Big Blue's Bucket Seats

[Gary Lewis]

viven44 wrote

Wonder if a body-mount type bushing would help, vibrations and such.

A bushing in place of the washers?  Maybe, but I really don't have vibrations.

[mat in tn]

I can imagine some type of dense poly bushing like a sway bar and link or even a "compressor foot" bushing from a residential heat pump compressor. either would be black and might add a "little" shock /vibration reduction. essentially like using black bumpers the same as on the seat base itself. but if you don't mind a hexagon look. get two 5/8-11 hex nuts and voila. spacers. Possibly the exact thickness that you want.

[Gary Lewis]

As I think about it I don't believe I really want to introduce flex into the equation.  That would mean that some point in the "legs", the part that bolts to the floor, might eventually work-harden and crack.  That would probably be where the folded part of the leg flattens and is bent to attach to the floor at front, and I'd bet having that movement concentrated right there would cause it to break eventually.

Instead I'd rather the foam of the seats be the part that gives.  So I plan to make spacers of some kind.  I'll have to see what I have in stock that can be used for that.

[viven44]

The type of vibrations I was referring to is the kind from exhaust (Sound) and engine. I had a truck that had the exhaust solid-welded into the frame and that was 'bad'. The seats were like massaging-chairs and the most I could ride in that truck was about 30 minutes before I was in a trance

I'm sure Big Blue has been engineered well to dampen any vibrations. The factory seats don't use any bushings so its probably not needed. Look forward to seeing what you make on the lathe.

[Gary Lewis]

Big Blue's exhaust system was done by a professional and has the proper hangers and clearance to the frame.  So no vibrations like that come into the cab.

As for what I did today, I made a trip to Harbor Freight and the local hardware store.  And I found out why HF can offer that needle scaler for such a cheap price - there's not one in any store in the US.  So I moved up to the $40 one, but along the way I discovered a that they are discontinuing a 3" cutter and have a nice die grinder for a decent price, so they followed me hoe=me.  And in the hardware store I found the self-etching primer and satin black paint.  (They had flat, satin, semi-gloss, and gloss.  No matte.)



So I came home and used the needle scaler.  Yippee!  As you can see in the before and after pics at the bottom it works.  It isn't perfect, but FAR better than any other way I've found.  Thanks, Jim.    (But, unfortunately it didn't improve the welds nor the look thereof.)

And then I put the platform in the paint booth, blew it off with compressed air, and then washed it down with brake cleaner.  After letting it dry for a few minutes I made sure it was dry by using a heat gun on it, and then put on "about" three coats of primer, which was one full can.  I say "about" because there are so many sides to this thing that it is hard to remember where you've been, but suffice to say that it is well and truly coated.  Tomorrow I plan to give it several coats of the satin black and then let it dry for at least 24 hours.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

So I came home and used the needle scaler.  Yippee!  As you can see in the before and after pics at the bottom it works.  It isn't perfect, but FAR better than any other way I've found.  Thanks, Jim.

Clean job, looks good!

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Jeff.  I think it is going to work out well, and it'll be far less visible than before when there were several different colors peeking out at you from under the new seats.

[viven44]

Looking great. Never heard of a needle scaler until now. Would also be wonderful to use on floor pans to knock off some old scale rust.

[Gary Lewis]

I'm not sure you want to do that in your neighborhood.  I wore my 3M Workmate headphones to block out the noise and every once in a while I touched the headphones to the platform while I was hitting it with the tool.  The noise was amazingly LOUD!  Those needles are hitting at 4800 times per minute, or 80 times per second.  It was loud enough on that platform, but if you were to hit sheetmetal I think you'd wake up the dead!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Like I said, the sem-matte hasn't been a thing in over 3 decades.

I'm glad the needle scaler is helping for you!
How did you live without one???

[viven44]

OK that is good to know!! I won't be using it then. Will stick to my wire wheel. Doing all the stuff I do in my neighborhood has been a problem for a while for my poor neighbors. I don't want to push my luck anymore than I already have  

[Gary Lewis]

I don't know how I've lived w/o one, especially since I used to do stick welding.  It worked really nicely on the hard to reach places today, but on the slag from stick welding it would have been wonderful!

Told my brother about it and sent him a link to the post with the pics since he was interested as well.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

You need to be careful with anything thin enough to bend.

It's like tapping something into a form.
One or two blows with a tiny hammer do nothing,
When you have a couple dozen little hammers x 4,800 bpm things move in a real hurry!

Nothing better for getting into corners or exposing a corroded faster though.

[Gary Lewis]

Right.  In fact the most effective way to use it is to have the part where it cannot move, like on a work table and you are aiming down.  If you aim sideways the part will move with the blows and it isn't as effective.

[Gary Lewis]

Checked the platform over and the paint looks good, so I put the legs back on it.  Then I started looking for material with which to make the spacers for the rear of the legs.

Found some tapered cast iron pieces I don't know what are and realized that after making them flat they'd be about right.  So I put one in the mill and took the taper off of one side.  Flipped it over and made the other side flat.  Marked for 1 1/4" circles and drilled a 3/8" hole in two place.  Cut the two pieces out, rounded their corners, chucked them in the lathe using a 3/8" bolt as the mandrel, turned them down to 1.25", pulled the bolt and chucked them back in the lathe on their OD, drilled them to .391" to fit the metric bolt for the floor, and painted them.

A few pics of that process follow, but immediately after that I discovered a puddle of water on the floor of the shop, right next to the water heater.  A little sleuthing determined it was from the 15 year old water heater.  And, I discovered there was no shutoff valve!

So I make a trip the hardware story and bought a ball valve, close, and cap.  Back at the house turned the water off, drained the water heater, installed the ball valve/close/cap in its place, and turned the water back on.  NO LEAKS!  Now I'm looking at point of use/tankless water heaters.

[viven44]

Wow those are some serious spacers/bushings. Probably better than OEM !

And yes, Tankless water heaters FTW! Just need air intake and exhaust vents and a condensate drain.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, they are serious.  But they'll do the same thing as stacking 8 washers and won't look nearly as dorky.  Like maybe even something Ford would have done, although Ford wouldn't have painted them.  

[viven44]

Yes painting that is an extra manufacturing step adding cycle time and cost, share holders wouldn't be happy about that move

[ArdWrknTrk]

Powder coating! (If it's worth doing, it's worth OVER doing! 😆)

[ArdWrknTrk]

How hard is your water there in skiatook?

If it's bad you're going to be descaling that thing every 3 months