Bucket seat

Post Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:32 pm

Can you get Bucket seats that use the original holes in the floor pan ?

I'm guessing not but i hope i'm wrong !

If you had to drill new holes would you need to weld in reinforcement plates by the holes a bit like roll cage feet ? We had to do this in my old Autograss car.

Can you use a normal seat belt with a bucket seat ?

I would probobly be best off with a 4/5 point harness but that would mean more holes i'd have to drill and i could see them getting to be very tedious in normal day to day driving.

BTW i was only thinking of changing the drivers seat.

Post Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:38 pm

when you buy a bucket seat they can normally supply a seat sub frame which would use the stanard holes,at an extra cost though

Post Thu Feb 03, 2005 11:41 pm

harnesses aren't too bad for everyday driving as you get used to them quick enough but they need to go down behind the drivers seat at a shallow angel which means that they should anchor where the rear seat base and back meet. this is essential as too much of a steep angle is dangerous(don't take my word for it you MUST do research into this) and this means that you will lose the rear seat on any side of the car you intend to place harnesses.

as for bucket seats i think that karan was looking at them a short while ago, try speaking to him, i think he was on about making up his own subframes to mount the seats to the floor using the original holes and bracing points but check with him to make sure.

hope this helps.

Post Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:13 am

Cheers for the info fellas

I was thinking that i'd have the rear harness mounts under the seat swab(like you said) and then if i need to carry passengers(very rare for me to have a full car TBH) in the back i could unclip/bolt the rear mounts,fold the seat down and use the normal seat belt ?

I'll be seeing Karan on Sat at the Stevenage meet so i'll ask him about it then.

Post Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:36 am

andy, i made a subframe to mount that fibreglass cobra seat in my mr2, using the original holes and bolts.

originally i butchered an old mr2 subframe to the new seat to allow me to slide it back and forth. but i couldn't get that as low as i wanted so i made up a fixed subframe with seat mount several holes in it to adjust the position to get it perfect.

i started with 5mm steel sheet and took it from there, didn't weld anything.

Post Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:04 am

Cobra do an E30 sub-frame for their monaco race seat. You'd need to contact them to though if you wanted a different seat or to see what else they do.

for every day driving you might find the race seats uncomfortable, don't know about the non-fia.
"normal seat belt" - i think that this is possible if you can bolt the stalk with the female part of the buckle (whatever thats called) onto the seat sub-frame - now i remember that's what i did with the above seat when i drove the car to the prep shop have the cage and 6pt harness fitted.
But that was one short journey - remember that your hips will be low in the bucket seat and the lap belt will probably not be close enough to you to work properly. The race seats are meant to have the side belts go through the holes in the side of the seat - not possible with normal belt.
Sparco do a couple of 3pt belts for not much money but these need one of the bolts to be secured in the rear seat belt point which is no good if you're keep the back seat.

Post Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:44 pm

Cheer's mate ,top info

Post Sun Feb 06, 2005 12:11 am

as calder said andy, cobra do a subframe, i guess an imola seat would fit onto this. thi is the one i was gonna go for

Karan

Post Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:52 pm

or find a set of orginal E30 recaros

i got a new M3 interior ready and waiting to go in my 325 shell.

they are the proper recaros not the bmw sports seat. very rare and offer much more support than the standard sports seat.

Post Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:17 pm

a fixed bucket is sooo much better though

Post Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:50 pm

karan i've got the imola in my mr2

, it's an awesome seat, really deep to sit in! mine is pretty narrow too so some can't fit in it but you get amazing side support! and being fibreglass it's really light too.

and regardless what people say it's fine for daily use. a bit of a wriggle to get in and out of, but i drove that mr2 5000 miles round europe one summer when i was at uni and never got backache!!!!