Fitting aftermarket seats

[Madhav]

I just got my black leather recaro-style seats last week, they look and feel very nice.

I took them to a mates house to have a go at installing them. After pulling apart the standard seats, and comparing the rails and brackets, we both realised it's gonna need custom rails made up.

Anyone got any idea on who does this kinda work and how much it should cost?

 

[Hotwire]

Any metal fabrication shop (that deals with cars preferably) should be able to do it..

 

[Dr_Josh001]

Doh!!

Did they come with universal rails?

 

[Madhav]

Yeah they did, but the universal part is a bit of an over statement; the rails fit the seat of course, but not the bolts on the floor. They're about 15cm too short, also there's nothing to mount the seat belt into, and by the time we discovered all this, we gave up and agreed that we need someone with a little more experience to take over.

 

[Hotwire]

If the rail is too short - just have a fabricator weld on the extra length required, and also a seat belt anchor point. This will be cheaper than a complete new rail.

 

[Guest]

can we see some pics of the seats?

 

[Dr_Josh001]

Are these the generic brand seats you can order from Justjap.com?

 

[Madhav]

Available on ebay here

Also from this place

I'll get some proper pics and do some measurements tomorrow.

 

[CANDEE]

Might work if you find some VR4 recaro rails?

 

[VR-04-TT]

Good luck finding those lol

Just remember that you'll need your seat rails engineered to be legal (In NSW at least)

 

[Robotnik123]

Good luck finding those lol

quote]

Trademe is the place to try for those. I got some recaros with legnum rails for about $700 I think it was. They do come up occasionally...

 

[Madhav]

I measured up everything and came up with a plan, basically I need new right angle brackets made up which connect from the seat to the rails, also the rails need to be extended to fit onto the floor bolts, or a whole new plate put underneath for the rails to sit on. However looking at the whole thing I would prefer someone else to do it, just didn't expect to have to pay them so much cash.

 

[CANDEE]

Good luck finding those lol

quote]

Trademe is the place to try for those. I got some recaros with legnum rails for about $700 I think it was. They do come up occasionally...

Im not actully sure that they are proper VR rails John, sorry to tell you... But they fit anyhow

 

[Robotnik123]

Im not actully sure that they are proper VR rails John, sorry to tell you... But they fit anyhow

Damn you might be right. And they are not VR-4 Recaros either. They must come out of some sort of Mitsubishi though, or else how would they fit? A coupe it would seem. Maybe they are from a Mirage Cyborg, a GTO or maybe even an Eclipse. My money is on a GTO.

 

[CANDEE]

Both mine and Wynn's recaro rails look just like the std ones one...

I think at some stage mine are going to come out and ill put some Honda SR5 Recaro's in mins

 

[Zild]

Not that i've investigated this any further, but would it be possible to unbolt the rails of the standard seats and put them on to aftermarket ones!?

 

[Madhav]

Not that i've investigated this any further, but would it be possible to unbolt the rails of the standard seats and put them on to aftermarket ones!?

Yeah this was the first thing I tried, however there is absolutely no hope of this happening, the design is totally different.

Funny enough though, yesterday I went into a welding supplies shop to pick up some cable to use for the battery relocation, and I asked if they'd be interested in constructing/modifying aftermarket seat rails. One of the guys said he's actually in the process of doing some for his own car (Ford cobra) and that he'd be happy to do it.

The best part was that he quoted $300 for the whole job! A bit better to my first quote of approx $1000 a seat! He's gonna start them this afternoon.

 

[Dr_Josh001]

Yeah this was the first thing I tried, however there is absolutely no hope of this happening, the design is totally different.

Funny enough though, yesterday I went into a welding supplies shop to pick up some cable to use for the battery relocation, and I asked if they'd be interested in constructing/modifying aftermarket seat rails. One of the guys said he's actually in the process of doing some for his own car (Ford cobra) and that he'd be happy to do it.

The best part was that he quoted $300 for the whole job! A bit better to my first quote of approx $1000 a seat! He's gonna start them this afternoon.

Awesome!!! Good going Madhav. Don't ya just love it when stuff falls into place like that!

I work for fabricators (drafting) and most of their quotes are based on demand and how busy they are. If you want them to do a cheap quick job the best time to get them is around Christmas time.

 

[Guest]

nice mate, cant wait to see pics of them in the car..