69stingray

I removed my driver's side seat yesterday. I found one non-standard bolt, it appears the nut on the frame was missing. I found $2.00 exactly in change, a comb and other misc. fasteners.



I tried to bolt the brackets to the seats. The holes in the bracket for the seat are off slightly. I had to my drill to my new brackets to get them to bolt to the seats. I went to install the seat/bracket combo and the it just would not fit. After some swearing and some investigation, the seat bracket was assembled backwards. The rear attachments were in front and the front attachments were in the rear. I had to disassembly half of the bracket, rotate it 180 degrees and reassemble. Now everything lines line, kinda. Some of the holes still have to be opened up.



You do sit higher, much higher. It is tough getting in and out. The visor is directly in my line of sight.

I did notice that a cross member on the bracket is sitting directly floor and the attachment flanges are in the air.

I am wondering if I can modify my stock brackets to fit. The holes don't align. I can add a new hole but have no way to get to a screw for installation. Can these tracks be taken apart? If so, how? If a drill a access hole through the front attachment flange of the stock track, with the structure be jeopardized?





[Modified by 69stingray, 8:45 PM 1/2/2003]

70PurpleLS7

I'm curious as to what you will think of the CR1's. I met a guy who had them installed in his RX7 and I wasn't impressed with the stability the seat offered. The bolsters around the shoulder didn't seem to offer much support and for the measurement the give in the booty area - seemed cramped.

Another guy came into the shop later that week with a set of SPARCO Milano's and just for giggles asked if he would mind me sitting in them. The difference was like night and day. Seats were very comfortable and the support was definately there. The 2x+ price tag is also there :(

Plus it seems like Milano have quite the variety of cars covered with their mounts. I was initially going to go with CR1's, but after sitting in both. Gotta go with the Milano's. Good Luck though, should look nice.

groovyjay

I think the seat looks great in there, much better than the stock seat. Anyways, I used Sparco's brackets to mount my seats and these brackets are as low as they come and the seats don't sit too high. I had to drill new holes to the floor pan to get the holes aligned, no biggie, and now they are perfect. Hope yours turns out even better when you got them properly installed. :cheers:

Mystery Machine

Those look GREAT! I was seriously considering the A4 (I think that's what they are called) seats by Corbeau but then I won an auction on Ebay for a new set of '87 seats. I had a tough time outting them in my '73 for many of the same reasons you cited...holes were mismatched, seat tracks were too high, etc. I ended up drilling 2 holes per side and using lock nuts on the underside to ensure that they were secure. I also took the made the seat a bit lower by removing a little bracket thingy that was on there. Now they fit very nicely but don't slide forward and back too easily but that's OK.

Yours look great so far! :cool:

Mark70

Hey Zach!
Looks like you ran into some of the same issues I did. After I opened the holes in the seat bracket, I slipped some washers under the front of the bracket to support is (since it sits up above the floorpan). I also looked at adapting the stock seat brackets, but elected against it only because I'm kinda lazy. It looked like the modifications were more work than I was willing to try. If you give it a shot, and the old brackets work better, let me know. I might get brave and try it myself.
I have to move the seat all the way back for ingress/egress, then I slide it forward to drive. I am looking for a tilt/tele steering wheel to help getting in and out. Initially, it felt kinda weird sitting higher, but now I'm used to it, and I really like the increased lateral support (the stock seats have none).
Keep us informed about your progress.

69stingray

I went with the A4's, I had ordered the CR1's. Corbeau warned me that the CR1's seat cushion is 1" higher, that would of made it impossible to get in and out of.

I did look at the Sparco's. There were at two different companies so I couldn't get a side by side comparison. I thought the CR1's felt better then the A4's and the Sparco's a little better then the CR1's, not 2x $ better for sure. It is all personal taste I guess.

My first impression of sitting higher was, AWESOME!, I always thought I sat kind low in the car (the shot seat cushions didn't help).

I think I am going to give modifying the OEM tracks a try, I have nothing to lose. It should be only a matter of drilling a couple holes and hopefully will allow the seats to sit a little lower.

69stingray

Well, I thought I was being clever. I took the orig. tracks and drilled a new hole such that they would align with the holes in my A4 seats. Got the tracks bolted to the seats and thought I was really close to God. Positioned the seats into the '69 and realized (after the fact) that the A4 attachment points for the tracks are inboard of the orig. What a bone-head. Back to the drawing board.

I think I have to take the '69 tracks and weld flanges in the inside. Then drill holes in these flanges for the A4 seats.

Other observations. From the bottom of the tracks to the seat attachment plane, the Corbeau tracks appear to be approx. 3/4" taller. In vehicle, the Corbeau tracks appear to be another 3/4" inch above the attachment surface of the floor due to the interference of the front cross member on the track. If I can get the orig. tracks to work, that should lower the front by 1.5"

69stingray

Noon: After taking some measurements and looking under the seats, this is what I have come up with. I have bought a piece of 1/2" metal from Home Depot and will assemble to the tracks per the sketch below. I will tell you the out come.



5:30 pm: Well, the drawing above is a little off. I will revised it and give everyone an update once I finish, I think it is going to work!


[Modified by 69stingray, 5:56 PM 1/4/2003]

69stingray

Here is the outcome:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=465803


[Modified by 69stingray, 7:15 PM 1/5/2003]

WashingtonRacer

I had the same problem with the A4's, I simply bolted the seat with the slider bracket only in place and went through the floor used 1/4 inch flat steel rods on the underside and bolted through that for added strength. The outcome was a height difference that I could not even notice, and a very rigid setup.

The A4's are ment to be a smaller framed seat, like a 34 inch waist max or something like that. But they really fit you like a glove when in them. gettin in and out of them is a bitch, but I think that same rule applies to any side bolstered racing seat. I think they are great seats.

Mark70

Hey Zach,
I clicked on your link, and it took me to the "New Post" page. I'd really like to see how your design looks. Plus, did it lower your seat? If it works for you, I'll probably try it myself. Thanks!
Mark

69stingray

Thats odd, not sure how I screwed that up, here you go:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=465803

DaveL82

I put OMP perfromance seats in my 80 and had height issues also. Since the 80 uses a metal floor it gave me a few options. I use the tracks that cam with them (Sparco type with FIA approved double locking seat track). Placed 3/4 inch spacer on front to raise seat (tilt back seat bottom). The rear mounting points ended up in the hollow area to give acces to the outside seat bel bolt. This let the seat tilt back and lower in the rear. The problem was that the inside does not have the hollow space. 5 minutes with the hammer allow the inside mount to set about 3/4 of an inch lower. I used a spcer in the hollow area on the outside to match the height. The seat goes back all the way and the seat bottome hits the carpet in the rear. This worked for me.

dave