The first order of business for me was to engineer some way to stop the front seat backs from freely pivoting forward as they naturally do. When you are belted into a seat with shoulder harnesses, you don't want the seat back coming forward in a crash and crushing you between it and the shoulder belt. The problem was to figure how to make an easy-to-use, almost "factory" style latch so that I could easily pivot the seats forward for rear access without it being  too "home engineered" looking.

I made spring loaded latches from some flat steel and other hardware I had, taking advantage of the existing upright seatback frame and the heavy pin/stop.

I welded a washer on the end of the pin to help locate the latch once engaged. I wanted to get the spring tension just right so that it's not too hard to push and release, but enough to hold the latch firmly on the pin.

It took a lot of experimentation with cardboard templates to get the angles and design the way I wanted it but I think it turned out easy to use and not too noticeable once the mechanism is painted satin black (which I still have to do) and the trim goes back on the seats.










Continuing on...I had to make up extensions for the part that bolts to the trans tunnel because they were a bit too short to reach the factory mounting points.