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19JH74 Member 
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Hello All, I am new to the Jensen Healey world and have a few questions, 1) do the seats adjust and how do you remove them? 2) does anyone advise floor pans to be riveted if only replacing a section or do you recommend replacing the entire floor pan? I will have more questions as the project goes along so please bear with me. Thanks, Mike |
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vnavaret Member 
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19JH74 wrote: Hello All, The seats have a fore/aft adjustment as well as a backrest tilt adjustment. To remove them, there are four nearly inaccessible screws under the seats that fasten the seat frame to captive nuts in the floor mounts. Because of the rubber mats that were original equipment, the floors and mounts are very susceptible to top down rusting. Once you get the seats removed and the floor coverings out of the car, you can appraise the the damage and needed repairs if any. If you have not removed the rubber mats, you may be in for a shock (Ask me how I know). There are many ways to replace flooring, but of course the best is to use new steel and weld since this will be the strongest possible repair. Replacing only the corroded portions is very acceptable, and certainly easiest. You will probably find that the seat mounts will also need replacing (as I did) since they seem to go just about as fast as the floor itself. As to methods that are accessible to the home mechanic, panel adhesive, riveting, and brazing are options all with various advantages and tradeoffs. My total restoration has been a 2-1/2 year journey to date, but I am almost there. New floors, paint, new interior, new fuel system, rebuilt suspension, bumpers, etc have all been done. What's left? Soft top and engine which is currently at the machine shop. Welcome aboard! Vance |
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19JH74 Member
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Thanks, the seats and rails have been replaced, but they rock like there are parts missing, I have the original seats. I'll get the seats out then access. Where is the adjustment, I might just not know where to look? Hopefully this won't take too long as it is in pretty good shape except for a few things. Last edited on 06-11-2025 04:55 pm by 19JH74 |
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vnavaret Member
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19JH74 wrote: Thanks, the seats and rails have been replaced, but they rock like there are parts missing, I have the original seats. I'll get the seats out then access. Where is the adjustment, I might just not know where to look? The rocking may be due to corroded seat mounts which are sheet metal with captive nuts and welded to the floor pans (arrowed in the picture). As far as accessing the adjustment controls, if the seats are not original all bets are off. The fore/aft adjustment on an original seat is a lever below the outside edge of the front seat bolster, move the tip of lever towards the door and slide the seat. The tilt for the back is a lever on the side of the seat closest to the door, at the junction between the bottom of the seat and the seat back. If you are having difficulty finding the adjustments, I must ask if the new seats have any adjustments at all. Attachment: Screenshot 2025-06-11 154441.jpg (Downloaded 29 times) Last edited on 06-11-2025 10:52 pm by vnavaret |
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19JH74 Member
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I have not found any adjustment on the new seats, I think they came from a GT, I did find the adjustments on the original seats. I will try looking again tomorrow. Thanks for the help Last edited on 06-11-2025 10:56 pm by 19JH74 |
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noomg Member
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Mike, "Hopefully this won't take too long", that's funny. I'm not clear on what you've got going here. So you want to remove the seats to access the floor pans and cross members (seat mounts). You have two sets of seats, the originals still in the car and a set from a Jensen GT correct? The GT seats are the same ones used in the Jensen-Healey so all adjustments are the same. The only real difference between the two is upholstery and headrests. The chrome lever on the door side of the seat bottom moves the seatback fore and aft. The lever under the front of the seat moves side to side and moves the seat forward or back in the car. "The seats and rails have been replaced", what seats were replaced, the originals? If that's the case wouldn't you already know how to remove the seats? And what rails, do you mean the crossmembers that the seats are mounted to or are you talking about the adjustment rails on the bottom of the seats? Once the seats are out you can assess the floorboards and crossmembers, Delta has all pieces you'll need. |
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19JH74 Member
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noomg, By not taking long depends on what else I find but overall, the car is in good shape. I just purchased the car a couple months ago and the seats were changed out before I got it. I have looked all over and NOT found any chrome handles on either seat, I did find them on the original seats. After further review I don't know if the cross-member rails were replaced, the ones on the seat were, since they are still attached. I have called delta several times with no response. Any more suggestions I'm all ears. Last edited on 06-12-2025 04:54 pm by 19JH74 |
