Articles from Singer Owner

Front Seat Repairs/re-creation series

Ashley Crossland

Front Seats - Part 1

This is going to be an ambitious series of articles, and what 'we' are going to do is to be able to re-create a pair of front seats for a Roadster. I'm going to describe and give dimensions for everything that you will need to do this job. 'Everything' will include, making seat runners, making the frame and on to upholstering the finished product.

This month's article is to get you in the mood by discussing the 'model' of seat to be made, and to get you thinking about colours.

Singers used two sizes of front seats on their standard Roadsters - sorry but all you owners of SMX Roadsters will have to wait for another day for me to describe those. Early Roadsters up to and including the 4A used the small seat, being 17" wide on the seat and 20" height of the back. The 4AB and 4AD had the large seat being 22" high. These dimensions are only approximate at the moment, but I want you to know that I concentrate on the large seat in this series of articles. The reason for this is the large seat has a lot of advantages and if you are going to put a lot of effort into some seats you should have some information first about what I think is best.

The large seat, for me, is a better seat to sit in. The smaller seat being 12" less all the way around gives the feeling of sitting 'on' a seat rather than sitting 'in'. The seat back is low especially by modern standards. And the other advantage of the taller seat back is that it comes level with the tonneau cover thereby providing that with some useful support at the appropriate time.

The two sorts of seats however have a similar construction - the seat runners are the same for instance except mounted a different distance apart - but there is one major difference. The small seat has a loose, removable seat base (squab) wheras on the large seat the base is upholstered direct. What's the point of all this you may ask? Well, the extra layer of wood on the smaller seat raises you up in the car so that you tend to look over the top of the windscreen rather than through it. I suppose this is partly why the Roadster hood has that funny shape to it, but certainly motoring is less back-aching on the larger seat.

Now. if you are wondering about my experiences with either type of seat, can I remind you that I have a 4A and a 4AC, in both of which I have travelled many many miles and for my money, the 4AC has better seats than the 4A. On this issue I would knock originality into touch and if I was going to the trouble of making seats, the ones I would make are the later seats.

The other thing to ponder before the next article is the colour of your seats. So this is where I return, ironically to the subject of originality. You may as well know the correct colours, whether or not you choose to use them.. The following is the list of standard colours, although I suppose it would not have been unreasonable for Singers to do other colours on special request. Anyway this is the chance for Club members to check their colour schemes and tell me I've got it all wrong.

As a cross check for any 4AD owners who have some original carpets, carpets for 4AD's were as follows:

Just one last word on the subject of paint colours, the green of early 4AD's was called Warwick Green.
+ Metallic colours, known as 'Metallichrome'

'Til next time

Front Seats - Part 2. The floor channels

Don't ask me how Front seats part 1 came to be mixed up because I don't know! But if you are wondering about the seat sizes then approximate sizes are:

Small Seats - 17" wide seats/20" high backs.
Large seats -19" wide seats/22" high backs.

When it comes to making front seats from scratch it is certainly possible, although a short cut might be taken with making springs. What we need to discuss are the following:

1. The wooden seat base with its springing.
2. The runner assembly and floor channels.
3. The hinges for the seat back.
4. The seat back itself.
5. Upholstery for the lot.

What I propose to do is to start at the bottom and work up. So the topic for this issue is the floor channels.

These are easy! The photo shows the passenger footwell of my car with two floor channels that I made earlier. They are both basically the same except the right hand one has a series of holes for the seat adjustment mechanism.

Each runner was made out of a piece of sheet steel 15" by 2" and 1.6mm thick. Sorry for the mix of dimensions, but modern steel has long since forsaken the proper SWG sizes.

Then it has to be folded into a channel section. I found a piece of, flat bar 3/4" wide by 7/16" thick for folding round. Anyway you get the idea. Then there are some holes in the bottom for screwing to the car floor. There's a couple of cut-outs in the top for the runners to fit into and lastly the right hand runner has the holes for the seat adjustment.

