Jim's XL build D-25

[Jlwright]

Are we talking about the pop rivets that hold all the strips together or the bolts that attach the strips to the 4130 tubes. Maybe I misread but I thought pop rivets were fine and bolts are only used to fasten the seat to the tubing.
There is around 125 pop rivets holding my strips together. I can't imagine anything that could cause them to give way while flying that would be a problem. I would think you would have much bigger problems if a force big enough to cause the seat to fail.

[grdev]

On my Double Eagle I used SS #6 round head screws to attach the seat. I used four screws, two on each end. I also used washers on the nut side. Put a drop of blue Loctite on each screw I used Home Depot 1/8 aluminum  pop rivets for the rest of the seat. The seat was comfortable, but when I decided to install push tubes for the elevator the seat rubbed the push rod. That is when I sandwiched the strips with two 1/8" x 1/2"  aluminum to make the seat more like a conventional seat. After a hard landing due to an engine out, the two places that I had the sides of my seat attached to bowed in. I don't know how this would handle something other than an unusually hard landing.  The seat is very strong as designed,

[Flyguyeddy]

I think i know why my head is so close to the rear bars now lol