Friend's original Recaro hinge from his 71S basically just fell off the side of the seat. Only the large screw (clearly a later replacement) was actually doing anything. The upper two were just hanging out in the hole. Took the seat back off and I can hear the (presumed once welded on) nuts rattling about. Any idea on how I can repair this without calling an upholsterer. The leather on these is 100% original an wonderful. Hate to touch it. Tell me I'm not screwed, please.
Early S Registry Member #3291
Still hunting for my dad's (Roger Abraham) '70T Coupe in Light Ivory
Purchased new from Gruber Porsche Cedar Rapids, IA
not shure if i did understand right: is your hinge also broken? if you Need new Sport seat hinge, let me know ;-)
nuts: if you want make correct repair, you have to remove your leather. if you want to improvise something, you can try to weld on the outside thin nuts
interest: do you have a good picture of your leather seat that you can post here?
best
Nope, hinge is intact. Yeah, that's what I was afraid of, removing the leather. Thanks. I don't have any good pics of the leather right now. Still a bit frustrated by the situation. What are you looking for in particular?
Early S Registry Member #3291
Still hunting for my dad's (Roger Abraham) '70T Coupe in Light Ivory
Purchased new from Gruber Porsche Cedar Rapids, IA
So I took a closer look inside the leather with a strong light and careful peeking into the screw hole. If anyone has a picture of a seat without upholstery, I'd love to see it.
I'd also appreciate any ideas someone might have as to a fix without removing the seat upholstery. My friend who owns this car is in his 70's and I help him maintain it free of charge. He's like an uncle to me. He took me around in his 914 when I was just a kid and is partially responsible for my Porsche addiction. He's sat in these seats since 1981 when he bought the car, and its important that they remain as original as possible. He is not averse to a professional doing the work (and I have a concours-winning pro auto upholstery guy who can do the work) but if it all possible we'd like to get them functional with as little invasion as possible.
Early S Registry Member #3291
Still hunting for my dad's (Roger Abraham) '70T Coupe in Light Ivory
Purchased new from Gruber Porsche Cedar Rapids, IA
Ok. Did a little more poking around. I put a thread gauge on these fasteners and discovered they are all Imperial! Some bozo used 1/4-20's up top and 5/16"-18 down below. I discovered these are supposed to be M8's all around.
So I think I've found a solution. I'm going to try to replace the 5-/16-18 fasteners down below with correct M8's (the threads seem to be still intact in the seat, and M8 threads are very close to 5/16-18) and up top I'm going to use 1/4-20 riv nuts, which can be installed from the outside. This should return 100% functionality to the seat, while not defiling it for a possible restoration in the future. The riv nuts can be removed with some skilfull grinding.
Early S Registry Member #3291
Still hunting for my dad's (Roger Abraham) '70T Coupe in Light Ivory
Purchased new from Gruber Porsche Cedar Rapids, IA
Helicoil of similar will be the easiest
Riv Nuts to the rescue. Didn't even have to drill out the holes in the seat back. Love these things. I'm using 1/4-20 screws at the seat back where the Riv Nuts got installed. Holding great. Installed perfectly. Down below I was able to get rid of the horrific SAE 5/16" screws and replace them with M8's. They threaded right in smoothly and securely to the original tapped holes. Car is back on the road and the owner is enjoying it. Pic of leather for previous inquirer.
Early S Registry Member #3291
Still hunting for my dad's (Roger Abraham) '70T Coupe in Light Ivory
Purchased new from Gruber Porsche Cedar Rapids, IA
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