Base Mounted Seats And Weld In Rails

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I've 2 cobra bucket seats to go in my car but they are base mountable only.

 

 

Ignore the crappy mounts they came with!

 

They are red which I now think I don't like the thought of. I have been thinking of using this excuse as another reason to buy another pair as well as the fact that side mountable seats would be an advantage for fitting.

 

Now I read that height is a potential problem, so on second thoughts perhaps base mounted seats may be a good idea after all.

 

Now my intention is to have some bars welded in to take the seats as I have noticed a lot of people do. Now the pics I have seen, people have drilled holes and bolted side mounts to the bars to fix the seats to. Is there any reason why I can't have seats base mounted straight to some bars?

 

I was looking at a pair of these from Tweeks: http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/performance/seat-mounting-frames-universal/rix-engineering-subframe-mounting-kit

 

But I imagine I may just as well have some off the shelf bar fabricated and welded in rather than having those adapted to fit.

 

[Baz 421]

It's not caged is it? Sell them, get some side mounted (comfortable) seats, inspect the standard seat mounts and mount them off them & go have fun.

 

Reason I say this is basically because by putting welded in seat rails in, which to do properly need to be low and ideally with the exhaust tunnel chopped to get the seats central, you then can't ever return the car back to standard!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Will be. It's going in for the cage plates to be welded in the next few weeks so was hoping to kill two birds with one stone and have seat mounts sorted at the same time.

 

The cage was the reason I wasn't keen on using sidemounts with the existing mounting points as it would probably be too high.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I explained to you how I did it didn't I Dan? They were base mounted on standard rails and a good inch or more lower than standard, good for us lankey fookers!

[Baz 421]

How d'you work that out?! Base mounted seats are never going to be mountable lower than the mounts, whereas you can with side mounted seats, presuming the seat is skinny enough to drop down between the two mountings anyway.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

If you are planning to wear a helmet on track with cage then unless you are a midget you really will have to lower the seat as otherwise you will be driving round with your helmet on/above the cage, which clearly is not good in the event of going off.

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Base mounted seats are pretty low when mounted on seat runners with the tilting bit removed.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Depends on how tall you are I guess. I'm 6'2" so add another inch or so of helmet and unless the seat is moved down I'm scuppered.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

I'm around 6'2 also.

 

I guess the best thing for me to do when stripping the interior out for the cage fitting is to try and get hold of a seat with some side mounts and see how low I can get it that way on existing mountings.

 

Would I be able to to have seat rails welded in without the exhaust tunnel being chopped? Keeping it base mounted the seat may be able to shift over to the middle a bit more without a side mount.

 

I need to do some picture hunting.

Edited January 15, 2013 by chipstick

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Depends on how tall you are I guess. I'm 6'2" so add another inch or so of helmet and unless the seat is moved down I'm scuppered.

Cals 309s like this and he's fine with a lid on, think he's over 6'

 

Still s*it compared to side mounts and rails

[Baz 421]

Yes you can have seat bars added without the tunnel being chopped, both my rally cars are like this, but then you're limited to where you can place your seats and if you know anything about mounting seats in a 205, you'll know that you'll struggle to get seated centrally to the steering wheel, at least without careful choice of seat & mounts, limiting you to a skinnier seat to even have a chance of it being anywhere near!

 

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f255/205gtmi16/205%20Challenge%20ALK/4EF05BE2.jpg

 

 

I've messed around with a lot of seats & mounts and as i say, if you have a skinnier width side mount seat (standard width, 490mm iirc, eg. Sparco Rev/Evo/Pro2000/Corsa, Cobra Imola/Suzuka etc, Corbeau Sprint/ProSport/Series/Revolution) then you can mount it properly low on standard mounts, much lower than you could ever get a base mount seat obviously, because you can drop the base of the seat to roughly the same point as the mounts themselves if not lower, meaning your bum is actually lower in a 205 than the height of the mountings.

 

Don't under-estimate fitting seat bars, there's actually a lot to it and if you get it wrong, they're actually a massive pain in the ass, i hated the ones in my silly white car so much they've been chopped out & done again and the ones in the rally cars are a PITA because they're either not low enough or don't allow the seat to be placed centrally, to the point i've had to buy/stick with less than perfect seats and mounts to get it all even bareable!

 

Not to mention base mount seats are generally steel framed and very uncomfortable for anything more than 5minutes.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

How d'you work that out?! Base mounted seats are never going to be mountable lower than the mounts, whereas you can with side mounted seats, presuming the seat is skinny enough to drop down between the two mountings anyway.

 

I mean where my bum hits the seat, my buckets where base mounted on a very simple frame bolted directly to the standard points. As you sit basically on the bottom of a bucket seat, not a good few inches up over runner, tilting mechanism and padding like standard items.

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Thanks for the advice Baz, much appreciated. It's something I admit I know very little about, so that info is very useful.

 

When I remove the interior I will inspect the original mounting points to use.

[Baz 421]

No probs, apologies if it seemed a little blunt! I'd really rather share my frustrations before someone goes through the same!

Correction also, for stndard width seats i meant 390mm base size rather than 490!

 

Also mentioned inspecting the standard mounts because they can often be worse for wear, broken, rusty, fractured/cracked etc;

 

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f255/205gtmi16/IMG_0922.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f255/205gtmi16/IMG_0921-1.jpg

[Baz 421]

 

I mean where my bum hits the seat, my buckets where base mounted on a very simple frame bolted directly to the standard points. As you sit basically on the bottom of a bucket seat, not a good few inches up over runner, tilting mechanism and padding like standard items.

 

Yep, i see what you mean, but a side-mounted bucket has the mounting holes higher up the side of the seat, meaning given the right side mounts and where possible, you can actually mount them a lot lower than a base mounted seat generally unless you make some complex bracketry to try and replicate that!

[chipstick 382 1 Cars]

Took the advice and bought these:

 

 

Will see how low I can get them on the side mounts as they have a few holes to allow lowering and tilting.

Edited February 23, 2013 by chipstick

[Lowercase 56]

you can also use the standard mounting points an bolt them straight down, the side mounts will be spaced too far apart for the seat, but if you use longer bolts and an aluminium spacer (like them solid rear beam mounts) on each bit, you can bridge the gap safely enough.

 

where your seats bolted down is less of a factor than its made out to be. its your harness thats going to stop you going through the windscreen so make sure that sucker is bolted down solid!

[c_robinson 8 1 Cars]

sorry Callum I massively disagree, especially knowing that a chap was killed rallying because his seat rails snapped, the harnesses stayed put but the seat didn't.

 

I personally would never use a spacer between the mount and the seat.

 

It's a one off ball ache, do it, do it properly and be confident it's right...you wouldn't bodge in old brake pads so why bodge a seat in...