bent or welded .. which is stronger

[SoCalTA]

Well here is my question with some background. I have a Sparco seat that I need to get into my IROC. Since I love welding so much I thought one option was to weld me a seat bracket. The other option is to buy one. From the picture it looks like they use 1/8 inch Al and it is bent/molded. So my question is which is strong.... one welded or one bent/molded?

thanks

[arcdawg]

i would say the bent one would have more strength........do to the HEAT factor of welding......

d-

[eric75]

I would need pictures of both designs to have an opinion.
The reason the factory one is bent is most likely cost reduction.

[arcdawg]

okay..........take a piece of cardboard and bend it.........take two pieces of cardboard and tape them together and do a BEND test

dawg

[badbu]

seat brackets

I made the seat brackets for my car out of .125 Al, bent on a hydraulic press brake. this is what i have seen done on most cars around my neck of the woods. It took a bit to get the angles and lengths right to get the seat where it needed to be.

[burninbriar]

The queation is to vague.In my experiance in the sign trade I worked with copper, brass,aluminum and steel.I've found that some alloys bend very well,while others break.I had these results with all four metals.I'm not as experianced welding these as others on this site but I am sure diferant alloys of the same metal would have unique welding qualitys.Bending sheet metal did not crack,but some would bend choppy,in a series of small creases,while others bend very smooth radiuses.I am told this is due mostly to carbon content.I would take two scraps,bend one over in a vice and weld the other one to it and test to see witch works best.I'm sure you will get good welding procedures here.
pete

[Revlimit]

I would buy one. Any of the engineering questions would be taken care of by the manufacturer, hence your safety as well. Save the time and effort for another project. Believe me, there's still plenty of fun to be had with the torch. Rev.

[badbu]

seat brackets

Are the sparco seat brackets made to fit your specific application? For the most part seat manufacturers leave it up to the user to determine the best way to mount it. Ideally it is bolted directly to the rollcage.

[arcdawg]

for your aplacation i would recomend like previously stated to deal directly with the manufacter......

seats are made to secure the driver and if it means that you have to spend some extra cash............

well isnt your piece of mind /personal safety worth the extra $ ?

dawg

[VBI]

I do not know if this applies to your situation but, a body man told me that he cannot straiten or weld repair any seat mounting or adjustable seat assemblies that have been damaged in an accident because of liability. He has to replace with new OEM parts.

I agree with arcdawg and Revlimit, buy a factory part and be safe.

[dyn88]

if your gonna use al you need either a 2000 series or i believe a 4000 series, as those are best suited for cold working. Dont even try 6061 I know that will crack and fail.