New Seating

I put PT Cruiser seats in Peer Pressure seven years ago and I’ve never regretted the upgrade. They are comfortable over long distances, provide ample lumbar support, and are easy to clean—all things I’ve tested extensively. They sit two inches too high off the floor, but that’s something I’ve learned to live with for the moment until I get a pair of Binder Boneyard’s upgraded seat bases. The one thing I don’t like about them, now that I’ve switched almost everything else in the cab over to black, is their color. Chrysler made a bazillion PT Cruisers, and the majority of of them had gray cloth seats like the ones I’ve got. I set up an alert on my pick-a-part app to let me know when new stock rolls in the yards, and a flurry of them came in last week. Lo and behold, a gold 2005 came in and the VIN check said it had the correct upholstery. I got some basic tools together, loaded Hazel up into the Scout, and set out for Mt. Airy on Saturday morning to check it out.

I set her up in the truck with food, water, and a comfy blanket and set out for the yard. As I would have expected, the Chrysler section was all the way at the back of the lot, at the top of a hill, so I knew I’d be humping seats a long way. The car itself was in decent shape, and the seats were dirty but showed no major signs of damage, so I unbolted them both and hauled them up to the front desk in a wheelbarrow. Hazel was curled up on the passenger seat dozing in the sun.

The weather was so beautiful, we took a leisurely drive home through the country, stopping here and there for some photos. Back at the house, it was a pretty easy process to pull the old seats out and swap the new ones in on the bases. There are just two holes to drill at the front and everything bolts up smoothly. I hit them both with upholstery cleaner and some 409 on the plastics, and in about two hours I had them both installed.

They’re not perfectly black, but they look a million times better with the rest of the interior, and they should last a good long time.

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The Cheap Seats

It was too damn nice out today not to take a break and replace the bottom plate on the rear seat. Now that it’s in place, the seat folds out and latches against the two stops on the wheel wells, making the seat (and integrated seatbelts) safe again. Next up is to pull the Tuffy console out and scoot it forward 1″ to clear the seat when it folds forward.

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None More Black

Now that I’ve (mostly) got a new black rear seat, I’m looking at the front seats, which are gray, and thinking that I’d like to try and find front seats that match a little better. Doing some research on the interwebs this morning I found original sales brochures for the full run of Chrysler PT Cruisers and looked at the stock fabric offered each year. For almost all of the run there were two main colors inside: gray and beige. Some years they spec’d leather seats (some were even heated) but my unscientific research has shown that was mainly in early years and those seats also had integral airbags. I did find one year with a darker upholstery: in the 2009 model year they offered what they called Dark Slate Gray, which is as close to black as I’m going to get:

I’ve got an alert set up on the LKQ app for PT Cruisers in general but I think I’ll winnow that down to the 2008-2010 model years to ensure I don’t miss an opportunity.

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Be Seated

We had a spell of warm weather this weekend that I decided to take full advantage of. I’ve been working on refurbing all of the hardware for the new bench seat for the past couple of weeks, and by Thursday I had the hinges all blasted, sanded, rust treated, and painted. Saturday afternoon I got out to the garage and bolted the seats back together.

Then I pulled the brown seat out, rustproofed the retaining plates, and put the black seat in place.

As I expected it went in fine but it does not latch to the posts on each side of the wheelwells. When the seat goes all the way back there are two latch arms that tuck under the posts, but with the height of this seat, they don’t line up—the latches bump the posts and refuse to engage.

This was the issue with the brown seat when I put that in, so I knocked the metal feet off the base of the seat with a hammer. With those gone, the seat was shorter in back and was low enough to engage the latches.

I puzzled over this for a little while and then came up with a plan that I thought was pretty smart: instead of knocking the feet off the perfectly good second base, I unscrewed the base from the brown seat and took the wire and flap sanding wheel to it. It got a coat of primer and then several coats of black enamel, and it’s now drying in the garage. When it’s ready I’ll pull the black seat back out and swap the bases. With a little luck it’ll go back in smoothly and latch as well as the brown seat did.

