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Pictures of the seat tracks or the metal base frame?
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Justin Rio -
The metal base frame- the part which attaches to the seat, not the floor.Comment
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Time to chime in, maybe. Ed, the info here on ABCGT is very good.
The seat and such that Ed is trying to make sure is correct came from a '63 C-2 that was vintage raced until about 20 years ago. When this Coupe came to me for resto, I was instructed to turn the car around to be "as made when new."
The Speedster-esqe seats had to be replaced and thus passed through at least one other buyer before landing with Ed and as he notes, one was a f/g clone (fooled me, as the look and weight and covering hid the shell) and sold.
The under-frames were indeed 'home made' and the tracks on the bar stock were ripped from the sheetmetal pans of the original 'stock' seats that had come with the car and were stored away. I was able to provide very nice original seats, complete, even before the butchered originals were found.
The tracks previously on the original seat pans were installed to fit typical T-6 rails on the simple flat stock frame, a la the wood frame under the earlier Speedster seats.
The one under the typical safer metal option is a home-made frame from a Speedster and used to lower the seat
Two more data points for these special seats;
I have seen more than one pair of widened steel seats, very nicely done and looking believably "Factory." The steel seat 'bucket' had been very neatly sliced down it's vertical middle and an overlapping strip was spot-welded to each side allowing (from memory, no pictures easily found if any taken back before digital) an added width of about 20-25mm. They had special pads in horsehair for better thigh support and I remember them as looking like what Bill has posted here.
However, the only mention that I have seen in the Factory literature is a part number in the parts book for aluminum versions, 644-521-001(002)-56.
As for earlier aluminum shells in GT cars or options for others, those are in the earlier parts books with the steel versions by description and part number, as it can be assumed that eventually the same dies were used for all after c.'55, including the basis for the wider T-6 versions.
The only true GT seats I have had were very nice and thus were never uncovered to expose details while I had it. It would have been nice to see the triangular stampings holding the wire for the upholstery panels or whatever was used for that purpose. Those seats in my T-5 GT were very light, however, sitting in them, one got a sense that metal fatigue would result in cracking very soon, that they were not as strong as the steel seats in my then daily driver Speedster. Saving weight collectively on a GT made it have a better chance of winning in racing.... but not lasting, seen throughout the racing history of Porsche and most other manufacturers.
BruceComment
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Bruce, many thanks for your post! The steel seat I kept is original, I think- it does have the tangs and there is no evidence of widening. I will give you a call next week, if you are around, to say hello.Comment
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Edwin,
Send an email to me about your steel seat.
Michael Doyle
md4mdoyle@sbcglobal.netComment
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Michael, email sent about a week ago.Comment
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