To sit or not to sit

 I've still got a fair bit to do, but a big chunk that can be done next is the seats themselves. I've already got the fixing points for the runners, so I had it all planned to reuse the donor seats. A while back I dismantled a seat base and it came apart as a metal shell, a sponge block and the leather skin. This looked good, modifying the metal base and reducing the foam would work. Unfortunately, today changed that plan...

It turns out the seat back isn't as substantial as the base. It's basically an upright mattress, a series of horizontal springs coated in foam with the leather on top. So dismantling it just means I'd end up with a pile of springs and bits of foam that used to be a chair back.

As you can imagine I'm a bit frustrated. I now need to come up with another solution for the seats. However, this could be a good thing. Mainly because I can get things working better for IVA.

The plan now will be to make a metal frame that matches the existing leather skin, with either plywood or metal to fill the gaps. Then new foam to rebuild the seat, then reuse the leather. Sounds fairly simple. I've made a template for the seat back, I'll do the same for the base. Then maybe some thin ply to test fit everything, or even as a permanent solution if the metal frame is solid enough.

Time for more metal though. The stuff I have is too thick for a seat, both in terms of diameter and gauge. I don't want to use metal that can support a fibreglass body, just to hold up a bit of sponge! So I need to work out how much each seat will use, as well as future proofing anything else I might need. Measuring the seat I can see the back is 800 x 400. Assuming that it just needs a single loop on the outside, that's 

    800 + 800 + 400 + 400 (x2 seats) = 4800 mm

Metalstore have 1.2mm gauge x 3 metre x 19mm for £12.78 a length. Two of those should be fine for the seats.

I can also get the metal for the outriggers. With the back panel being 1.5m x 2.5m, I could assume that it basically needs a complete circle of metal for supports. That is 1.5 + 1.5 + 2.5 + 2.5 so an extra 8 metres.

All this is quite fortunate of course, because metalstore have a minimum £50 excl VAT order for free delivery. 5 lengths should do it, and that also works well with the seat metal. 

I could also do with some tube for fixing holes. Just some half inch will do here, 1.2mm again to weld easy.