can't find dimensions for drilling the holes -- and my braces from MW Power Wagon are a bit wobbly so I'd like to get it right to snug it all up.

Much appreciate an assist!!!

[Blitz]

I cant help on the bolt hole dimensions and locations.. as the previous owner of my truck had already done an outstanding job rebuilding the troop seats .

But I did have to go back and wedge some plastic "door shims" between the uprights and the bed slots, just to tighten it all up and take out some annoying squeaks.
Once the wood slats are all installed, tightening up the bolts seems to take a lot of slop out, and i'm pretty sure you will need to do that "well after they are installed"
after the wood has had a chance to "seat".

I searched through some old posts here to find the drill specs for you, but I had no luck.

countersunk is a priority, as are rounded and routered edges.

Someone here knows and has posted those specs...

Even if I went out and measured them all...
I'm not confident in that exacting detail to refer you to those measurements.

It seems that most guys used the old rotted seats to make new planks.

hopefully someone has this info.

[Blitz]

TLCox52,

Thanks to Don Cavey for finding this thread.

It should have the measurements You are looking for.

Troop seat wood length?

[brycer1968]

I'm in the process of a M725 driver/passenger seat restoration and I recently bought a pair of surplus OD seat bottom canvas covers on ebay that had a tag showing they were made back in the mid 1970's. - and they arrived and looked great and will fit the seats perfectly, but they were coated with a strong smelling waterproofing compound?? that leaves your fingers brown and oily looking when you touch them.

Not sure if anyone has had a similar experience with these? Can you launder that stuff out of them?
Or maybe I just need to make sure that I only wear my brown pants when ever I sit on the seats?

Bryce

[Beast]

There really is not an easy way to get the treatment out of the covers. The best thing is to just wear them in with use. I find that when they are fresh that keeping a couple of old beach towels in the truck helps as you can drape them over the seats if you are in nice clothes. After awhile it will begin to wear off and you will not get as much transfer. When I first restored my 715 in 2004 any time I came in from the garage you could smell it on me, and the wife would complain, now I barely notice it anymore.

[brycer1968]

Its good to know that what I was seeing is actually normal. I'm going to have to try the beach towel idea.
Bryce

[brycer1968]

My 725 seat springs were looking tired and both plywood seat bases were cracked at the corners where the brackets attach - so I decided to start over with them. I traced and cut new plywood bases out of 3/4" MDO plywood and ordered the high density foam seat bottoms and back rests from OD Cloth.

And semi public service announcement here: I experimented with some NOS M715 seat covers and I tried to wash and scrub them to remove the really stinky canvas waterproofing that rubbed off brown oil on everything. . . The washing removed some of the oily residue, but . . . . . . yes, they shrunk, like a lot . . . . . so that was a total fail as was my attempt to stretch them out again. After that attempt failed, I also ended up getting a set of the OD Cloth M715 seat covers, which are beautiful and well made with Donna's attention to detail and they now the seats make everything else about my truck look ratty.

The seat foam is surprisingly firm and matches the seat base and a back rest shapes really closely. And the seats now feel much more comfortable than before with the springs. I still need to lace up my seat covers and attach the seat bottom corner brackets to the plywood.
Note: I also have the two old seat bases/springs up for grabs if you want them for the price of shipping. One has a stapled on cover the other set is bare springs. See pics with one of the old seats below. Let me know if you want them.

I did a couple of things differently with my seats:

Using spray foam adhesive, I adhered a 1" layer of outdoor polyester upholstery batting (NuFoam from Fabric Depot) to five sides of the seat bottoms and back rest foams. This material fills out the seat cover a little more, softens the seat somewhat and protects the foam rubber from abrasion from seams of the fabric cover. Also the backrest foam felt a little thin and the batting helps make it so you can't feel the metal backrest frame as much.

I also came up with an easy way to address the bent and mangled seat back sheet metal/multiple broken spot welds by fitting and TIG welding in two 3/4" square tube supports for each seat back and TIG spot welding the sheet metal back onto the frames and new tubing. I suppose that the seat backs can now be walked on without bending.
I posted some photos over in photobucket . . . . Oh, well . . . It looks like I'm gonna have to figure out that process later. . . . I looked for an "easy" button for photo attaching here and only found the button labeled "frustrating". My luck I guess.

Cheers,
Brycer1968

[brycer1968]

[brycer1968]

http://s1108.photobucket.com

I think that link works. Yes?
I'm still wanting the easy button for this process.
Bryce

[Beast]

Originally Posted by brycer1968

http://s1108.photobucket.com

I think that link works. Yes?
I'm still wanting the easy button for this process.
Bryce

While in photobucket, open the picture you want to post. On the right hand side it will say "Share this Photo" second one down says "direct" click in the box and it should say "copied". Then go back to the Zone and in your post hit the picture button, and when it brings up the box, right click and "paste" and hit "OK" and then when you post the picture will be added.