why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

[Michael L.]

Guys,

I'm installing the seats on my 69 and I have a new set of seat bolts (with the "E" headmark) but they're too short. The rears are fine but the fronts wont reach the mounting plate. I've run a tap through the plates but they still wont reach. When I use a longer non-correct bolt it works just fine. The seats mount directly to the floor in the front so there is nothing I can do to get them closer to the plate. Anyone else ever see this? Is there another place on the car that uses the "E" headmark bolt but is just longer that I can swap them out? I do not have the originals to compare to the new ones. Thanks for your suggestions.

Mike

[Gary B.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Mike,

How long are the ones that are too short, measured from under the head to the tip?

Gary

[Michael L.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

I'm not at the shop right now but I would have to guess about an inch or so.

[Gary B.]

[Leif A.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Interesting that they don't reach. '67 - '78 seat track to floor bolts are all the same dimension...5/16-18 x 7/8" indented hex bolts w/captured washers as Gary stated.

[Michael L.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Yes Leif those are the bolts I have. thanks for the tip Gary on AMK I'll look to order some of the 1 3/16" from them.

[Michael L.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Gary I've looked around on the AMK website but I can't find them. Do you have a link you can send me? Thanks.

Mike

[Gary B.]

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[David M.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Not 100% sure here as car is in other garage with the AIM...does the seat bracket get installed under or on the carpet? If under and your on the carpet that could explain the difficulty.

[Leif A.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Not 100% sure here as car is in other garage with the AIM...does the seat bracket get installed under or on the carpet? If under and your on the carpet that could explain the difficulty.

OP states in his original post..."The seats mount directly to the floor in the front so there is nothing I can do to get them closer to the plate."

[Michael L.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Thanks Gary I ordered them. I had to order 25 of them to meet the $30 minimum but no biggee.

Mike

[John S.]

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

Michael,
Her is a photo of an original seat bolt from my Oct. '68 car. I just pulled it from the passenger side to take this. The head marking is "E" with 3 lines.

[Mike E.]

[Michael L.]

Re: why are my seat bolts too short on the front?

I will try and get some pics to post in the next couple of days. When I looked at the floor, there is a gap in between the top of the floor and the top of the mounting plate that is mounted under the car for the front bolts. I didn't look at the rears since the bolts there caught without problems. The distance from the floor to the top of the plate is about a 3/8-1/2 inch or so (the fiberglass floor seems pretty thick here), so with the thickness of the seat track I'm not surprised the bolt won't start. The mounting plate was not removed from the car during the resto so it hasn't changed from the factory. It is probably just barely missing, perhaps the very first thread or so on the plate is boogered up and won't let it catch, despite running a tap through it. I'll post pics in a couple of days when I get back into the shop.

Mike