Help - Seat Mounting

[Marsh]

I just pruchased a very slightly used Sparco Evo-2 for a steal!

http://www.cockyracingguy.com/pictur...arco-Evo-1.jpg

But Now I have to mount the thing. I'm going to make my own mount, since nobody makes one for my car.

I know how to make the mount so that it will be stronger than stink, but what I need some tips on is how to block out the seat to find the correct possition, then how do I transfer that position to the seat rails? Should I actually do the tack welds in the car? (most logical and least practical)

I just finished an initial dry fit by stacking some text books under the seat to find how high I could go etc. It looks like I might have to make a steering spacer as well. I just can't seem to cram my long legs far enough under the wheel to actually reach the wheel with my short arms.

Anyway, has someone done this before and have some good tips?

[Logan]

Get a bracket for another car and modify it.

[Moose]

Start with a OE prelude seat rail, remove the seat and all the original "tabs" that the seat back and base attached to, so that you have a flat topped rail

Order a Sparco side mount (picture below) and bolt it to the seat. You can adjust the height and rake to your liking



Now lay the seat with side mount attached on top of the bare seat rail bolted to the interior. In my case there was two existing bolts and holes that I used to bolt the side rails to the OE rail. At this point you can use the adjustable side rails to play with the rake and overall height I drilled two more holes and finished bolting down the side rail to the OE rail ... do not forget to use Grade 5 or Better fasteners.

The other option is just to weld the side rails to the OE Rail

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Moose

[Marsh]

Sigh... why is it that everyone always questions the basic approach instead of trying to answer the question.

A - I can't use the stock seat rails since I'm leaving them on the stock seat. I'll swap them back and forth for street and racing.

B - The sparco mounts are too tall. Once stacked on top of the rails I would be bumping my head on the roof again. The whole point of buying a seat is to correct this.

Logan thanks, I did some research and I found 2 websites that said the Accord rails would fit the Prelude, but I think I'm going to make my own anyway. That way I can make the whole thing out of 6061 and weld it all, with harness mounts included.

[Marsh]

Allow me to ellaborate.

These pictures show the seat in the highest position it can be without me bumping my head.




In these shots the seat bottom is just less than 1" off of the floor. Even still I need that much recline angle to keep from rubbing my helmet on the roof liner. This is also as close as I can sit. Any closer and my knee interfers with the steering column to the point it's hard to reach the brake pedal at all, let alone heel toe. I'll also need to add nearly 3" of spacer to the steering wheel to get it close enough to use.

Also what you can't see in this shot is that the forward mounting hole on the seat is 2" - 3" forward of the front seatmount on the floor.

So you can see that the the sparco side mounts could only work if I cut out the forward support that the stock seat attaches to and then bolted the mounts directly to the floor. Hence buy making my own mounts I can weld the side plates directly to the rails, which I adapt to clear the seat on each side. I also have to incorperate a seat belt mount since the stock one is on the unusable stock rails.

[Lafora]

why not just see if you can come up w/ a way so the seat is bolted fixed to the car at the desired position.

since i doubt anyone would be behind the wheel other than yourself when the seat is in use anyway.

[Marsh]

Originally posted by Lafora
why not just see if you can come up w/ a way so the seat is bolted fixed to the car at the desired position.

since i doubt anyone would be behind the wheel other than yourself when the seat is in use anyway.

That is the plan. If anyone wants to take a fun run they'd better have a 32" inseem and a 30" reach

[ice/solo racer]

I could sell you my crx Marsh(kidding,its a keeper),the seat would likely fit you as its on the floor(barely can see over the edge of the hood!) and way the hell back.I can just get the clutch in but my arms are straight to reach the wheel.
So I'm in your position of having to redo the seat mounting to suit.

[DuPontRacing]

marsh, i do have sliders for the seats i sell , i could bring them on sunday to you , and if they are the same bolt pattern , i can get u a bracket from my suppliers .

let me know,

[Marsh]

OK. These are the universal style? I'm not sure if I'll have room, but let me take a look at how thick they are.

[DuPontRacing]

i'll bring it no matter wat, they are universal , it all depends the bolt pattern, also these sliders u can adjust the rear and front height of the seat

[Taylor]

If you add to the height of the seats with a slider, you're screwed I'm sure.

I had a big problem with my Sparco in the MR2. I bought the mount made especially for that car, mounted the Sparco Sliders and then the seat. Seating position was raise about an inch and resulted in the Solo Director asking me to fix the height for the next event (I was taking the T-Top out so my helmet didn't bang on the glass). So several hours of milling and welding later Andrew at Voytechco took out the slider and customized my original mount (which was as close as possible to the frame of the car in the first place) so that I could run with the top on and even the cardboard suncover on as well without hitting.

I don't think I'll put an aftermarket seat in a japanese car again (unless I gut it)

[Marsh]

The more I look at it the more I think I can make a stock slider work, since it incorporates the rail and slider into one piece. I'll use my stock ones to see if it fits, if so then I'll start hunting recking yards, as I want to keep my stock seat intact for daily driving.

[Marsh]

I know this is a dead thread, but I wanted to post an update incase someone does a search on this topic in the future.

OK I couldn't make a stock slider work. Once I got it out of the car I realized it would need so much modification that it wouldn't be worth it, and even then it was sketchy as to whether or not I could make it work at all.

So I scrounged around the basement and found enough 6061 to make everything out of allumnim.

The hardest part (the part I was orginally asking for help on), was blocking the seat into a good driving position and keeping it there while I fit the frame pieces. I was able to make the seat "jig" out of 2 x 2 and strap it down with some bungee chords. The recline angle is enough that it won't sit in that position naturally. It falls backwards.

As for the mount you can see the plan in these shots:
http://www.cockyracingguy.com/pictur...arco-Evo-4.jpg
http://www.cockyracingguy.com/pictur...arco-Evo-5.jpg
http://www.cockyracingguy.com/pictur...arco-Evo-6.jpg

These alluminum side rails will be attached with 1/8" alluminum plate tabs, that are represented by the wooden prototypes here. Once these pieces are cut and welded I will reblock the seat and fit tabs to the top of the rails that will actually receive the seat bolts. I haven't decided how the mount the lap belt yet. I wanted to do some kind of wrap around, or a bolt in double shear, but I don't know what I have clearance for. I'll leave that to last after I get everything else mounted so I can see what I have to work with. I think the best idea I have is to weld two tabs (per side) to the rail with a bolt above the rail and parrallel to it that the harness strap will wrap around. This is what I used on the SAE car a couple of years ago, so I know it's easy to make and plenty strong.