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19JH74 Member
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I have a mess!! The reason I could adjust the seat was because it was all F^(ked up. It was not even secure, that's why it wobbled and wouldn't move. There are NO cross rails, and the bottom has been bent to make it fit, I will try to include some pics. At this point I thinking of starting over, thoughts? Can't figure out how to load the pics, I've changing the size, any suggestions. Last edited on 06-12-2025 05:08 pm by 19JH74 |
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vnavaret Member
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To load the picture, you must use the "Reply" option, not the "Quick Reply" option. There will be an "attachment" option at the bottom of the reply window after you click the button. You are limited to a single image per message, and it must be no larger than 102,000 bytes, which is rather small. You can reside an image in Windows Paint or your favorite photo editor, and it will show you the size after you resize it. Sadly, if the image is too large, you get an error message and the text you enter in the reply window is lost. So make sure the image is smaller than the limit when you click the "post" button. I do a "copy" of the text window before I click "post" so that if the whole thing takes a dump on me, I can paste my text back into the reply window rather than retype everything. As to your seats, sounds like you are experiencing first hand the weak point in the JH. The rubber mats that the factory used encourage the cross members (seat mounts) to rust so by now most cars have some sort of issue with mounting the OEM seats and perhaps the floor boards. When I got my car, the seat mounts had been replaced with steel bar stock that didn't fit and I could put a screw driver through the floors in several spots. I too have had difficulties getting Delta to respond, which is why I favor Martin Robey. They have excellent customer support via email. The shipping is higher than Delta, but you get some help when you need it and their on line catalog is better since you have images and can tell when an item is in stock. Courage, my friend. We are here to help. Vance |
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noomg Member
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Mike, "Depends on what else I find", I see you've gotten my point. First things first, did you get the seats out so you can assess the floorboards? If they're not too bad you can patch with sheet metal (stainless steel is my preference) and pop rivets work if you don't have access to a welder. Remember these aren't classics so you can do what works and not worry to much about what's correct. If you do use pop rivets I'd use S/S and don't skimp. There's usually two reasons to replace the crossmembers, either they've rusted out from the bottom and lost their integrity or the capture nuts are screwed up or missing. The originals are welded in so they'll have to be cut out but the new ones can also be installed with pop rivets. You'll have to decide want you want to do about the seats. The ones with no adjustments could be some kind of racing seat. If it was me I'd go with the originals, you know they'll fit and they're comfortable. If you want to see how my interior turned out you can check out my thread in the Projects section. |
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19JH74 Member
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HAHA, the seats were easy to remove, they were not attached to anything there is NO floor pan just a wad of fiberglass. I have contacted BaT about the car being misrepresented by the seller, I am also getting quotes for all new parts including seats. I tried uploading pics, but I cannot shrike it small enough. |
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vnavaret Member
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Your experience is very close to mine, although to be fair the seller was selling it "as is" with many photos, but the photos were misleading since the underside of the car is undercoated from the factory which hid the true nature of the floors. The rubber mats inside are not removable unless you remove the seats first, so photos of the floor boards were problematic. There is great parts support for the car from Delta and from Martin Robey, so you need not despair although the extent of the needed repairs is disappointing, I know. Shrinking the photos is pretty straightforward. Are you a Windows guy, Linux, MacOS or ?? I can send you a quickie tutorial if you need one. If you look in the "Projects" section you read about my travails and how I handled them. I have a few photos in there as well. I ended up cutting out what was left of the floor boards and welding in new floors. As I mentioned there are many ways to secure the new floors with varying degrees of strength. Fear not, you can do this! Vance |
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19JH74 Member