On the originals, these holes are rectangular, but I found that ordinary round drilled holes worked just as well.

The accompanying drawings guide you through the details. Then for the next article we shall get onto the mating runner which goes onto the seat base. When use get that far we shall need some double coil spring washers, size 1/4". These are readily available through the appropriate suppliers so you might like to track
some down. For those obsessed with full descriptions, what you are looking for is steel Spring Washers to British Standard BS 1802:Double Coil Washers, type D.

That's about it for this issue. There will be a lot more photos and diagrams to come, so that if anything is not too clear at the moment, hopefully sufficient photos will eventually sort it out! If meanwhile you are anxious to get these channels screwed on/through the floor of your Roadster, you will see on my photo that there is a wooden packer (approx 3/8" thick) on which the channels are mounted. Also the sloping metal floor requires a triangular wedge for the rear edge of the "inner" channels. The bolts which go through the floor are 1/4" countersunk for the inner channels: the outer channels are secured with ordinary countersunk head wood screws.

Bye for now
 

Front Seats - Part 3: The seat runners

So! the seat runners, and if you are making these they will fit the 4A (narrow) and A seats as well as the later seats. I don't know if the prewar '39 Roadster has the same runners as I've never had one of those cars . but perhaps someone can enlighten me.

The photo shows the seat runners that we are now making. They bolt to the bottom of the seat and slide into the channels that were described last time.

The seat runners are 2mm thick mild steel sheet 15" long, one of which is vaguely triangular shape to take the seat adjustment components. They are drilled to take 1/4" bolts through the seat frame, and drilled also to take the spring loaded cups which locate in the floor channels. On the attached diagram O are the bolt holes, 17/64", that good old clearance size for a 1/4" bolt + are 3/16" holes to take the spring loaded cups. I will go into full detail about the cups next time and that is when we shall need those spring washers.

The fitments for the seat adjust/lock comprise a 9 1/4" bar, 1/2" wide by 1/8" thick which comes to the front of the seat. It is located through a slot and then goes to a simple spring loaded peg mechanism. Two rivets hold the slot to the runner. Through the peg onto the bar is a further rivet, this one being slack to act as a hinge. The exact size of these rivets is not important, but 1/8" or slightly larger is OK.

The peg has to be assembled inside the frame, and with a spring. The spring can be home-made from a length of piano wire. It's a sort of flattened thing which I will draw in more detail some time, but for the time being you can make the bits.

The 'slot' and the peg frame can be made from 16 swg mild steel sheet. Incidentally, all the parts on the diagram are drawn the same way as you see them on the photo - i.e. upside down. The peg frame has an ear to it, marked' which can be bent with a pair of pliers to ensure the peg fully retracts from the seat channel. If the peg does not retract far enough, bend the ear outwards.

Anyway, this is enough to keep you going until the next installment.

 
Front Seats Part 4 The spring loaded cups

We now come to what members might think as a hard part in making the seat runners. This opinion will depend on how ingenious you are or if you have access to a lathe.

The topic for this issue is the spring loaded cups which engage in the floor channels and complete the assembly of the runners. In essence all they are is a rivet through the cup onto the strips that were made earlier. Fortunately the springs are quite easy, because for this exercise we are using an item that is readily available from either serious ironmongers or engineer's merchants. All these are, are a 1/4" size double coil spring washer. I have used imperial sized ones, the full reference to them being to British standard 1802 Type D. Alternatively there is a metric series - still type D - which is British standard 4464. Here you will need M6 sizes.

The drawing shows some dimensions of the rivet and the cup. In this case the cup is a machined cup, but ingenuity may prevail and you could find something to do the job. Take these dimensions as a starting point and be prepared to adjust them depending on the springs that you use, the thickness of the floor channels etc. Do not have the cups too tightly spring-loaded or else the seat will be hard to move on the runners.

One tip towards the rivets is that the ubiquitous 6" nail has got about the right head and shank dimensions. After this things get easier.

