Miscellaneous interior features III

With the power windows in and operational, I turned my attention to the power seat mechanism. Ford hadn't offered a driver's side power bucket in the Torino, but they did offer a power bench as well as a power driver's side split bench, which used the same track assembly as the bucket. Since I'm cloning the TV car and it was equipped with a power seat, mine will be too! The Cougar Jeff was parting out was equipped with the power split bench so I got the seat bottom assembly and harness from him.

Again the first order of business was to determine functionality. I installed the harness per the photos Jeff took during disassembly and removed the seat track assembly from the seat bottom. I was surprised how HEAVY the seat bottom assembly was as I drug it out of the box the seat and associated parts were shipped in! I was glad I only had him ship the bottom of the seat! I think the seat bottom alone weighs as much as the entire bucket seat does !! Anyway once I had the track separated from the seat, I place it in my car and plugged it in as presto, it moved......but extremely slowly.

It worked in all 6 axis but they were all glacierly slow. I also notice the bezel of the power controls was slightly pitted, so I made a mental note to add that to my rechrome list. My thoughts on the slowness of the seat movement was probably years of crud built up around the drive gears as well as perhaps lack of lubrication around the hinge points as well as seat track. A friend has a '92 Crown Victoria (the one I got the idea for rear seat armrest from) which also has a power driver's seat, so I thought I'd look at it my next visit and see how fast the seat was supposed to move.

When I got my chance to look at it, the first thing I noticed was that the seat controls were EXACTLY LIKE THE ONES ON MINE! Ford hadn't changed the controller in at least 16 years! So I revised my mental note to see if the bezel was removable and to also try and locate a NOS controller for a '92 CV. As far as operational speed was concerned, the seat wasn't extremely "fast" in any direction but it was a constant motion a bit faster than my seat exhibited.

With that info in hand, on my next play day, I proceeded to disassemble my seat track for cleaning, detailing and restoration. I pulled the motor and cables from the track so I was left with just the bare frame. I proceeded to clean it thoroughly with carb cleaner and a tooth brush to get everything out of the track rails, gear drives, etc. Once I had her as clean as I could, I washed the entire track down in lacquer thinner to remove any traces of oil or any other contaminates that would prevent the paint from sticking. Once I was happy that it was nice and clean, I blew it dry with a pressurized air nozzle and hung it up for a quick coat of primer.






























My primer of choice for anything metal I'm shooting with a rattle bomb is POR-15 SELF ETCHING PRIMER. Having used POR-15 products in the past, I'm sold on the durability of their paints and related products. A couple quick coats per the can instructions and I called it a day.

I think I'll call it a day on this post also, so watch for the next installment.....COMING SOON!

ZEBRA 3 OUT