I did about the same thing. I used 1/4" exterior plywood, which basically
means "waterproof" glue. The higher quality plywood often means a birch
veneer instead of spruce and I didn't care about that. But then I used a
radial arm saw to cut 1/8 inch deep slits at about every inch. I soaked
these for awhile, don't remember how long, but it was at least a few hours.
I then clamped them to the seat back to force them into the right bend and
let them dry that way and then gave them several coats of exterior
varythane. I used aluminum pop-rivets to fasten them to the back and, as I
recall, I inserted the rivets from the back and put them through small
washers on the wood side to help prevent splitting or pulling through the
wood. Then I filed down any rough edges on the rivets so it wouldn't wear
holes in the material that was stretched over it. I used some tacks, but a
staple gun seemed to do a better job.
Anyway, that's what I did and it seemed to work pretty well.
Bob
> I put new plywood in my seat backs. I used good quality plywood. On the
> first try I cut the plywood in strips the right width, and soaked them in
the
> bath tub over night. I put them in, bowed across the tub after they
became a
> little playable and left them to soak. I tried to install them only to
find that
> it curves in two directions,, so I cut new ones in an arc,, and again
soaked
> them. I think I got two good ones out of 4 as I got a little impatient at
> waiting for them to soak long enough in the bath tub to the point that I
could
> bend them across the tub. I let them dry clamped at the base of the
passenger
> seat back, then removed them and coated them well with marine varnish. I
used
> split rivets from the hardware store to install them onto the backs.
> Kent Shrack TR3a rhd TS 78,000+
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