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Posted by: LotusJoe Nov 9 2011, 03:28 PM

I'm thinking about taking the seat rails apart to have them powder coated and fresh zinc plating done on the hardware. Has anyone taken one apart? It looks like a knuckle buster. Tricks to getting them apart and back together again?

Thanks
Joe

Posted by: McMark Nov 9 2011, 05:17 PM

I haven't taken one apart, but oddly enough, it's on the schedule for later this month. One word of warning, powdercoating will likely be too think on the sections where the seat rail actually slides. I was planning on masking those four strips, top and bottom. I even thought of polishing those areas for better slide action...

Posted by: Phoenix-MN Nov 9 2011, 05:19 PM

"Piece-O-cake" I did mine without any problems. Here's some pictures from my site

http://phoenixhobbies.com/html/interior.html


Paul

Posted by: Harpo Nov 9 2011, 05:25 PM

Very nice, please tell us how you got that spring off

David

Posted by: LotusJoe Nov 9 2011, 05:30 PM

Thanks Paul,
I see you also put a boxster exhaust on your car. I'm doing the same thing; do you have any additional pictures of the brackets and such?
Regards
Joe

Posted by: Phoenix-MN Nov 9 2011, 06:58 PM

It's just held in place with a roll pin. Push the pin out and everything slides apart. I was a bit of a challenge getting it back together but was do-able.

Paul

Posted by: Phoenix-MN Nov 9 2011, 07:00 PM

[/quote]
Thanks Paul,
I see you also put a boxster exhaust on your car. I'm doing the same thing; do you have any additional pictures of the brackets and such?
Regards
Joe
[/quote]


Sent a PM

Posted by: ellisor3 Nov 9 2011, 07:56 PM

I did mine as well and had them powder coated. Do Not let them powdercoat the slides on either side. I spent hours grinding it back off, and reassembling the rails to see if they would work. One of the worst mistakes I made on my whole project. I would simply have the exterior done and simply put some rust prevenative on the slides themselves.

Posted by: ellisor3 Nov 9 2011, 08:00 PM

If you take a pair of needle nose vice grips and attach them to the side of the spring simply to hold it, you can the use a screw driver to remove the spring without having it go flying. This will also work in the reverse to get it back on. It is tough but doable.

Posted by: nsr-jamie Nov 10 2011, 06:25 AM

Its pretty easy, I did it this summer while my car was in the shop...the hardest part for me was trying to remove the bolts that held the rail to the bottom of the seat. Two stripped out on me and it was a big pain to fix but finally did it and than I sand blasted them and sprayed them which I think was not the best thing to do as it is very tight and hard to adjust the passenger seat now, the drivers side moves alright..I also greased up the rails too and that helped a bit and installed the new adjuster handles from 914 rubber.com while I was at it.

Posted by: LotusJoe Dec 9 2011, 06:43 PM

Paul, you were exactly correct. the seat rails went back together much easier than I thought. Took about 20 minutes to get everything back together and installed in the car. Had the rails powder coated, the handles nickel plated, and rest of the bits yellow zinc. I know it's a bit of over kill on parts you'll never see, but at least it should keep the corrosion at bay for a period and time.



Thanks for the encouragement.

Posted by: zymurgist Dec 10 2011, 09:05 AM

Very nice looking job! I just had this stuff apart last weekend and it doesn't look nearly as good.

Posted by: r_towle Dec 10 2011, 09:48 AM

Funny,
I took a set apart thinking I had to restore them to get a good set.
Sandblasted..cleaned, painted, new grease...
I was very proud.

I found a mint OEM set in the storage about three months later that I had taken off to save for future use.

Sucks getting old.

Rich

Posted by: Lou W Dec 10 2011, 02:11 PM

That's funny, something I would have done.