bucket seats - my how to - if anyone is planning it

[ollielsd]

just finished off fitting a bucket seat in my e30 and thought id knock up a quick post to demonstrate what i did.

first off - meet betty



this is what many ppl will se when trying to figure how / where to mount a seat



you, ve got two m10 studs at the front and two m10 threads at the rear. what i did was make up two rail going left to right on the car with tubes welded in for the rear bolts to pass thru and machined "cups" for the front studs. After measuring the "square" made by the bolt holes in the seat runners, i measured it all up and welded machined bosses into the rails, with m8 studs for the rails

(sorry for the grind marks etc - they were dont in my lunch break!!)





the rail were then painted and bolted into the car



the seat runners were then loosely bolted down (NOTE: locking nuts - you dont want these coming loose!!)





and then finally the seat was bolted in to set the width of the runners and these were all tighten in. add harness and voila!



(sorry the pic is on its side!!!!)



any questions comments - please add - il be happy to help

[Lloydie38]

Nice job mate and the pics and info I'm sure will be of use to somone in the near future.

I did without the frame and just adjusted the standard frame that attachs to the seat and then straight onto the standard floor fittings. You sit lower but for the track it's in a really good low driving position.

Pic of my seats is on my site iyi.

Cheers
Ian

[JimmyC]

Cobra do an E30 set of side mounts, bolt straight in

developed for the PBMW cars

[ollielsd]

Cobra do an E30 set of side mounts, bolt straight in

developed for the PBMW cars

lol i dont wanna pay for 'owt!

[agent006]

Cobra do an E30 set of side mounts, bolt straight in

developed for the PBMW cars

Surely the seat would be in the wrong place? Or do they have miltiple holes to allow forward/back adjustment?

[calder]

Cobra do an E30 set of side mounts, bolt straight in

developed for the PBMW cars

Surely the seat would be in the wrong place? Or do they have miltiple holes to allow forward/back adjustment?

yep that's it, they have multiple holes to allow forward/back adjustment and the usual holes to allow some height and forward/back tilt. The difference with the custom E30 mounts is that they are wider on the base to meet the E30 seat mount holes and studs

[Rizzo]

As far as I know Cobra don't make them anymore. Does anyone have a set? I would be interested. Cheers!

[JimmyC]

I have to call Cobra tomorrow anyway so will ask Marc about them for you, they do do them but dont carry stock and you cant buy them anywhere as they are not an official line ;)

[Rizzo]

I have to call Cobra tomorrow anyway so will ask Marc about them for you, they do do them but dont carry stock and you cant buy them anywhere as they are not an official line ;)

Ok ... I'd be surprised if you get a different answer but hey, surprise me! ;)

[JimmyC]

They can still do them but need a minimum of 10 and are not keen to deal with the general public.

If there was enough interest I may be able to sort it, but they would want people to buy seats aswell

Cheers

Jimmy

[Rizzo]

The usual story then? hehe

Well if anyone has a used set I could buy that would be fantastic!
Other than that I guess I will have to make some bars as well.

Cheers!

[Cotty]

Interesting. I have been thinking about putting Sparco buckets in mine ( either Rev's or Evo XL's for fat passengers)

[JimmyC]

We all use Cobras as i get them dirt cheap for the racers, cheaper new than 2nd hand ebay ones

We use the Evo with lateral supports, great seats

[ChrisR]

I've a couple of cobra base mounted seats which I'd recomend, the drivers with cobra's adjustable mount which is sooo easy to fit and the passengers using 2x 5mm thick ali plate rails, just cut the plate to 60mm width and slightly longer than the seat is wide then drill 4 holes in each one, gives a low position and saves £60 on a mount

[matthew_h]

I'm currently fitting some new seats in my M3 and bizarrely have ended up with a very similar method to that shown above. Ollie's is a lot neater than mine though with all that fancy welding but hopefully mine should work just as well.

I'm mounting some Recaro Speed seats on runners though which is proving slightly problematic but hopefully should be sorted over the weekend.

Interesting to see that we have ended up with very similar solutions but completely independently