82-T/A

Ok, long story short, I bought a project car for $1,300 bucks.

I've gotten the car running, and have replaced or repaired every piece in the interior except the dash (can't find one??). The previous owner REALLY ghetto'ed out this car. He tossed the original Porsche seats, and installed a pair of no-name "racing seats". What's worse is... he used machine screws to attach them to the frame... that's right... small machine screws.

Never the less, he somehow managed to actually rip the nuts clear out of the cages on the front two seat bolts on the drivers side.

Now, here's my question. I really don't want to have to damage this car further than the PO has... what would be the responsible way to fix this? I stil have 6 of the 8 nuts intact, and can use those. The only problem is that I seem to be lacking the bolts???

But the front two bolts, what would you guys recommend that I do? Should I weld studs in there? or should I attempt to put hardware clear through the floor boards?

Does anyone know where I can get new seat mounting bolts?


Thanks...


Todd,
2006 Pontiac Solstice
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6 5-Sped
1984 Porsche 944
1981 Pontiac TransAm WS6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter

Rock

That car should only have 4 mounting bolts. I forget which size they are, but I believe theyre actually like 10MM head bolts or something.

The way we fixed it on the yellow car was by cutting out a small section from of the damaged part from a good parts car, and welding the thing in tight.

schwank

I'm pretty sure they are 8M hex heads. Just bought a bunch from the local indy hardware store.

If not local, Google is your friend for metric fasteners. I see them cheaper online than local, but sometimes speed and supporting local business is better.

Good luck!

Techno Duck

M8x20 allen head bolts.

Early cars used 4 bolts, late cars used 6.

I think the best way to fix your problem is to have someone weld new nuts into the cages.

Rock

I know the later cars had these. When i bought the yellow car, they didnt have any of those, and they also wouldnt fit for *** in the holes.

FRporscheman

Early cars use hex head bolts (4), not allen head. The bolts can be found at any hardware store, and the nuts as well, but as far as getting the nuts back into those cages, I don't have any clever ideas.

tomrc

I had a similar problem, I had someone try and weld a new nut but I guess it takes a whole lot of expertise because it didn't hold for long. Anyway, I wound up putting a bolt through the floorboard. You can just weld the rails to the floorboard, but that ruins the chance of ever getting the rails out again without screwing up the rails and the floorboards.

xsboost90

can you get another nut and have it tacked into the floorboard? I have a bunch of alan bolts-not sure which ones are for the seats though. Early cars prob have six bolts per side...

sbyrne

I had the same problem - the seat track nuts at the front of the tracks on the driver's side were both spun loose. Took it to my favourite body shop and they welded in new nuts - acted like it was no big deal, not uncommon. Less than a hundred bucks, IIRC. This is a safety issue - not a place to scrimp!

FRporscheman

sounds like a good idea to me, worth a shot

Kevin Baker

I think you'd be OK if you put some grade 8 bolts through the frame. Under the car I'd use a LARGE flat washer to distribute the load (should you have an accident) The grade 8 bolts are strong enough to withstand a lot of shear load. The washers would help to spread the "upward" force across a larger area of the floorboard. Just my .02

82-T/A

Thanks guys... I can do the welding myself. I thought about the bolts through the floor board, but man... I just can't forgive myself if I need to drill holes through the floorboard of a Porsche. A Ford Econovan (for a backseat), yeah... but a Porsche... ugh...

82-T/A

Thanks guys. I just wanted to respond to this with my update. I went through several cans of bolts that I have (from various cars / projects), and I found 6 perfect fine thread bolts that match the threading and size of the factory bolt holes perfectly. As I mentioned earlier though, the previous owner actually damaged and removed the two front seat bolts for the drivers side. Safety isn't anything I want to mess with, so I'll be using the 6 bolts I found to install the passenger seat, and the two bolt holes in the rear of the drivers seat, and then for the front two seats, I will reluctantly drill holes in the floor boards and bolt it to the grond like that. It's not really the way I wanted to go, but the previous owner really damaged that area when he ripped those nuts out.

I should have taken pictures before... but he used self tapping machine screws to install that aftermarket seat of racing seats.

Why would you install racing seats... in a car that you haven't changed the fuel filter on, since you've owned it... or any of the other maintenance items?

Anyway, thanks for the advice!

Der Cupmeister

Having already used the "thru the floor method" on the front left drivers seat rail bolt I now have a dilemna with the right front bolt. It backed out a couple of turns but now just spins freely with the nut still attached and the seat will not come out. I can go Hulk on it and just rip it loose from the floorboard then repair the damage some way that will still be usable but I am hoping for some less destructive ideas.

82-T/A

I've done this on another vehicle. My friend had purchased a BRAND new Chevy CargoVan for the SOLE purpose of JUST buying parts from the junkyard for his hobby, and for Home Depot / Lowes runs... (must be nice).

He wanted to have a bench seat installed, so he found a nice one in the yard.

I did basically what you said, but you have two options. You can always purchase nylon lock nuts. They rarely, if EVER, back out...

You can also, purchase castleated nuts and CAREFULLY drill holes through the bolt. You can then use a cotter pin.