Beginnings

This is the shape of the seats. Lots of surface rust, flaking paint, and sheet metal that is barely holding on.

Corner

Here's the corner of what I believe to be the driver's seat. It has been abused! Just look at the popped welds, and hanging sheet metal.

Cracked Up

Here you see the crack in the frame tubing. It will all need to be welded to make it strong again.

Cleaned Up

I used laquer thinner to remove the remnants of the old padding, and they cleaned up quite nicely. Well, except for all of the rust and bent sheet metal...

Straightening

Using an adjustable wrench works very well to straighten sheet metal. Just close the jaws down close to the thickness of the metal, and bend it up.

Bangin'

After doing the rough work with an adjustable wrench, the metal is fine tuned with a hammer and dolly to take down the small bends.

Free Wheeling

I used a wire wheel in my drill to remove the surface rust and old paint. The paint came off so easily, though, that I believe that they have been repainted in the past. The really ugly welds on the metal were my first clue, though.

Driver's Seat

I've straightened the metal, but it still needs to be cleaned and welded back together.

Cracked

This shot shows the cracked frame tube really well.

Wheeled

This is the frame, after wire wheeling off the paint and rust. It cleans up nicely!

Maker's Mark

This symbol boggled me, until I viewed it from the other side. Apparently, the Cox Company manufactured the seat frames!

Welded

I put LOTS of seam welds, attaching the shet metal braces to the tubing. These remaining pics show lots of ugly welds, but I'll grind them down and paint them, and they'll be fine. They did the job, though. These seats are solid!

Front View

More welds. This is the front edge of one of the seats.

More Seams

Just the other side of the seat.

Corners

Here is a shot of where I re-inforced the spot welds in the corners of the seats. The old spot welds allowed for very slight movement, these welds do not!

Backside

Here is the back side of the corner brace. I welded up the back sheet metal, because this was originally only welded along the top and bottom, but not the vertical rear...

Bad Crack

Here is that really bad section of the driver's seat, just prior to welding.

Ugly...

It ain't purdy, but it'll do the job! I'm not too worried about this being a problem, in the future...

Inside Corner

This is the inside of that driver's side corner. Again, really ugly, but nothing a little grinding and some POR-15 and paint won't beautify! Besides, all of this ugliness is hidden under padding and seat covers!