I haven't forgotten about you, I've been working hit or miss when I have a couple hours. I've been working on the 49, closing up the pool and getting ready for the inevitable.
I got the cooling fan mounted and set the radiator in place to see what I'll need for radiator hoses. The upper will work but the lower will need to be replaced..
Moving on to finish the seats. The CTS was hit hard in the rear and the driver's seat back had bent backward about 3" at the top.I removed the upholstery and found where the damage was. The upper half of the frame is 1" round tube. It is welded to a stamped steel lower frame. This area had failed on both left and right sides. It didn't break the welds but the stamped steel tore where the welds were. (circled). I ground out the welded areas, straightened the mess out, and rewelded them.
Also, at the bottom where the seat back pivots, some of the framework had bent so I also straightened those out and got it working smoothly.
Looks right and functions properly. Reassemble and install it.
Moving on. I had planned to use two linear actuators to open and close the deck lid. They are 12" stroke, reversible 12 volt DC with limit switches built in. I didn't need two to carry the weight, one is plenty strong. I wanted to use two because since this deck lid is so long and heavy, I was concerned that if I only used one actuator the deck lid might twist a little from its own weight and size.
I installed both and tested them. I couldn't get the motors to run in sync. When one reached its limit, the other was about one inch behind. Too much difference and it was doing exactly what I was trying to avoid, putting a twist in the deck lid on the way up. After wasting a couple hours trying various things I decided to try it with just one actuator. It worked fine and there isn't any noticeable twist in the sheet metal, so its only getting one actuator.
It works well. Opens and closes as it should. I still want to slot the upper bracket so that when closing, the ram is not trying to pull the deck lid down and possibly bending the deck lid frame. If I slot the upper bracket rather than having a drilled hole and pin, when the deck lid closes, there is no pulling if the actuator needs to be 1/4" lower to hit the limit switch.