# Auditorium Seat Repair



## VLASpoils2Victor (Apr 15, 2013)

I am the new TD for an Auditorium that was built in the 1940s. A few years ago, the TD before me went through a large renovation project on the original seating. He had the old backs and bottoms sand blasted and repainted and new cusions put on the 2400+ seats in the house. When the seats were reinstalled many of the hinges were fastened too tightly and have now broken. We've gone through and replaced everything we could with what we have left.

Leading up to my question....... does anyone know of a vendor that sells old steel/iron hinges for vintage theatrical seating?

The plus is that we only have 2 different types of hinges in here.... Right and Left. They are both made exactly mirrored of each other.
The negative....I've tried to get a hold of the old TD but have not had any luck. I have an OLD Purchase Order from 1985 I found in my filing cabinet. I did try to locate the vendor (despite the age of the receipt) and cannot locate the vendor on the order.

Can someone point me in the right direction?


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## VLASpoils2Victor (Apr 15, 2013)

Here are some pictures of the hinges...


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## Footer (Apr 15, 2013)

Give American Seating a call. They will be able to point you to several repair guys in your region. We had a guy from Michigan come in a few months back and fixed every seat in the building for 5 bucks a seat.


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## DrPinto (Apr 15, 2013)

Do you know who the manufacturer of the seat is? Could you post a picture of the seat?


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## VLASpoils2Victor (Apr 16, 2013)

Footer said:


> Give American Seating a call. They will be able to point you to several repair guys in your region. We had a guy from Michigan come in a few months back and fixed every seat in the building for 5 bucks a seat.



Thank you for this!! I'll get a hold of them today and see what they can do for me!


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## VLASpoils2Victor (Apr 16, 2013)

DrPinto said:


> Do you know who the manufacturer of the seat is? Could you post a picture of the seat?



I'll get a picture of the seat up soon. I don't know the name of the manufacturerer. I have some spare ends and posts that I searched over for any manufacturing details and there are none!!


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## VLASpoils2Victor (Apr 16, 2013)

Here are some pictures of the seats.


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## DrPinto (Apr 16, 2013)

Those seats look very common. If American Seating doesn't come through, I suggest you start checking publicsurplus.com. Keep checking and I'll bet that your seats will show up. I've seen tons of auditorium seating on this site really cheap. Right now there are newer seats than what you have that are going for next to nothing...

Public Surplus: Auction #894888


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## AudJ (Apr 17, 2013)

I'm wondering if the over tightened bolts are really the issue, it seems there could be other causes for the hinge failures. Whenever something becomes a chronic issue, I always prefer to stop it from happening if I can. It just seems odd that after lasting 90 years, hinges would suddenly start to fail at once.

Some thoughts to consider in addition to the bolts as potential causes that could have changed when seats were renovated-
1. Were all of the seat bottoms matched to the tops? Most of these installs include as many as 4-5 different seat widths, and if the hinge is stretched or compressed into the wrong size opening, I can see issues developing.

2. Are the any missing shims or washers on the fasteners that could have a mis-alignment of the hinge?

Just my 2cents


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## BillConnerFASTC (Apr 17, 2013)

These guys have done quite a few restorations and have a LOT of parts and pieces.

Theater (Theatre) Arena & Auditorium Seat Repair | Baker Road Seating | Belding, Michigan, Great Lakes


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