Driver seat pan crack

[totaljoint]

Does anybody have suggestions of experience
In successful repair of a driver seat pan crack? It's at the usual spot, on the side wall of the pan.
Can a strip of reinforcement be welded (jb welded?) on the inner lip of the slider pan?
Thanks,
Ed

[krick3tt]

Just looked at mine to see if they were interchangeable and that won't work. How close to the edge? I might try a piece of 14 ga sht metal and some pop rivits.
...and I want to know how you did this mystery injury to your pinz, rough road?

[westernair]

Does anybody have suggestions of experience
In successful repair of a driver seat pan crack? It's at the usual spot, on the side wall of the pan.
Can a strip of reinforcement be welded (jb welded?) on the inner lip of the slider pan?
Thanks,
Ed

Ed,
If you make it down to Tacoma, bring the part and I'll weld it up for you. I have been pretty sucessfull with sheet metal welding. I just fixed a stress crack in the cooling tin around the base of the front carb before having it powder coated.

[totaljoint]

Ha, Morris! It's much more polite to say "rough road" than to accuse me of "fat ass", I thank you for that.

I'm too tall for my sprinter seats that Andre did suck a nice job on, so I wanted to try out an original seat for height. Bernhard's aluminum plate seems to work well for him, but Corbeau seats are out of my price range right now, and I don't like climbing in over the thigh bolsters. Honda crv seats were recommended, but none on ebay right now.

The stock seats with the head rests that are on the DK truck at EI look nice, and I'm thinking of trying that . In the process of refurbishing a stock driver seat, I found the crack in the pan (will post Picts tonight), and I remember an old post about the problem. It will probably function for a while, but I want to see if I can fix it before painting the seat frame.

I think it occurs because the rubber feet opposite the slider catch get worn out, and the weight of the "bumpy road" is unsupported on the right side of the pan, and it cracks. I haven't found that old post, and thought I'd tap the current knowledge base. Did you know that you can get new plastic sliding rails (25-03-39) from SAV, but not the supporting rubber feet (23-05-40)?
Good idea with the pop rivets, but I worry about drilling more holes (stress risers) at an already prone area. Hoped that JB Weld might just give enough support and stop the crack from propagating.

Thanks Shawn, I might just take you up on that offer!
Ed

[4x4Pinz]

you could always try brazing it. Less heat and less possibility of cracking from metal being heated to weld temps. You don't need much of a torch, even a small mapp gas torch from home depot would work and they also sell the flux coated brazing rods.

Permanent fix would be to find a set of seats that can be made to fit and be far more comfortable. We have found several different ones from Jap cars that work well and set lower than stock, even when mounted on the original seat frames.

[westernair]

When usig a mig on thin parts you just do a series of spot welds or yes you will fatege the metal and possably warp it. Yes brazing works as well and is also a good option. For me to braze I would end up burning alot of the paint off before getting it hot enough to flow. With spot welds maybe 1/2 on each side only.

[4x4Pinz]

he said he was going to repaint anyway so I figured why not a fix that could be done without a welder. Mig or tig would be a nice option if it were available to him.

[westernair]

Ooops, I missed the repaint refrance.

[totaljoint]

Here's the images of the crack in the pan. My thought was to weld/tack/epoxy a thin strip of angle iron along the inner lip. It occurs where the rolled slider edge stops. Probably something they fixed in the diesels?
Brazing sounds interesting, I've never done it. It would seal the crack, but don't know how it would hold up to continued stress.
No matter which route I take, I'll have to come up with a replacement for those rubber feet on the opposite side to take the strain out of this area.
As far as painting, I was going to sandblast and powder coat or repaint anyway.

[edzz]

Does anybody have suggestions of experience
In successful repair of a driver seat pan crack? It's at the usual spot, on the side wall of the pan.
Can a strip of reinforcement be welded (jb welded?) on the inner lip of the slider pan?
Thanks,
Ed

Ed,
If you make it down to Tacoma, bring the part and I'll weld it up for you. I have been pretty sucessfull with sheet metal welding. I just fixed a stress crack in the cooling tin around the base of the front carb before having it powder coated.

Ed, as driving thru Seattle can be such a pain feel free to drop by my house just south of Post Falls on your way to Sandpoint. Have tig and mig available, if it were my pan and wanted to prevent a reoccurrence I’d be inclined to add a doubler when welding it back up.

[totaljoint]

Thanks both Shawn and Ed!

Post Falls...isn't that where the Buck knife factory is?
The "most liveable city in the US"?
By saying a "doubler" you mean adding a strip of metal to both sides of that lip on the pan?

[edzz]

Method A, Drill a small hole though the end of the crack. Clean the crack and surrounding area. Weld the crack shut. Cut a small piece of metal that would cover the area shown with the blue tape, bend to match seat pan contours alternatively use a narrower plate that would not need the bend. Use small welds such as indicated by the black dots. Clean, prime and paint, insure that the primer has a chance to soak in under the doubler to prevent rust.
Method B, If you choose to you could stop drill the hole then use JB Weld to attach the doubler and hope it holds.
I think the welded repair would last the life of the truck the JB Weld repair may last however I wouldn’t bet my butt on it.

Uh, you must be talking about my neighbor Chuck’s little knife shop down by I-90.

[Roverchef]

EDZZ is on the mark. Have somebody reinforce and then hot-glue that thing. It'll be better then new.