Best seat in the house

Taking apart the driver-side seat back revealed mud dauber nests in the headrest. This speaks to this poor car's neglected past.

Thankfully, the seat cover and foam were removed revealing minimal rust in the frame. The seat back springs are going to be replaced with a set of new ones from Corvette America. The originals from the back are going to be donated to the seat bottom to replace the four broken ones since the kit only had four. This is perfect for the back, since it only has four.

The new springs are thicker, a lot stiffer and should provide more support in the back of the seat for the driver. If they work as well as expected, the same treatment might be given to the passenger side.

The seat belt guide was stripped and zinc plated back to its original condition. Inside of it was the remnants of the shoulder belt buckle that had been cut at some point.

A trip to Whitworx, a metal finisher in Lincoln, Ark., to drop off the seat hinges to be re-chromed was fun. There won't be much savings in refinishing the old parts versus buying a new set of aftermarket hinges, but this will keep the car more original.

Once the hinges come back, a decision to continue using Whitworx for the rest of the chrome will be made. From the looks of the finished parts in their office, they are going to turn out well.

The springs from the seat back were media blasted and etch primed before being installed into the seat bottom along with the associated coil springs and part number tag. It's all ready to be painted black and set aside.

It was too tempting to bring down the seat bottom cover to get a preview of what it's going to look like when all is done. It's going to look terrific.