Parts List
1 - 5 feet of 1” PVC pipe
1 - 10 feet of ½” PVC pipe
2 - 1” PVC Union connectors
2 - 1” PVC 45 degree elbow
2 - 4” Square Electrical Box Cover
2 - ¾” Floor Flange/Coupling
2 - ¾” X 1” Male threaded adapter
4 - ½” 90 degree elbow
8 - ½” Tee
2 - ½” End Cap
1 - Small can of PVC Cement

Misc. Parts needed
- #10-24 Pan head screws with nuts. You will need approx. 10 screws and nuts.
- #10 Flat washers.
- Fender washers. 1-1/4” diameter with 3/16 – ¼ inch hole. You will need about four of these.
- 3/16”-24 X 2-1/2” Long Machine Screws with nuts. You will need 3 screws and 9 nuts.
*Note: For the screws the majority are ½ - ¾ inches in length. You will need at least two that are 1-1/4” to 1-1/2” long that serve as the feet for the base plate.
*Note: It is highly recommended that you not use the PVC cement until you have assembled the stand in a dry run.

Laptop Stand for Pontiac Grand Prix GTP

Once that stuff has set it is a difficult chore to remove any glued sections. Also, I did not glue together the table the laptop sits on. The joints are a pretty tight fit and will not come loose terribly easily. If you decide to glue together the top section I would suggest you have a flat surface to work on to keep everything nice and straight as you work as the glue is going to set up very quickly and will prevent any minor adjustments.
Please read through all the instructions before going out and purchasing the materials. There may be further details you need to be aware of that could affect how you put this together. I would greatly appreciate it if you come up with a better way to do this, without significantly adding to the cost, to send me an email with as much information as you can and any clear pictures you can send.

Instructions – Section 1: The Base Plate
- Remove the springs underneath the seat. There are two springs, one on each seat rail. Pay particular attention to the fact that they are crossed, you’ll want to reinstall them in that fashion.

Figure 1 - Seat Springs

- Remove the seat cross brace using a 10mm wrench or socket.

Figure 2 - Seat Cross Brace, Bolt #1

Figure 3 - Seat Cross Brace, Bolt #2

With the cross brace removed, locate the two holes at the center of the brace. This will be where one of the metal electrical box covers will mount and will serve as the base of the laptop stand.

Figure 4 - Cross Brace Mounting Holes

- Lay the electrical box cover plate on the cross brace and with a marker, mark the locations of the cross brace holes to the box cover.
- Drill the two holes using a 3/16” drill bit.
- Lay the ¾” Floor Flange on the box cover so that the edge of it is on the edge of the box cover on the opposite edge that the seat cross brace holes are located. Mark the locations of the flange holes on to the box cover plate.
- Drill the four holes with a 3/16” drill bit. Then using 4 pan head or round head screws about ¾” in length mount the floor flange to the box cover plate. (See Figure 5 & 6)

Figure 5 - Drill locations for box cover

Yes, I know my holes aren’t centered. I did the best I could with the tools I had.

Figure 6 - Box Cover with Floor Flange Mounted

- After the flange is mounted, drill two 3/16” holes near the corners of the box cover on the edge the floor flange is on. This will serve as the mounting location for the ‘feet’ for the base plate to minimize forward movement of the laptop stand.
- Now, screw in the ¾” X 1” adapter to the floor flange. This adapter has ¾” Male threads on one end and a 1” PVC pipe fitting on the other.

Figure 7 - 3/4" X 1" Adapter Mounted to Floor Flange

- Now, mount the box plate to the seat cross brace.

Figure 8 - Base plate mounted to seat cross brace

- Now mount the ‘feet’ for the base plate. The feet are comprised of two #10-24 Machine screws that are 1-1/4” to 1-1/2” long, four fender washers (two for each foot) that are 1-1/4” diameter with a 3/16” hole and six hex nuts. You can use pan head or flat head machine screws. See Figures 9 & 10.

Figure 9 - Base Plate 'Feet', View 1

Figure 10 - Base Plate 'Feet', View 2

- After the feet are mounted, re-install the cross brace to the seat. Don’t forget to re-attach the springs. See Figure 11.

