Spitfire 1500 Headrest Friction Roller

[krissto2015]

Hello,

I need a headrest friction roller of the 'nylon' type, as fitted to late Spitfire 1500/GT6 Mk3 seats.  It is NLA anywhere and can be seen courtesy of this Rimmer Bros link (part number ZKC1271)...

https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID005922

Why do I need one?  When I had my seat frame blast cleaned and power coated, I forgot to remove the roller from the frame (OE held in place by tape).  At 200 degrees C powder coat temperatures, it melted and dissolved into a soggy mess!

Has anyone out there got a scrap seat that still has this roller fitted and would sell it to me?

Many thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[Josef]

If you have no luck finding one, see page 3 here for a DIY alternative. It has proved surprisingly effective and you can probably do it with bits you have lying around. 

[DVD3500]

What is it for... ?

The roller I mean... is it for height adjustment..?

[Josef]

It’s a device to stop the headrest just sliding back down. The rounded rectangle cross section headrest support fits into a corresponding short tube on the seat, one of these rollers (or earlier a huge thick coil spring) pushes against the support and stops it moving by friction. The springs on mine had disintegrated and it took me a while to figure out what the bits actually were when I stripped the seats.

[krissto2015]

Many thanks. Josef,  for the suggestions i.e. to use "old bits of wind chime that I put a thread on each end of along with some bits of pen barrel and suitable diameter springs." etc., from this link ( https://forum.tssc.org.uk/topic/9259-the-spitfire-that-just-needed-a-tidy-up/page/3/#comments ).  That's fine for seats that use the 'spring method' but my seat frame had the nylon friction roller and I think the bracketry that the headrest slides into is different.  Quote from Rimmer Bros, unedited:

"The head rest is held up in place by a friction roller system that is secured in a welded section at the top of the seat back frame. Two types of friction roller system were used, they are not inerchangeable as they fit different sized welded brackets on the seats."

So I am still on the lookout for anyone who has a late Spitfire 1500 scrap seat frame with this nylon type roller still intact.  I could probably spend time coming up with a bespoke engineering solution using bearings/spacers/springs but I have spent so many years upgrading and re-engineering this car that it is far easier to just simply get a used/correct part...

Thanks,

Chris