This blog documents the restoration, and conversion, of a 1965 Humber (Singer) Vogue to a fully electric vehicle. The Vogue will be powered by an 11kW(modified), 3 phase industrial AC motor, controlled by an industry standard Variable Speed Drive (VSD) or Inverter. To be able to produce the 400 volts phase to phase the VSD will need about 600 VDC of batteries. A big thanks to the contributors on the AEVA forum: http://forums.aeva.asn.au/forums/

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Driver's seat diaphragm replaced

NOTE: THE NEW DIAPHRAGM FAILED A FEW MONTHS LATER - SEE LATER POST.

My new seat diaphragm arrived during the week so on Saturday (yesterday) I removed the drivers seat and checked out the old seat diaphragm.
 As suspected (from feeling under the seat) the diaphragm had given way on the side closer to the centre of the car.
Due to the fact that it was torn, I had little trouble removing it and proceeded to install the new one.
Oh oh! The new one was too big. Not excessive but enough that it didn't support the foam. It appeared to be about 20mm larger.

Old diaphragm front-to-back hole-hole measurement.
 New diaphragm front-to-back hole-hole measurement.
 Old diaphragm side-to-sidehole-hole measurement. Followed by the new one.
 
So about 20mm.

I kind of spat the dummy at this point and considered giving up on the diaphragms and using the webbing I had ordered in case the diaphragm didn't work out.

Then I noticed that the clips that were supplied last time were larger than the standard Vogue ones. I had to use the Vogue ones to hold the aluminium pieces to the seat frame (that allowed me to use the smaller TR6 diaphragms).

The clips used last time were about 28mm to the inside of the hole. the Vogue ones were 20mm.
The new diaphragm didn't come with clips.
So I got inventive and disappeared into the garage, emerging with a bag of 2.8mm nails.
They were VERY difficult to bend so I think they'll stay bent.

I made 11 - only needed 10.
Then I measured the hole-hole dimensions in the seat again and used suitably size clips. I hadn't bent them perfectly - they ranged from 19 to 22mm so I arranged them largest to smallest and selected appropriately.

The diaphragm took some getting in as I worked from the underside without removing any foam or fabric but once in, it fit nicely. About 10mm stretch in each direction. The previous one had 19 and 12mm stretch - maybe too much - the 19 was side to side where it tore.
The seat is back in the car . I forgot to take the "after" picture but it looks pretty much like when I originally did it except that the diaphragm covers slightly more of the foam - which is good.

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