Today I decided to knock out a simple task - get the seat backs put together. It will come as no surprise that it ended up being anything but straight forward. There wasn't anything difficult about what needed to be done, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why things weren't fitting the same on each seat. I still don't really know why.
The Classic Aero seats have an internal frame, but they don't have the bottom hinge or the upper support piece attached.
The upper part was easy enough to put on. The hinge just had to be drilled to match the existing screws in the plastic bumper (designed to rest against the fuselage seat brace).
The bottom of the frame needs the hinge attached that pairs with a hinge half on the floor. Supposedly all I needed to do was take a few measurements to center the seat, drill and rivet together. I did that, only to discover the hinge they sent was cut wrong. They sent two right side hinges (the hinges are asymmetrical), but I didn't catch it until I had already drilled one to match the left frame. It's not really a big deal, other than making the end eye offset further towards the centerline than it should be (the hinge is still riveted to the frame so that the seat is centered though). That makes the hinge interfere with the heated seat power jacks I put in, so I cut off half of the inside eye so it would clear the jack. I could just grab some of my own hinge stock and redo this hinge correctly, but it hardly seems worth it given that the seat will rarely, if ever, be moved once it's set in the position I like.
The right side at least had the correct hinge, but I made the mistake of thinking the measurements to center the hinge on the floor would mean the seat was centered. It should mean that, but with the hinge located where it should be, the seat back was shoved about a half inch to the outside and hit the rollbar bolts.
I still have no idea why the right seat is so far off. All of the measurements of the floor hinges are identical to the left side. Technically all I have to do is slide the frame over the half inch and rivet it to the hinge in the location that centers the seat, but I'd really like to understand why it's different first. I'll take a fresh look at it tomorrow.
I couldn't help but put a seat bottom in and try it on for size of course! I started with the seat in the aft most hinge location, but that was way too far back. I think either the middle or front hinge location will end up being the sweet spot for me. I won't know for sure until I connect the rudder so I know where neutral is for the pedals though. I think I'm really going to be glad I took the time to do the seat brace mod. Being able to recline the copilot seat while setting the pilot seat in the normal upright position definitely makes the space feel much roomier.
