Fixed bucket seats + fittings - options/ideas ?

[Snjur]

Pictures!!

 

Sent from my SM-G850F using Tapatalk

 

 

[RobPhoboS]

Well I expected some fitment issues, and I sure got them

The runner/slider hasn't arrived yet which probably would have helped with a part of the problem but not the main one.

I could do with some ideas pretty please, as you'll see my mistakes below...

 

Seat out

 

 

 

Bracket test fit

 

 

 

 

Side mount test ... hmm bugger, holes don't line up.

It's a minor problem that I can work around.

 

 

I spoke to my step dad and asked him what would be a way to get around this.

We thought just elongate the offending hole, then put a piece of stainless steel or aluminum bar on top of it. That bar would have 3 holes, one for the middle bolt that attaches to the frame then 1 bolt either side to secure it down.

Cruddy example of what I mean:

 

However, this doesn't matter really as I'll use the runner when it turns up.

But it might help someone else in the future.

 

At this point I decided (rightly or wrongly) to just line it up to the most forward it could go and drill a new hole so that I could at least fix it to the frame, however as you'll see that didn't really help.

 

Test fitting the seat with just a couple of bolts to see how things line up/feel.

 

 

So the minor problem here is that the side mounts in this orientation means the legs stick out causing the front right bolt to be covered - so you'd have to fit the frame down first, and the bigger problem on the left the leg of the side mount fouls the front box mount.

So you can't bolt the frame down when it's orientated with the extension facing forward.

 

I'll just swap the mounts so the shorter side is facing forward when I use the slider.

 

 

Now forgetting all of the above, the real issue fixing it like this is that the seat is offset to the right. So the pedals and the steering wheel are just off to your left, which means the seat shoulder sticks out quite far and there's no chance of closing the door !

 

 

Ideally what I need to do is get the seat closer to the transmission tunnel, it might still touch the door card but you'd be able to shut the door at least.

 

Obviously I can't move the seat any further to the left because it just hits the sub-frame raised bits.

I found a new video on youtube where a chap in the USA used the same seat and sub-frame but didn't have any issues with the shoulder hitting the door, and yes he's showing the passenger side (our driver side), I've ask him how he managed that so waiting to see what he says.

 

Idea 1:

4 pieces of aluminium thick tube (so it has a hole in the middle for an M10 bolt to go through), mount the slider onto that raised slightly (as the runner will have a bit of height too).

2x 4mm\5mm thick aluminum bars (same length as the side mounts) with holes to mount to the slider, and offset holes so I can mount the side mounts and get the seat over to the left more.

 

Any suggestions as to what else I could try would be hugely helpful !

 

Harry sent me a couple of photo's of the M2 mount, it would certainly move it to the left a bit more but not by much I guess:

Edited May 8, 2017 by RobPhoboS

[Ekona]

Even easier, just get a flat piece of ally about 3" wide, drill holes in it then bolt that down to the frame. You then put holes in that sitting closer to the tunnel, and mount the seat to the new piece of ally.

 

Let me go do a drawing.

[Ekona]

Oooh hang on no you can't do that because of the mount you've used.

[Ekona]

That M2 mount looks as far over as you'll get it without doing a custom mount for it. That said, that may well be far easier and cheaper to do than you think, let me go get a drawing of this one.

 

Definitely this time!

[StevoD]

Even easier, just get a flat piece of ally about 3" wide, drill holes in it then bolt that down to the frame. You then put holes in that sitting closer to the tunnel, and mount the seat to the new piece of ally.

 

Let me go do a drawing.

 

please dont use ally

[Ekona]

 

Right, you want two flat bits of steel, then just cut and bend the ends to lip over where the front bolts go through. You then drill a couple of holes in it (blue) to mount the side mounts (you'll might want different ones that have more flat metal on the base to be able to drill holes exactly where you need them), and then you can have the seat right up against the tunnel if you want. Or you can drill new holes in the runners if you want to fit those, just going to take a bit of fiddling to get to where you want.

 

I would be very careful about using any kind of spacer tube, as you make the bolts much more likely to sheer off like that if you had an accident. Keeping every flat and bolted together is far preferable.

 

To my eyes though it looks like those seats and that frame won't ever be compatible, but without actually looking at it in the flesh (or a video?) it's hard to say for certain. One question though, does the outside holes where the frame bolts down match the inside holes in terms of height? I can't remember if it does on a 350, as if it does this is all for nothing as you'd need to space everything up again which we're trying to avoid...

Edited May 8, 2017 by Ekona

[Ekona]

please dont use ally

Good call, I meant steel and have no idea why I wrote ally. DON'T USE ALLY!

[RobPhoboS]

Thank you for the help, seat n00b here

 

Ah, I think I can see what you mean now about stressing the bolt if it has a tube/section between it.

Is it because the bolt is overly long that it would be stressed ? (note the bolts I'm using are 12.9 strength)

 

Steel - noted. (would 5mm thick aluminium bar not be suitable?)

 

I could certainly try making that but the right side is lower than the left\tunnel side.

So I guess it would still need something to prop up the runner or side mounts?

