Aluminum Bomber Seats - Sitting Nicely

Steve and I then set about riveting the three aluminum parts into a complete seat. We started by deburing all the holes. Steve riveted the back to the base first, then riveted the cushion bar to the front of the seat.

Steve then scored a line in the aluminum, all the way around the edge of the seat. This will take the wire insert. He then started to fold over the aluminum with a hammer and dolly to take the 4mm wire.

Once he had worked up the edge he shaped the wire to the edge and worked his way around the full length of the edge of the seat.

This is a time-consuming job and takes skill and practice to get it right, but it makes the seat stronger. We will take out the hammer marks with various grades of abrasive paper, just as you would in doing bodywork.

With the seat ready to be mounted, I welded the plates together and drilled a 8.5mm hole in each end of the top plate. I also made 1-inch bosses for each corner of the runners to lift it off the floor to prevent it from interfering with the runner looking system.

I made eight 3/4-inch bosses and tapped them for the 8.5mm stainless bolts-then welded them to the underside of the seat mounting plate. This will make the removal of the seat bolts much easier than having to get under the set with a wrench when I want to adjust the seating angle.

If this all looks like more work than you want to tackle, but you still want to run some custom aluminum bomber-style seats in your rod, you have another option. Jamey "HandMade" Jordan just announced the launch of his new custom interior company offering a full line of "HandMade" hot rod interior products. HandMade Seat Co. offers new bomber-style seats in many styles.

If you want to depart from the standard designs, the company can hand-build a one-off custom set to your exact specifications; your unique design will never be rebuilt or sold to another customer, making your custom seats truly unique. For more information or to place ancustom order, visit www.myspace.com/handmadeseatco.