Bucket seat broken - 97 Hoe

[BigSwede]

Well my drivers seat, which had a cracked frame, broke free last night at the left front corner where the seat frame attaches to the adjustment rails. It is a leather power bucket, light gray.

If anybody has any bright ideas how to fix, I'm all ears...

Otherwise, if I find, say, a cloth bucket seat that is structurally sound at a boneyard, is it easy to swap my leather over to the cloth seat frame? or is it a PITA? If I could swap covers that would greatly increase my odds of finding a replacement.

[tuckermitchell]

mine did the same thing about a week ago... i'll definitely be watching this thread

[Larius]

One off of a cloth seat should cross over, just make sure it has the six way power adjustment.

[BigSwede]

I think this weekend I am going to pull it out of the truck and see if it can be repaired by drilling and bolting some iron across the broken area, or maybe welded back together with some stock added for support.

[98chevyZ71]

you just need a plate of steel and cut/drill it. easy fix. i did it to mine and this guy curtis did it to his. unbolt it, flip it over, and ull see how easy it is

[tuckermitchell]

from what I've looked at it I thought the same way... what would you use, like a steel brace with screws and bolts

[Green95Hoe]

This happened to mine a few years ago. The fix was easy. I took the whole seat out of the truck and took all the leather off. Once that was done the foam just pulls off the grate frame. I used a pair of vise grips to hold the piece in place while Brazing with Brass until it was solid again...then I beefed it up with extra brazing and threw it back together. No problems since then and my seat takes quite a beating when i get in and out due to the lift.

[BigSwede]

I've thought about brazing it, but I've never done any brazing before. Probably would be somewhat tighter repair (less prone to flex) than mechanical fasteners, but I have to look at it more closely to see what is what...

[BigSwede]

Today I pulled the seat out, along with the 4 broken shards of the steel frame that disintegrated under the front left corner attachment point. Dang, this steel is way too brittle!

Anyway, as 98chevyZ71 suggested I went to the hardware store and found a piece of heavy gauge metal strapping about 6-8" long. This was heavier stuff than the standard perforated galvanized strapping, and was painted black steel. It was cool 'cause it had 4 elongated holes already in it.

With the seat upside down, I put the metal under the rail and over the front frame. I drilled three holes along the frame, and one in the new piece for the rail attachment. There was already a hole at the corner of the frame. Bolted her all up using large fender washers to spread out the stress on the brittle frame, hopefully it won't crack any more.

It is exciting to have a seat that doesn't snap, crackle, or pop everytime I move. :D Ahh, the simple things!