HELP: Bucket Seat Office Chair

[infected]

I recently picked up a pair of bucket seats from a fellow Beyonder in hopes to make some DIY office chairs. Now I've never really done anything like this before and would like to get as much information from some knowledgeable people with experience before I start doing anything stupid.

What I've gathered so far are basically the seats that're just chillin' in my basement right now, a whole whack of plywood, some brackets or rails or whatever you call those silver plates near the bottom on either side with a number of pre-drilled holes for you to position the seat, and lastly the base/wheels for me to zip around in.

Alrighty then time to get down to business. I pulled up a quick sketch on Microsoft Paint the idea I had in mind on how to attach everything together (attachment below). Now I'm not 100% sure this design will be safe for a 200 pound guy to plop on multiple times through-out the day over a long period of time so I'd like to hear some comments and suggestions on where I could improve. I thought about welding a custom frame but I'm afriad it'll make the seat too heavy and I'm not sure if there's anybody out there willing to such a small job. I also did some research online and found a couple companies that make a universal base for you to convert a racing seat into an office chair. They claim it to be plug and play but the quality was crap and I remember it to be about $300!!! I think what I have right now is probably the most light-weight and simple design out there, unless there's something else you guys might have in mind then please speak up.

Well let me know what you think, comments, disses, suggestions.
(Also if anyone has the legs to an old office chair they don't want anymore, PM me.)

[LS Cammer]

There are some you can buy that are very expensive.. Leather Recaro's on wheels in the $1800 range... very nice. I had a friend in Edmonton get one. Had his name stitched into the headrest too.

This sounds like a fun project. Make sure you get a donor office chair that has a very good solid set of wheels that are spaced far out.

then just mating the two is your issue.

Put up pics when you're done.

Good Luck on it!

[racin_jayson]

I did the same thing with a couple ikea computer chairs i got at a yard sale, and the seats from my old celica. I just took off the old seat cushion from the mounting plate of the ikea chair and welded the bottom of the buckets to the plates. bingo,
pimpin office chairs. took a total of 20 minutes. you just need a welder and knowledge of how to use one.

[DuPont]

^^:werd: I'd ditch the wood, and just weld the bracket to the base.
You should take a picture of the base mounting point and brackets. That would help a lot.

[3G]

Dont use wood theyll break so fast i learned the hard way and my friend fell off the chair, if u need a base, i have one sittin in my shed u can have it for free

[infected]

Is there something else I can use if I dont use wood? I don't really want to weld the base to the brackets in case I decide to use the seats elsewhere. Any more suggestions?

Check PM 3G