Rear Seat Slam Latches
(Sept 20, 2025) I finalized the installation of the rear seat. When I built the fuselage back in 2020, I modified the design for securing the rear seatback in the upright position. I didn’t like the slide latches that were included with the kit, so I replaced them with slam latches that are more commonly found in passengers cars / SUVs for the rear seats.
The latches engage with a definite click when the seatback is properly locked. To fold down, I simple press the release levers on each of the latches, which releases the bolt. I used these slam latches that were designed for a Polaris ATV door. I used aluminum round stock for the strike bolt that attaches to the seat back, and attached it with screws into rivnuts, similar to the stock slide latches. The spring mechanism attaches to the belt frame stock seat back stop angle, augmented with another piece of L-channel.
Although I designed this slam latch setup a long time ago, I had to wait to finalize this installation until the rear seat was secured to the fuselage, because I needed to find the right location & orientation for the strike bolts on the seat back to properly line up with the latches on the frame. All of this was gated by securing the seat base to the fuselage. Back in 2020 when I was working in this section of the fuselage, I didn’t have the right tool for installing Dzus grommets. I finally got the tool about a year later (was on backorder) but by then I had moved on to other parts of the built, and I put seat installation into the backlog.
Fast-forward to June 2025, I realized I ordered the wrong die for the back-ordered grommet tool. So, For securing the seat to the fuselage, rather than use the Dzus quarter-turn fasteners provided in the kit, I decided on yet another mod and purchased some winged Camloc fasteners so that the rear seat could be removed without tools.
