The 'E' Type Forum

I have just started to put the interior of my series 1 2+2 back together, and hit a snag. The outside front mounting point for the front seat has come free from the chassis - I presume that there was a washer inside that has corroded away?






So I am now left with a 15mm hole that I cannot access the back of. What are the options? I thought about rivnuts, but an M8 or similar size rivnut would only fit a smaller 11mm hole.

Simon, I’m happy to be corrected but I think you will need to weld in a new nut to the floor pan. If you look at your other seat fixings that you can see from underneath that will show you how they are. If the floor pan has rusted away at the seat attachment I should check all around for any other rust before progressing further.

Geoff

Floor pan is solid - problem is that you can't get to the back without cutting a hole in the sill. Was wondering about using a jack nut which would fill a larger hole than a rivnut?

Do you weld?....weld a nut to a small plate.....weld the plate to the floor/seat mount channel.....Steve

Unfortunately not! If I can't find another solution I'll have to find someone to do it for me...

An excellent time to go and buy yourself a MIG welder

Relatively inexpensive and easy to learn to use.

3M and many other companies produce a 2 part adhesive labelled as structural panel bond or similar. Attach your preferred size rivnut to a small panel (should be an imperial size to match the original fastener). Then clean thoroughly the panel and the floor and bond the panel to the floor with a few small steel structural pop rivets for good measure.

Not a bad idea! I'm not sure I want to experiment with MIG welding at this stage...

I think I might be able to achieve it with an M8 jack nut - should fit a 15mm hole. I might need a reducing sleeve to take the M8 down to M6 for a bolt to fit - just waiting for new seat mounting parts to arrive to test it...

Quick update. Solved this by getting a bit creative - M8 Jack nut secured into the existing hole, inserted a M8-M6 reducing sleeve, allowing me to securely screw in the seat hardware with an M6 bolt.

Perhaps not pretty, but nice and secure without needing to resort to welding.

One step closer!