MK I carrier seats

[Michael R.]

Originally Posted by Tom Millward

Hello Gents,
I want to make up the front and rear seat backrest for my Mk1, can anyone confirm the thickness of the radio operators wooden board and the cushions for both front and rear backrests?

“When you also compare the size of the backrest for the rear compartment passenger with the backrest used by the driver and gunner, it must have been miserable in the back. The rear backrest is "deeper" in that it measures 1-1/4 inch sides vs the seat backs at 3/4 inch. Beats ground pounding?”

On the backrests for driver and gunner, the corner depth is sewn in at 3/4”, but in practice when modern padding is installed the depth is greater towards the centre. Show or Go? I enjoy more backrest padding than found in the factory pads.

The rear compartment backrest cover has 1-1/4” corners sewn in.

The cover mounts on a plywood board, the board being retained on a metal plate using six NO. 8 woodscrews. The woodscrews are countersunk head, 1/2” long.

How thick do you want to make the mounting board? I use 9mm exterior grade plywood. It may be prudent to move up one size for a thicker board. Why? Because you are also mounting the male posts for the Lift-the-Dot fasteners, which are available as threaded post or screw. With a slightly thicker mounting hoard you will not be trimming the length of the screw type posts and they are less likely to be unintentionally pulled out.

[Tom Millward]

That’s great, thank you R. That will give me enough to get some seat backs made. Got a load of ply cut and delivered to make the rear seat (thanks to Jordan’s post on his efforts), and seat backs etc. I’ll go thick for the rear seat back then to give enough depth for the screw in fasteners. I think I’ve gone 3/4”, as it looks like deep in the photos. It can’t be very comfortable for the passenger as the seat back is so far back from the seat cushion, unless they were expecting the radio operator to sit with his small pack on?

I’ll post something when I’ve finished my attempt.