Recent content by rdoty

Interesting! I wasn't familiar with them and had to look it up. Fascinating, elegant, and somewhat complex gadgets. The people who made the industrial revolution weren't dummies! I've got a huge amount to learn about machining, fabrication, and metrology. Thanks for the reference!

I still have my first slide rule <digs it out of drawer> - a Pickett N4-ES Vector-type Log Log Dual Base Speed Rule... Slide rules make nice decoration, but I don't miss using them at all! I find it fascinating how much modern solid modeling CAD systems are built on drafting style geometric...

Today is a new day. Returning to the debacle of the seat cover that doesn’t fit the first thing is to cast aside all assumptions and systematically trouble shoot everything. The first thing I discovered is that the sides of the seat aren’t at right angles to the front – they are actually at 83...

I wanted a 3D printer for years. Waited until I had a project that needed it to get one - I knew that it would just sit around otherwise... The first thing to understand is that the actual 3D printer is just one stage in a pipeline of building things. You can either print things other people...

Encouraged by the results so far I started working on templates for the seat cover. Unlike the rest of the seats, I wasn’t able to use the original front seat covers to make templates. The front and sides were OK, but the top was just too messed up to use. No problem! All that I need to do is...

Yeah, that time thing can wreak havoc with your hobbies! I like to think I have a realistic outlook on life. My friends often use other words to describe it...

Go out to the truck and run one wire. If you like it, run a second wire. If you don't like it, change it and try again. Don't have a goal of making the entire harness, have a goal of running one wire. One of the great things about these projects is that they aren't permanent - if you don't like...

I'm familiar with placing the burlap between the seat springs and the foam to protect the foam from getting chewed up by the springs. Haven't run into recommendations for putting burlap between the foam and the seat cover. And I'm rather happy with how the interior is turning out! How are you...

I’m not happy with the installation of the replacement foam on the back seat. I need to do something better for the front seat – after all, this is where I will be sitting! OK, drag out the new foam, cut it over size, plop it on top of the seat frame, and start studying the situation. The...

We had a thread on Gridfinity Tool Storage that covered a lot of these points. If you have a 3D printer (or a friend with a 3D printer...) Gridfinity is worth serious conslderation.

Good thing this was saved for last – the base of the front seat was trashed! Once the aftermarket covers were removed you could see that the factory covers were completely shot – worn out, shredded, stretched, and basically horrible. The factory foam was entirely missing; this is the one place...

The seat backs were much like the rear seats with a few differences. Since all sides are visible the covers must cover everything. Unlike many cars there is a separate flat panel on the back of the seat – this should simplify the job.Like the rear seat, the seat back is in surprisingly good...

With the rear seat done it was time to turn to the front seat with high hopes and expectations of replicating the successful work on the rear seat. Yeah, that is a bit of forsehadowing… The front seat had to come out. Unlike the back seat, the seat bottom and seat back are all part of one...

The arm rests were a bit of a project, with a combination of convex and concave curves that the vinyl somehow fit. I started off trying to make a template from scratch, but quickly became frustrated. Fortunately I was able to salvage the cover from one of the rear arm rests, separate it into its...

Torsion bar adjustment tool? I was looking at a Jag XKE and it had torsion bar front suspension with splines that looked like that.