 

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Meanwhile, a guy I follow on Instagram posted pictures of his hinges, which he’d just worked on over the weekend with a product called Insta-Black from EPI. Apparently this isn’t a paint but a “blackening solution” for steel tools, guns, and materials. I don’t know if I’d spend $60 on the trial product just for some seat hinges, but it’s a very interesting solution.

I’ve also got to scoot the Tuffy box forward about an inch to clear the seat properly when it folds forward; the brown seat upholstery has taken a beating from rubbing against the box and I’d like to keep it as clean as possible.

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Project: PT Cruiser Seats

To recap: In early January, I pulled two gray cloth seats from a junkyard 2004 PT Cruiser. All it took was a 13 and 11mm box wrench, and one disconnect for the seatbelt sensor. They aren’t light, but they’re lighter than seats from a 2001 model, which had integrated side airbags.

PT Cruiser seats

These have built-in side armrests that fold up out of the way. They interfere with the placement of my Tuffy console, so I’ll be removing them. The female side of the seatbelt is integrated into the side of the seat, so that will need to come off as well.

The slider rails are held together with a plate in the back. They are longer than stock Scout bases, but the width of the rails is perfect. Originally, I thought I was going to have to build extender plates for each of the bases to reach the front mount points because I was sure I wouldn’t be able to get bolts to fit in between the slider rails. When I really looked it over, though, I realized I was going to have to drill a hole for a bolt between the rails anyway. I picked up some grade 8 stock and test fit everything to check the clearances, and it worked perfectly.

Side plastic

Here’s where the plastic comes off. a T50 Torx bit will remove the seatbelt anchor.

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On the side, pry the cap off with a flathead screwdriver. A T45 bit will take off the armrest and a standoff that locks the arm into place. The driver’s side is backed with plastic, so the seat doesn’t look bad with the armrest gone. The passenger’s side doesn’t have it.

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I’ve been using a spare set of bases to mock things up on, but they are both rusted at the bottoms enough that I wouldn’t put them back in service without welding in some serious support. I took a second look at the bases I had, with tracks welded to the top, and decided to try a little surgery with an angle grinder.

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After some careful cutting I got the tracks off and ground the edges off to a smooth surface, then sanded all surface rust and scale off. Then I wiped everything down with acetone to clean off any oil or grease.

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To attach the bases to the tracks, I used the stock bolts from the seat in the rear. There are two threaded bolt holes in the back. I used the one closest to the front, then marked the holes for the front bolts and drilled them. Then I used a set of 3/8″ x 1″ Grade 8 bolts threaded in from above to attach the front of the seats to the tracks. The seats slide cleanly.

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The project got sidelined for a week while I waited for Eastwood to send me rust converter. I used a brush to put it on, but the next time I’m at Target I’m going to pick up a cheap spray bottle for application–it’s much easier that way. I hit everything I could see and let it sit for 48 hours.

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Then all the bare metal got a coat of etching primer and two coats of Rustoleum satin black.

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Then I attached the seats back on the bases and put the bases back into my Scout. Compared to 30-year-old Chrysler seats, 10-year-old Chrysler seats feel like they just rolled off the factory floor, even if they don’t exactly match the rest of the truck–but then, nothing matches on this truck.

Postscript: One other nice feature is the fact that the passenger seat folds completely forward. So transporting 10′ boards without resting them on the fabric cover of the console is easy.

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Cough Cough

I pulled the Scout out of the garage this morning, intending to take her on some errands, and while I was jockeying the other cars around the driveway, she sputtered to a stop. Usually once I’ve got her running she stays running, so this was weird. Without thinking about it, I kept using starting fluid to get fuel running to the carb. After about five minutes of trying, I finally got a clue and put a gallon of gas in the tank from a jerry can. One squirt of fluid and she started right up. Which means I parked her on fumes last week. I keep thinking I’m not using as much gas as I actually am, but idling in the driveway to warm up seems to be using more than I think.