Figure 11 - Base plate complete

The mounting base is now complete. We will now start assembling the stand. For cutting the PVC to the recommended lengths you can use a hack saw or you can use a pipe cutter. The pipe cutters can range from $10 – 15 depending on where you get them. They will make the work much quicker than a hack saw and they will generally cut straighter as well. Trust me on this. If you don’t ever plan on working with PVC again, see if a friend or someone has a PVC pipe cutter you can borrow, you’ll thank me later.
If you plan on painting your stand then I would highly recommend that you remove any stickers on the PVC (price tags, bar codes, etc.) before you start and then use Acetone to wipe down the PCV to clean it and remove the printing on the pipe. Yes, I know Acetone will dissolve PVC but not quickly and wiping it down with it will do no harm. This way you have a clean surface to work with when you assemble the stand and a clean surface for the PVC cement to adhere to.
If you can get smaller sections of PVC, then you can probably get by with about 2 – 3 feet of 1” PVC pipe. However, on the ½” PVC you will need around 7 – 8 feet of it to complete the table top section. The PVC is pretty cheap and it wouldn’t hurt to have the extra around just in case.

Section 2: The Stand

- Cut a 2” piece of 1” PVC pipe and insert it into the adapter of the base plate

Figure 12

- Take the first 1” PVC Union connector and install it to the 2” section cut in the last step

Figure 13

- Cut a 3” piece of 1” PVC and insert it into the Union connector.

Figure 14 - No, it’s not leaning, its the camera angle

- Install the first 1” PVC 45 degree elbow.

Figure 15

- Cut a 5” piece of 1” PVC and insert it into the 45 degree elbow. Then install the second 45 degree elbow as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16

At this point it is not necessarily critical that the second 45 degree elbow be straight, this is just a dry run after all. However, when it comes time to use the PVC cement it will be CRITICAL that the second 45 degree elbow be straight. So that the top end of the elbow is straight up and down and not tilted to one side or another. Be certain when you glue this elbow in that it is straight or otherwise the table top the laptop sits on will be tilted and there is no way to correct for it.
- Cut a 2” piece of 1” PVC and insert it into the second 45 degree elbow.

Figure 17

- Now install the second 1” PVC Union connector.

Figure 18

- Cut a 2” piece of 1” PVC and insert that into the union connector from the last step.

Figure 19

That completes the stand portion of the laptop stand. Right now, you are done with the 1” PVC and will start working with the ½” PVC to create the table the laptop will sit on and which will mound to the stand portion when we are done.
You will now need the ½” tees and elbows as well, the second square electrical box cover, the second ¾” X 1” adapter and the second ¾” Floor flange.

Section 3: The table top

For the prep work you will need to cut the following
- 6 pieces of the ½” PVC in 13-1/2” lengths.
- 10 pieces of the ½” PVC in 1” lengths.
- 1 piece of ½” PVC that is 12-1/2” Long.
- First, begin by taking 4 of the ½” Tees and 2 of the ½” 90 degree elbows and assemble them together using 1” length pieces you cut. See Figures 20 – 25.

Figure 20

Figure 21

Figure 22

Figure 23

Figure 24

Figure 25

Once you have that done you will need to do it one more time with the remaining 4 Tees and 2 90 degree elbows. So that you have two sets that look like Figure 25.

- Next, take the 6 13-1/2” lengths you cut earlier and insert them into the tees and elbows so that you have something that looks like Figure 26.

Figure 26

- Now take the other set of Tees and Elbows that you assembled and connect them to the other end of the pvc tubes so that you have what you see in Figure 27.

Figure 27

- Place the second square electrical box cover on the middle two rungs of the table top. Center it, then using a marker; draw a line across the cover that is centered over the rungs. Along those two lines, you will need to drill two 3/16” holes. You will have four holes total. Then lay the cover back on to the table top (centered) and using a marker, mark the location of those four on the two center rungs.