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Yes he was misleading, and I did buy it as, however anybody be it the car 5 minutes and tell something was wrong with the seats and investigated them and you would clearly see the problem as they were not secured and had no way of securing them. So far just looking at the things I know I will need is over $3700 from Martin Robey, I have called Delta about 10 or more times with no response. yes, show me how to shrink pics and you will see why I'm pissed Last edited on 06-13-2025 06:07 pm by 19JH74 |
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redracer Member
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Just read this post; sorry about your troubles, but email or phone me if you have questions. My info is listed under my profile. bruce/redracer |
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redracer Member
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btw, if you give me the vin # (1110-*****), I may know the history of this car as it's in the SE bruce |
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Sander Member 
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BAT photo shows 18614 trunk magnets show it attended several British Motorcar Day in Atlanta. Bruce, if you can't find info I might have old entry data ... Last edited on 06-13-2025 08:39 pm by Sander |
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redracer Member
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thanks, Sander: that would make it a rubber bumper 4spd, a true '74 1/2 as opposed to the '74 3/4 for the 5 spd(before the '75s with all their pollution stuff). I'll take a look later |
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19JH74 Member
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VIN 18614 I am dealing with BaT only this car it is unsafe to drive and the seller knew that IMHO, this is an obvious issue, not whoops I didn't know, I knew something wasn't right the first and only 4 miles I've driven it. Last edited on 06-14-2025 12:07 am by 19JH74 |
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vnavaret Member
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Check out the attached image in windows Paint. I have circled two things in red; at the top is the tool you use to resize an image, and at the bottom is the size of the image. Click on the tool, and a window opens asking you how to resize the image. After you resize it, save the image. At that point the new size will appear at the bottom of the window for Paint. The new size will not appear until you save it; if it still not small enough, invoke the tool again and resize it a bit smaller. Save it and check the size until you get it below 102k. It works best if you save it as a JPEG. Camera photos are often in a different format, especially Apple phones. You may need to change your camera settings to force your phone to store images as a JPEG. Vance Attachment: Screenshot 2025-06-13 211441.jpg (Downloaded 12 times) Last edited on 06-14-2025 04:26 am by vnavaret |
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19JH74 Member
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Under seat where the cross rail/members should be. Problem by the time you size them to fit you can't tell anything about them. Attachment: JH Under Seat 1.jpg (Downloaded 10 times) Last edited on 06-14-2025 02:12 pm by 19JH74 |
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19JH74 Member
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Bent seat frame Attachment: JH Seat Bottom (Drivers Side)1.jpg (Downloaded 7 times) |
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19JH74 Member
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Bent seat frame center Attachment: JH Seat Bottom (Center)1.jpg (Downloaded 7 times) |
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19JH74 Member
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Notice the bent frame and all wires and cables cut Attachment: JH Seat Bottom 1.jpg (Downloaded 8 times) Last edited on 06-14-2025 02:27 pm by 19JH74 |
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noomg Member
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Mike, I saw your car on BaT, you got a good deal. I even commented during the auction (sliproc). Have you changed that 10 year old timing belt yet? I don't know what BaT is going to be able to do for you. You say the car is unsafe I'm sure if you ask the seller he'll say it is safe so short of hiring a lawyer, which would be catastrophically unwise, it is what it is. So why don't we just focus on getting your car squared away so you can enjoy it. First the problem were those seats is they're way too big they may have seat adjusters but they're wedged in so tight you probably can't see or reach them. The good news is you have a decent pair of original seats. Second the floorboards, the first thing I want to see is what's under the floormats, didn't see that in this auction. Also the underneath photos weren't great but pic #85 did show significant damage to the driver's side and some type of patchwork. From what I could see the right side didn't look to bad but again the photos weren't great and couldn't see what was on top. Just a note about the fiberglass you found, the seller wasn't trying to rip you off with some devious repair. Back in the '60s, '70s, and '80s fiberglass repairs were common. Back then these cars were just drivers nobody ever gave a thought to a long term correct restoration. You'd buy a 6 to 10 year old car and throw a cheap, quickie paint job on it to make it look nice. Fiberglass was much cheaper and quicker than metal work. When I restored my Austin-Healey I found a lot of fiberglass in the sills and doglegs. Patching Jensen-Healey floorboards was not uncommon. Also I'm curious, what are you buying from Robey for $3,700? From what I can see it looks like it wouldn't take more than about $700 or $800 and if you can reach Delta and do some patching yourself probably cheaper. |