 

This is the video I mentioned before:

[Rich260]

I used 6.4mm ally bar on the passanger side, basically an exacty copy of djtimo's build thread. Sadly you can't do that on the drivers side as the transmition side sits highter than the door side so would end up with a wonkey seat.

 

The best option I found was the OMP seat mount but even then I had to cut and weld the subframe to avoid the offset seating position.

[Ekona]

Yeah, if it's at different heights then my cunning plan won't work. Soz.

 

Bolt strength is marked down as tensile strength, so how resistant it is to being pulled along it's length. I'd be more worried about it slipping and snapping than stretching.

[RobPhoboS]

Ah ha, I see.

 

How about this?

Same sub-frame I have, put the slider on top, then bolt 2x thick aluminium/steel bar (correct thickness) either side which should clear the raised bit on the left - then drill the 4 offset holes to mount the side-mounts on.

 

Or is that the problem by offsetting it ?

[Ekona]

Nope, can offset by as much as you want Think you mean steel plate rather than bar though?

[RobPhoboS]

Nope, can offset by as much as you want Think you mean steel plate rather than bar though?

 

Ah I guess it could be a plate for where it fixes.

I just initially thought that it had to be 2 long bar (300mm apx) kind of like what you had drawn.

I'll try and photoshop something.

 

Do you recommend steel over aluminium ? (it's likely to be around 10mm thick, depending on the slider height).

And if it's steel, what kind would you think will do the trick ?

[Ekona]

Any old kind really, 10mm is massive overkill though, 3mm would be fine.

[RobPhoboS]

Any old kind really, 10mm is massive overkill though, 3mm would be fine.

 

Ah I was just thinking how tall the front left (55mm), and rear left (42/45mm) heights are and having enough clearance above it after putting the slider on.

 

[-blade-]

Having nightmares just reading this now...... and not looking forward to perhaps being in the exact same position.

If i buy frames and runners to fit a 350z id kinda be expecting them to fit, otherwise small rage may build

[Ekona]

They all will fit, trouble is there's many different kinds of seat and many different ways of mounting and many different side mounts and many different runners etc. That's when you need to get creative, sadly.

[RobPhoboS]

Having nightmares just reading this now...... and not looking forward to perhaps being in the exact same position.

If i buy frames and runners to fit a 350z id kinda be expecting them to fit, otherwise small rage may build

 

Exactly as Ekona said, the trouble is there are combo's that work, and don't !

If you're going for the same seat as me, yeah definitely pay attention to what I end up with

I certainly wish I could weld stuff together as I'm sure this would have been sorted by now.

 

I'm just confused as to how the guy in the video used the same sub-frame, mounts and seat without it clattering into the door card.

 

I wouldn't recommend the overly long Sabelt side frames I have unless you're tall and need the seat all of the way back (they're 490mm long!), I should have gone with the normal sized 90 deg ones instead.

 

I now have 2 options, the above one mentioned and a second option with thanks to Rich260 - so hopefully that will do the trick, of course I'll post up what I find too.

 

As I have the whole weekend, I'll spend some time taking measurements which will hopefully help out anyone else in the future.

[RobPhoboS]

Just because it popped up earlier, and it's the same seat...

 

[RobPhoboS]

Still no luck even with the Buddyclub mounts that Rich kindly lent to me to try out.

It could have worked if the seatbelt fixing point wasn't welded directly on top of the mount. As I could have taken off the supplied 4 mounts to the seat, and put the side-mounts ontop and shifted the seat over to the left more.

Hopefully heading over to someone that can fabricate a frame for me, what a ballache eh

[Ekona]

Cut the seatbelt mount point off and re-attached it elsewhere?

[RobPhoboS]

Cut the seatbelt mount point off and re-attached it elsewhere?

 

I don't have a photo of it here but if I could get that off so it's flat on top (as it's 4.7mm thick steel), I'd have a problem with how high the seat is I think as it won't go down further with the design of it.

[jumping350]

Just a thought as im currently installing buckets in mazda myself and have same issue with the flared bit hitting door card and already dented mine!

Might be a solution here one of the shoulder wings should be smaller than the other one (this is to apparently allow for easier gear change)

Im going to look into this a bit but normally the drivers seat the inner left wing is smaller to allow for gear change, ive sat in both seats and doesnt bother me which seat it is for gear change so il mount the other seat on the drivers side with the smaller shoulder wing nearer the door card hopefully not smashing into it now

hope that makes sense

[RobPhoboS]

I'm only fitting one seat jumping350, cheers for the thought though!

 

 

This was the other idea I had, although I'd still need someone to weld a tab for the seatbelt fixing point.

 

2 x 5mm thick, 80m wide Aluminium bar (is that ok?)

Use some imagination here to replace cardboard with metal

 

 

Yes, the left inner side will be taller but with my mounts they are quite tall so I should be able to get the seat level.

This way I can get the mounts as close as possible to the tunnel, and it'll fix down onto the bar.

 

Looks like FBT did here:

http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/97520-the-trackcar-is-dead-long-live-the-trackcar/page__st__60