Seat rails, anyone seprated them to prepare for zinc coating

[eriknetherlands]

Hi. Just wondered if anyone has seperated their seat rails.

Mine are rough and do not run smootly. So my wish is to fresh them up; tTake them apart and bright zinc them, and then new grease should have them run smooth again.

But how do they come apart?
They only solution I have is to bend open both ends releasing the balls inside. There are also to cilinders, barrels with what seems to be a rubber O-ring on them. I'd like to get them out as well.

Any hints that are less destructive?

Erik

 

[Marc-M]

Hi - do not take them to bits, they will zinc plate then as a whole - they will still work fine - I had my xk150 ones done - they were all rusted up big time, with ball bearings in - they came back working fine and all looking new without taking to bits - they also did all my window winders and internal door locking stuff -

 

[aearch]

have them chromed

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Niiice Alan- good idea

 

[OCCoupe]

I had mine plated. The key is to have the top rail opened all the way so the zinc gets the front of the bottom rail. The zinc will not throw all the way back in to the inside of the rail so you don't want to find yourself with an ugly exposed surface that has not been plated. On '73 and earlier cars there was a chromed plastic cover that covered and adorned the outer edge of the seat rail.

You can partially see the cover here:

 

[aearch]

right mike i havent installed mine plastic piece yet
which really covers the whole rail so the chrome barely shows

 

[OCCoupe]

right mike i havent installed mine plastic piece yet
which really covers the whole rail so the chrome barely shows

I'm sure the chrome looks really sharp!!!

 

[PaulinPa]

Alan, Did you separate the seat rails to have them chromed? About how much did the chroming cost?

 

[HB Chris]

Paul,

Clear zinc really looks best and you don't have to separate the pieces. The bottom of your seat has plastic chrome hockey sticks as finishers and the lower track has a plastic chrome cover attached to floor.

Chris

 

[rsporsche]

Mike, what wood have you used? looks great. who did the work?

I had mine plated. The key is to have the top rail opened all the way so the zinc gets the front of the bottom rail. The zinc will not throw all the way back in to the inside of the rail so you don't want to find yourself with an ugly exposed surface that has not been plated. On '73 and earlier cars there was a chromed plastic cover that covered and adorned the outer edge of the seat rail.

You can partially see the cover here:

 

[OCCoupe]

Mike, what wood have you used? looks great. who did the work?

Thanks Scott. I used macassar ebony. Bella did the veneer and a job well done.

 

[aearch]

no you dont have to do anything
the dipping process cleans them
just grease them when they return