Front Seat 5 - The Wooden bases

A lot of us like working with wood, and so many will be looking forward to making the seat bases. The seat bases are fairly basic affairs but need to be sturdily made. Many original seat bases have come apart making it impossible for them to slide on the runners, so it's worth taking extra care with them. Hence use the strongest wood you can get hold of!

The construction is with simple tenon joints on 3/4" thick wood. The dimensions are shown on the accompanying sketch. The bottom side of the frame is drawn, which shows a recess 1/2" wide onto which will be lapped the upholstery and tacked there. The one thing to make sure is that the base is flat when it is glued together. Then 3 countersunk head woodscrews go into each corner.

The photo in "Front Seat- Part 3" gives a clear view of the seat bases that we are making - oh yes don't forget you need to make two of them.

That's all for now.

Front Seat No 6 The Seat Backs

Now its onto making the seat backs. The back itself is made from sheet steel with its main edges stiffened up by being rolled onto 1/8" dia wire. Two lugs are rivetted to the seat back to make the hinge points where it fastens to the seat base. The brackets on the seat base I have yet to give you details about, so don't get worried just yet: it will all come together in due course.

The details that I am about to give you come from my 4AC seats. These seat backs are not handed as such, except that as they are handmade they are not perfectly symmetrical. Hence if any member is trying to cross-check some of their own dimensions with mine and they do not tally exactly, I would not be too concerned. In any case, at odd times I do suggest improvements, and one such suggestion is to make the seat back thicker.

One of the few faults with Roadsters is that the top of the seat back tends to crack. My 4AC seats are made from 18 swg steel, and the drivers seat, which naturally suffers most from flexing, has cracked for about 1" down from the top. No doubt this will be one of the main reasons why members will be interested in re
making seats, and hence I would suggest 16 swg is a better choice. So now down to some details.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology there is a full-size fold-out pattern for a seat back. In case the printing process distorts it a bit, there are some check dimensions on it. This is the finished size, but the sheet of metal that you cut needs to be 3/8" larger all the way round to allow for the wired edge etc. The wire goes all the way round the seat back except for the two "quadrant" shaped corners where the 3/8" extra metal is simply folded back on itself. Now don't get excited thinking that you will need a special machine to make the wired edge! It's a fairly straightforward job with a hammer and a decent vice. I don't think I really need to describe the technique, but just try it on a bit of scrap to start with, keeping in mind the 3/8" extra that we've allowed. If you choose a wire that's larger than 1/8", then do the pi times d to find out the new allowance.

Turn back the metal onto itself for the corners which are roughly quadrant shaped, but do not bash the crease totally flat so that it fractures the metal. Again, although it looks like a reverse bend, it turns out quite simple to do.

The two hinge lugs have two holes to rivet them on to the seat back. 1/4" round head rivets are OK, with the round head to the 'back' side, and the lug countersunk to take the riveting-over.

Around the top 'edge' of the seat there needs to be some small (say 1/8") holes set in approx 3/4" from the wired edge. These are for use with the original method of upholstery which was to fasten some wooden ply-wood strips - "tacking strips" - around the seat onto which the upholstery may be tacked. Bifurcated rivets through those 1/8" holes will hold on the tacking strips.

Along the bottom edge, which is also wired, will be a shaped piece of wood and to hold this on there needs to be 4 equally spaced holes for No8 woodscrews. These holes need to be up 1 1/4" from the bottom. I'll describe the shaped piece of wood which helps form the shape of the seat in the next article. Meanwhile there's nothing to stop you getting ready some tacking strips cut 1/2" -wide from good quality 3/16" ply. I emphasise good quality ply that will take the tacks that will eventually be used with the "Hidem" banding. The exact length of these tacking strips is not important, although to go round the curved top need to be either curved or shorter or both.

Don't put the tacking strips on at this stage wait until the back has been formed to shape. In the meantime search out some bifurcated rivets, for which you might have to enlarge the 1/8" holes already mentioned, or else chicken out with some 1/8" pop rivets.
Anyway, I'll keep the chat short in this issue so as to leave plenty of room for the drawings.