The seat project is moving along slowly. I pulled the passenger’s side seat and base out completely and mocked up one of the PT Cruiser seats on a base. They sit about 1″ higher than the GLHS seats but feel better. Lots more lumbar support. I have to pull the side molding and seatbelt stalks off, which will take a Torx 45 bit, which I don’t have.

Side plastic

The PT rails are longer than the Scout base, so the big question I’ve had has been: which side should have the overhang? I thumb-tightened two screws into the back of the base, putting the overhang up front, and tried the seat out. With the rails forward, the seat moves forward enough to leave a good bit of room for passengers entering the rear. If the driver’s side feels good, I’ll mount them both that way and call it done.

Seat Mockup

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Little Things

I took about 15 minutes to take care of some small things yesterday. The first was to measure for new rear seatbelts. The originals are old and worn and I’d like to have something I trust strapping my daughter into the truck. The female side of the buckle came off sometime in the middle of last summer as she was adjusting it, so I shifted her carseat to the other side. On Sunday I pulled a spare off the bench I have in the garage and bolted it in after taking measurements. Then I clamped and cleaned the burrs off the two metal plates I cut for the seat bases, making sure to round the edges. They fit well, so I covered them in etching primer and let them sit overnight. Next I’ll hump one of the seats into the basement and drill the plates, then go out and source some high-quality hardware to mount everything.

Seat mount plate

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Quick Update

As it turns out, all the work I did on LED marker lights is pretty much for naught. The spares I have in my bin are all set up with 12″ disconnects, which would presumably be accessible right inside the fender well. Not so with Peer Pressure. The wires go directly into the inner fender and a wrapped loom which joins with the headlight harness, so I’ll be going with LED bulbs instead.

On other fronts, I found a sheet of 16 gauge steel at Lowe’s and took some time on Sunday to cut it down to 16″ x 4″ sections for seat mounts. It’s still rough and needs to be cleaned up, but once that’s done I’ll prime and paint it, and drill mounting holes. I have two sets of  spare bases in the garage. One set is pretty well shot–the lip on the bottom is eaten away with rust around the mounting bolts, but it’s got all the ratcheting hardware intact. The second set is in better shape, but needs to be cleaned up, primed, and painted. So I’ll set that aside for when I get a day with decent temperatures.

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Seating for Two

PT Cruiser seats

After many years of saying, “I need to go buy a pair of PT Cruiser seats for the Scout,” I got a pair today. The weather was as warm as it’s going to get this week (a balmy 50°) so I suited up in some warm clothes, packed a bunch of tools and headed into the brownfields of Crazy Ray’s. I found a total of eight PT Cruisers in the Chrysler section in various states of disassembly. Three had black leather seats but all of them were in bad shape. The other five had gray cloth. I found that there are two seat types in the PT Cruiser: the kind where the passenger seat folds forward and those that don’t. The folding kind are identified by the plastic tray insert on the back. I also found that 2001-2 models have integrated airbags in the side cushions, while the 2003-4 models don’t. Airbags made me nervous so I passed on a beautiful pair of gray seats for a second, slightly dirtier pair from a 2003. They came out with little fuss (13mm bolts in front, 15 in back) and I spent more time on the line waiting to pay than I did pulling them out.

loaded seats

In the garage I pulled the back mounting plate off to expose the whole rail and found that the width does indeed match up perfectly, but of course the front-to-back bolts don’t. I’m going to ask Mr. Scout what he did (drill two new holes or fab up a mounting plate) and which ones he used the original bolts in. My spare seat mounts are a bit janky, so I either have to repair them with some angle iron or buy new/used ones. The other alternative is pulling the mounts already in the truck and examining just how much welding damage they did when they put the GHLS seats in it.

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The weather is plunging back down into the freezing cold next week, so this project will get put on hold until springtime.

Hi-Lift donut

Santa did indeed send me a donut for the Hi-Lift jack, which makes me very happy to have, and I got the first of the two lighting kits from Amazon this afternoon. Stay tuned for upgrade updates.

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