[TxCajun]

Bench Seat Pivot Bushing/Spacer

I received a seat upholstery order from ricksupholstery.com, and I'm excited to see what it looks like installed, so I've jumped ahead to preparing the bench seat. There wasn't much left of the old upholstery/foam, several broken springs, frame rust, and a few other issues.

The previous owners/drivers of my truck must have been big people because the bottom seat frame where the back attaches and pivots was cracked on both sides, and the weld nuts on the inside of the frame for the pivot bolt were either broken or missing.

I welded the cracks in the frame and made some nut plates for welding on the inside of the frame to replace the original square weld nuts.

One of the bushing/spacers that fit between the seat bolt and the arms of the seat back was missing and they don’t appear to be sold by the usual parts vendors.

I don’t have access to a lathe so I went looking for something that is near net shape that I could easily modify. I found that a piece of 1/4 inch schedule 40 pipe is the correct outer diameter to fit in the seat back frame hole, and the inside diameter only has to be opened up slightly with a 3/8 drill bit to fit the pivot bolt. All you then have to do is cut a short piece to the correct length and file or sand the end square, and you have an almost exact copy of the original steel bushing/spacer.

A short piece of quarter inch schedule 40 pipe or nipple is only about two bucks.
.