TRD Sports Seat - Making Copies of the Installation Brackets

It's taken me nearly a year to try and track down some seat brackets and I've only managed to get hold of a driver's side set so I'm looking to get a mirror image set made to make the passenger side.

I decided to make some patterns to find out what the original sheet material looked like. I took each bracket in turn and covered them in sticky back plastic:



Trimmed off all the excess



Cut out the holes



Seat bracket covered and trimmed



Then I carefully peeled off the covering being exceptionally carefully not to stretch or deform the film



Then re-stuck it down on some cardboard



Then outlined it in pencil to end up with a life size pattern I repeated the process for the other 3 brackets which are all slightly different and this is what I ended up with.


















measurements ive taken are:















The small holes are 8mm and the large holes are 15mm except the one on the 18D bracket which is 12mm for some reason


If anyone can help with smartening up the drawings/have them fabricated out of 3mm steel/ laser cut etc I'd like to hear from you! :-)

These have been CAD'd this week and are in for profiling Tues/Wed. Should have them folded & welded by weeks end although i have my American bosses over and homework has to be hidden



Patterns were excellently done although quite the opposite to what's needed! When making brackets with folds in you work to the inside dimensions as material stretches and the inside remains constant. In this case it was impractical, if not impossible to do so had to factor in the added material or stretch. not that easy but hopefully we should be within a couple of millimetres .... or in other words "within tolerance"

Excellent work - hopefully this will encourage others not to "butcher" their lovely TRD seats up and fit the (semi)real brackets! Top work :-)

Brackets are in and being folded today with a bot of luck. Would like to get them over to you before Xmas

d-peg wrote:..... Would like to get them over to you before Xmas

Me too!!!! LOL Cant wait to show them off. If poss can you take photos (phone camera will do) so we can show folks the process? (I believe the processes and macjhinery involved are pretty impressive)

These are the laser profiled parts (already marked for folding). Laser cuts steel with a beam of light 0.3mm wide; making for extremely accurate parts. The divergance (cut angle perpendicular to the plate) is minimal on these sort of thicknesses too giving extremely square edges. You'll note the front brackets have an added piece of steel on them. We've had to to this in order to cross the press tooling. The extra bit will be cut off once formed.



This is the machine we'll use to form them. It's a 160tonne brake press. (2) extremely large hydraulic cylinders either end of a 3m long beam. It can fold 2.5m long x 10mm thick stainless steel. If you do not respect this machine it will kill you.

Top work there - very impressed :-) :-)

Cant wait to see finished product!

Here you go Jeff... all done.



I can't get to the postie until after Xmas though. So will send them between xmas and new year - probably wednesday ok

Wow they look top notch! :-) Bit nervous now though in case I got my measurements wrong....! LOL

Not gonna sleep tonight

Sorry Jeff,

Should have let you know i posted these out yesterday lunchtime.

pm on it's way.

Ah brilliant - thank you! :-) Ill post some pics up soon as I put them in

Look what arrived today :-)



There was both the drivers and passenger side in there so I temporarily installed them without the seat until I could find a set of 4 where all the holes lined up - hope Ive used the right ones! LOL (rear inner looks wonky but thats just coz the bolt is loose and I'd twisted it round - it does line up.



Once I'd decided which ones to use I then unbolted from floor and attached to the seat - not got the right nuts at the moment so had to use some I found in the garage for time being.



So now I'm getting a bit nervous - are they going to fit......?????!!!!

Passenger seat front inner is good :-)



Passenger seat front outer good :-)



Hows about that for a bit of engineering - hold for the rear inner lines up



In the bolt goes



Just the rear outer now...will it...wont it.....



RESULT!!! Absolutely spot on :-)

As you can see from pics it was getting dark so not done the drivers side yet but very confident it will turn out just as well - cant thank Dan enough for his very kind favour hes done - top man!

That's bloody excellent Jeff - they look spot on mate. I have to say the fronts were fairly simple but am AMAZED the rears line up so well.

Im pleased your happy with them mate and pleased you can finally get a pair of TRD seats in your car buddy

Considering the grief and, to be honest, blatant underhandedness with the original set, it's a result

Dan

If anybody else needs these brackets please give me a buzz

I'm like a dog with 2 tails...or should I say a TRD owner with 2 seats! LOL

Ill fit the other side tomorrow so you can see a pair in - just ran out of light today.

Once again many thanks!

Yet another not so good photo due to dark bu both seats are no win car. Daylight pics to follow in next few days...



Closer look at mounting brackets.



Dan - just wondering - Id like to make these black so they look like originals - what's the best way to do it? ie. powder coat, paint, plate etc.

Not entirely sure but i seem to recall from the debacle of you trying to buy those original ones that it was some sort of Chemical Black. This would be cleaned and dipped in a chemical to "pickle" the surface to turn it black. But this doesn't last all that well in damp conditions (as in a winter's MR2 cockpit lol)

So i would favour a simple black powdercoat. It would take a real discearning eye to notice the difference but as long as it's not knocked or chipped it will last indefinitely.

Finally managed to take a better photo with the seats in place :-)

Looking good!

I'm going to need some of these brackets now :-)

Wondering when you might ask Andy

Right now ;-) Pleeeeaaaaasssseeee may I purchase some of your super duper TRD seat brackets for these beauties that are winging there way to me...

Jeff - can you do me a favour please? I need confirmation on the rears as to which is the inside bracket (tank side) and which is the outside (sill side). I think the front ones are close enough the same to make little or no difference.
Thanks,
Dan

Andy - i'll up the quantity i am having lasered next week sometime hopefully.

Andy - i'll up the quantity i am having lasered next week sometime hopefully

Thanks Dan

I could do with another too if thats ok???!!! ;-')

sure Jeff - no bother at all