Seats...specifically the mounts...

[uncle benz]

Why did you not ask me to do this while the car was here?

Done loads of these now!

[titan]

A number of reasons. The main one being that in my garage I've two sets of rails, 3 sets of sidemounts and I've done this before. Plus I've been chatting to Jay about the passenger side woes and wanted to see for myself what the deal was.

Also, whipping out a 13mm spanner once in a while justifies the teng toolkit I have in the garage :D

[KingM3]

To anyone who has a set of recaro sliders, could you do me a favour and measure the distance between the runners?


Distance between runners 368mm with Recaro runners, side mounts and pole positions.
Hope this helps.

[titan]

Cheers mate

I can update the thread now with more tale of woe.

Bought some recaro sliders and also the very nice looking, very light alloy sidemounts that the tweeks website says are fitment for an SPG (ie normal width base seat).

yeah yeah you can see whats coming. The website is wrong, these alloy mounts are for the XL seat. Recaro don't make an alloy mount version of their basic steel mount, so its steel mounts all round.

So laughably its taken me a number of attempts to prove what a few guys on here said all along - VAC mounts (or Jays), recaro sliders and sidemounts, job done.

You do need to drill additional mounting holes in the sliders though because the boltholes don't line up exactly. I cannot see how it would be possible to do otherwise, even mounting the rails upside down they don't fit... I also will drill additional mounting holes in the sidemounts as the recaro steel mounts have only one hole at the front and two at the rear, a bit limiting and I like sitting low...

FWIW, the recaro sliders are far better quality than the sparco ones.

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by titan

So laughably its taken me a number of attempts to prove what a few guys on here said all along - VAC mounts (or Jays), recaro sliders and sidemounts, job done.

.

AGAIN

[_Nathan_]

Originally Posted by titan

You do need to drill additional mounting holes in the sliders though because the boltholes don't line up exactly.

Pretty sure mine did?

Glad you are sorted anyway.

[titan]

Originally Posted by _Nathan_

Pretty sure mine did?

Jays mounts (which I assume means the VAC mounts also) use a sidemount style bolt pattern.

The recaro runners (and also the sparco ones too) have holes to fit sidemounts on the top, but the bottom rail of the runners have holes with different offsets. In short - they don't fit. You can of course turn them upside down if you are using a sidemount with lots of holes or adjustability to fit the "non sidemount" side, but then you have to push the adjuster down to move the seat and it no longer moves *with* the seat.

Anyhow - I hate bodge jobs and wanted to do this right. By drilling one extra hole and elongating two slightly each runner now has 4 bolts into the ally mounts so they are going NOWHERE. The sidemounts go straight on, although I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and seat position is a very personal thing - I found that the best position was to swap the sidemounts and drill one extra hole at the "now rear" of the mount. They also look better this way.

So - all finished in that the seats are at the right height, the right slope for me, have lots of high tensile bolts holding the lot together, weighs slightly less than stock and also importantly, the seat rail isn't massively extended from its outer rail when you're in the right seating position [1]

Only thing I haven't cracked is what to do with the seatbelt bit. Or indeed whether to bother at all and just wait until the rear cage and harnesses are fitted....


[1] This is important because if you drive with the inside rail sticking a way out from the outer one, the back and forth loads eventually make the rails a very loose fit and the seat feels like it is unbolted and slopping around.

Time was tight today and as always the wife was chewing my ear, might get some pics some other time...