So first task of the day was to get the new belts fitted. Ten minute job, and the tension even seemed to be right off the bat, though obviously I expect that to change once the engine has run.
10x813 is the belt size in case you wondered.
Attempting to *do* that was foiled by the thing refusing to start again. I'm willing to bet money the offside cylinder has flooded and fouled the plug again. This seems to be an issue after a series of very short runs, and I'm hoping will resolve itself once I'm able to get it a proper run. I decided after it started on one cylinder to just file this under "come back to later as I've better things to do just now."
Next up, seat. Let's get this sorted out once and for all.
Here's where we ended up.
Doesn't look that different to things before does it? At a glance, no.
Here's the "before" shot in case you were wondering....
There's been a hell of a lot of planning, measuring, calculating and such involved to get to that point.
Originally I just had four huge U-bolts wrapped around the entire rails of the Xantia seat clamping it to the original seat's frame.
Now we've got an M8 bolt on each corner down through the original Xantia mounting points into the angle brackets you saw yesterday - which are then bolted to the original seat frame.
The rear ones are currently bolted through the original seat clamp onto the frame (hence there only being one bolt per side at present), whereas the front have had a pair of bolts through the seat frame.
I think given things have lined up in such a way to allow for it I'll probably drill a hole and add an additional bolt at the rear tomorrow.
They're lined up in such a way to help centralise the seat (the rails are offset to one side by an inch or so), and it seems to have worked.
Driving position now feels perfectly central rather than noticeably offset to the left as used to be the case.
There are some big additional features compared to the original seat "bodge" that I had in here though. All of the original adjustments available are now fully functional (as is the original left/right sliding setup from the original Invacar seat) - which allows an additional party trick...
Yep, with the seat slid fully forward and the backrest tilted forwards, it's possible to get the rear access cover in and out without removing the seat.
I did have one "oops" moment however when I realised that I couldn't get at the head of the big M8 bolt that I'd used to secure the seat down onto the brackets (which has a slot to allow me to fine tune the left/right position) to tighten them up.
Cue me getting inventive.
Take two nuts, screw onto the end of the threaded section and make a lock nut - then used that to stop the bolt rotating while tightening the nut holding the seat down up. Job done.
I was worried that it was going to be too flimsy a solution, but it seems to be perfectly fine. It's worth mentioning that the whole lot it depending on a few tiny screws and a pair of nylon rollers in a runner at the back to hold that side to the car anyway! So I get the feeling that this is probably over-engineered if anything...It's stood up perfectly fine to me (literally) jumping into the seat without moving a millimetre. Seatbelt isn't secured to the seat like on many modern cars - it's secured to the bulkhead at the top and to eye bolts secured to the chassis crossmember at the floor level. So the seat is purely something that you're sitting on, it's not involved in actually holding you in place.
Having a proper adjustable seat means I can get into a much more comfortable feeling driving position with my feet braced against the bulkhead, so I think this is a good result overall.
I'm somewhat amused at how close a colour match I seem to have randomly found in Halfords...
No that's not the "finish" I'm going for - that was purely a "let's see the colour" test. I need to trim the bottom of the panel back as well.
Speaking of paint - I'll be giving the brackets and such I've just added to the seat frame a coat of blue paint as well so they'll hopefully blend in with the original metalwork better.
Feels like a reasonable couple of hours work this evening and a decent step towards roadworthiness, see also the "stuff I orginally bodged together but need to do properly before she hits the road" list.