I fabricated a new seat using 0.1" aluminum sheet metal. The bottom section was bent on my metal brake (very difficult). It consists of 2 sheets joined in the middle with a brace and qty (20) 1/8" rivets. It attaches with (2) 1/4" bolts to the wooden seat and (4) 1/4" bolts to to the cage. This work was necessary to acomodate the additional room needed by the parachute.
An additional fairlead was welded on to mirror the additional one added to lower the rudder cable beneath the elevator pushrod. The new one was added to lower the rudder cable such that both rudder cables were at the same angle. The only reason for doing this was so that the rudder cables would not rub on the new seat. Had I not added this fairlead then the left rudder cable would have rubbed the seat back. By added the fairlead now both cables have 0.5" clearance beneath the seat back. All of the welding was done outside while it was raining. A heat shield was placed under the tubing to isolate the heat from the wires and the fiberglass. The metal was brushed, cleaned with isopropyl, then reprimed after welding was completed. I errected a temporary structure above the glider just to do the tig welding while it rained. It takes about 30 minutes to drag the welder, tank, goot pedal, grounding clamp, etc. out and 30 minutes to take it all back into the garage. The actual welding only took about 30 minutes in the glider. I placed some small mirrors on the heat shield so I could see while welding underneath the fairlead. On a scale from 1 to 10, this was a 9.
Safety wire (0.041") was added to the ruder and aileron turnbuckles. I did this afte adjusting the turnbuckles so that the control stick was centered with the ailerons level. The same goes for the rudder pedals.