- Using a small drill bit (1/8” should do) drill pilot holes in the rungs at the locations you marked.
- After doing that, take a 3/16” drill bit and re-drill the holes again. I used the smaller bit first to help make it a little easier to keep the bit from ‘walking’ off center and to help keep the holes straight.
- Once you have opened the holes up to 3/16” size, turn the table top over and using a 3/8” drill bit re-drill the four holes on that side only. DO NOT go all the way through. Just open the hole up on that one side. The 3/8” hole is so that you can fit the screws through so that the plate can be mounted while not leaving any screw heads on the top side for the laptop to rub on or get scratched up with. Also, the 3/8” hole is big enough to put a screw driver through so you can tighten up the screws.
- Once that is done, take 4 #10-24 machine screws and insert them through the 3/8” side. I used ¾” long screws but you can use 1” long screws if you want to make it easier to fit the screws through. ¾” screws may have a tendency to fall over inside the pvc pipe. The 1” screws will give you enough length to get the screw started through the other side.

Figure 28

- Once you have the screws through the holes, mount the square plate to the table top.
- When you have the plate mounted, take the second ¾” Floor flange and center it on the plate so that two of the mounting holes fall in between the two rungs you used to mount the box plate to. Using a marker, mark the location of the two holes of the flange to the box plate cover. Then drill those two holes using a 3/16” drill bit. Then mount the flange as shown in Figure 29.

Figure 29

- Next, mount the second ¾” X 1” adapter to the flange.

Figure 30

Next we will create the rail for the table top that will prevent the laptop from sliding off the table top in one direction.

- Using the 12-1/2” long piece of PVC that you cut earlier, clamp it to one of the end rungs and set it so that pipes are straight up and down. Make sure it is clamped well enough that it won’t move on you.
- Once you have it clamped and secured drill (3) 3/16” holes (one on each end, about an inch or so from the end, and then one in the center) through both pvc pipes.
- Using the 3/16-24 Machine screws, insert them into the 12-1/2” pvc pipe. Then on the bottom side of that install two hex nuts. These serve as a spacer. They don’t have to be super tight, just secure.
- Then install the ½” end caps to each end of that pipe.
- Once that is done, mount the rail to the table top using the three holes you drilled previously and then secure it to that with a hex nut. Once that is done you should have something like shown in Figure 31.

Figure 31

Now you can install the table top to the stand you made earlier and it should look something like what is shown in Figure 32.

Figure 32

Now is a good time to make sure that the table top is level. Remember that second 45 degree elbow that I said had to be straight? If you table top is not level (horizontally) now is the time to adjust that elbow and perhaps mark where it is at so that when you use the PVC cement to make everything permanent it will remain straight. Now the whole assembly may lean slightly as you have not secured all the joints with the PVC cement. Once that is done and you have tightened up the bottom union connector, it should be straight and not move too much.

I move my seat one click forward when I am using the stand so that it prevents movement back towards the seat. The feet you installed on the base plate at the beginning will minimize forward motion.

Some added notes:

Why did I use a ¾” Floor Flange rather than a 1” Floor Flange?

Economics is part of it. I would have had to buy more flanges. That aside, after assembling the stand, I discovered that the 1” Floor flange would not have fit for the mounting on the table top. That is also why it is necessary to have the ¾” X 1” adapters so I can use the ¾” threads of the flange and still use the 1” PVC.

Why use 1” PVC, wouldn’t ¾” PVC work?

It most certainly would have worked. However, I had some concerns about the ¾” flexing some and thus reducing the stability overall. Even though the PVC pipe sections are relatively short I decided that 1” would provide that added security.

I don’t like the space between the rungs, can anything be done about that?

The space between the rungs should not pose any issues for standard sized laptops. However, if you have concerns about that you can purchase thin plexi glass at the hardware or craft stores pretty cheaply and then mount that to the top. I opted to keep costs down and thus not use the plexi glass.

I want the ability to tilt the table top, can this be done?

With the current design, no. I am working on a solution for that. No promises at this point as it is all ideas in my mind right now. If I come up with something then I will update the design.

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