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19JH74 Member
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The original seat might look good on the top, but the frames look like they were just ripped out and damaged. The fiberglass repair wouldn't bother except the are no crossmembers, so I'm going to do it right and going to replace everything, I was an aircraft mechanic so I'm not going to half ass it. The problem is and the seller knew these seats were not right and didn't reveal it, his comment was "they were fine for me" with that thinking I could bolt a 2x4 to the floor and say, "it's fine to me". I think the principle is he knew it wasn't right and didn't disclose it. No, I haven't changed the timing belt as I have only driven the car 4 miles because of the seat situation and other things. I might just sell it the way it should have been sold to start with a "Project Car" and let someone else deal with it, depending on what BaT comes up with. Sorry this was so long but I knew I was buying a car unseen as is, as I have 2 others on BaT with ZERO issues. This is not a case of whoops that the seller didn't know, this is serious enough to know the first time you drove the car. I also knew there would be a few issues and I was expecting that, but this is just misrepresentation. |
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vnavaret Member
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Yes, you are shrinking them too much, but at least you got one to post =:-) Hard to tell, but it looks to me like all you need to do is clean up the rust, and replace the cross members/seat mounts. Of course if there is some fiberglass in there, I can't see it when the picture is that small. Your floors look very much like mine did, but I could poke a screw driver through in numerous spots. Needless to say I was having a very bad day at that point. Cross members are cheap, and do not require much in the way of welding. I bought a cheapie $200 flux welder, which did the job. Vance |
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vnavaret Member
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19JH74 wrote: Bent seat frame center I wonder. If you straighten the brackets, can you sell the non original seats and get a few bucks which would let you buy the needed cross members? You already have seats, and the foam, webbing, and covers are all available new if you decide to refurbish them. I saw the car on BAT, the paint looked very good. There were some bodges, like the windscreen washer bottle, the restrictive foam air filters (noticed that the engine had partially sucked in the foam element, which tells me they are choking the engine), and a few other odds and ends. With the exception of the floors, looks like a decent 50 year old car. Don't get discouraged, almost all the parts you need are available for semi-reasonable prices. Anything you can't find is available used, RedRacer on this forum has a barn full of new and used parts which he has been sourcing to JH owners. I was pretty upset when I saw the state of my floors, but I got them replaced and have moved on. Hope you decide to do the same. Vance |
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Art DeKneef Member
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I'm familiar with this problem also. Having restored a couple of JHs and working on cars in general. The seat mounting piece can be made by hand Not hard with a few basic tools. A better picture of the floor pans would help. So to that question. We are guessing that you are using a Windows computer. Which version of Windows are you using? 10 or 11? I attached a photo to this message. Let's see how it shows up. It is a .jpg file manipulated in the Photos app in Windows 11. Art Attachment: DCP_0020.jpg (Downloaded 3 times) Last edited on 06-14-2025 08:48 pm by Art DeKneef |
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19JH74 Member
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Windows 11 Pro. Those look new compared to mine. Did a couple videos today and the passenger seat is not as bad but still no cross members/rails and the seat frames a ruined for beating them fit. Reminds me of an old muffler commercial for a few years ago. Customer: Will that fit my car. Mechanic: we'll make it fit. |
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Art DeKneef Member
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I have Windows 11 Pro also. I use the Photos app to adjust picture size when I need to. I got lucky with that car concerning the floor pans and such. The front part of the car, not so much. That was one of the parts cars I cannibalized to save what I could. On one car I had to replace the seat supports on both sides and the driver's side floor pan. Hardest part was drilling out all the spot welds. Making the floor pan wasn't too difficult after making a template from cardboard. Took a while with a lot of test fits to make sure it fit properly. Fitting different seats usually results in needing to make some modifications. I put seats from a 2013 VW Golf into my car. Used the JH rails. Seat sits a little high after my "modifications". I did get the seat back motors to work so there is some adjustment available. Art |
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