Fitting aftermarket seats experience

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
Finally got round to fitting the Corbeau Carreras to the R over the past few days and after doing the passenger side I'm slightly dissapointed at the moment.

After doing all my searches before I saw the options as buy some aftermarket ones that apparently make the seat too high or cut and shut the existing runners. Fortunately My Father in law is an excellent welder so I went for option 2.

The job sounded easy, remove seats, cut this weld that so we gave it 4hours per seat as an estimate and started Saturday morning. We spent the first 2 hours looking at it saying that's not going to work whilst he was winding me saying "What exactly did you read on the internet".

The runners had to be unbolted from the Nissan seats but when we put them in the car we saw each side was of a different design so it was not possible just to brace across and sit the seat on. The inside front needed to be extended 40mm and IIRC the front outside needed 20mm. The shape of the bulkhead bulges in all the wrong places too so there are limited options available.

Add to this the inside runner was 30mm higher and much scratching of heads ensued.

To cut a long story short, after 4 hours we came up with a solid design that would brace across the two runners so it would be self supporting and put the base 8mm above the OE runners for clearance of the mechanism.

The F-in-L made up the parts and we fitted them last night. With him being a perfectionist and wanting to get everything correct in all directions we took 4 hours to fit the parts. Once we fitted the passenger seat we found like everyone else's they are quite high up. Worse than that, if I do the driver's seat I thought my hands will catch on steering wheel. Also there is no room for a helmet now whilst seated in a proper driving position.

At that point we called it a night but when back at my garage, I noticed:

Given the constraints of the bulkhead, to have a sliding seat you could only get the seat down another inch at the back and next to nothing at the front whether you're Nismo, Bride or whoever else IF you use the standard mounting points. I could get a fixed seat nice and low but then only I could ever drive the car. For a road car this is not an option.

The seat is not as bad as it looks, my front pad on the Corbeau is 1" higher from the floor than the OE seats and given the pads the mounting difference is negligble. The seats are just bigger all round.

The Nissan seats do concave in the base but the foam is also half as thick. The front thigh pad on the Corbeau is 4" thick whilst on the OE seats its half that. I noticed the spring bracing underneath the seat that supports the foam could be cut out to bring the foam down two inches.

Another option is to dismantle the cover and cut the foam out (That I read someone else has done) but I'm not so keen on this as the seats might look funny and be much less comfy.

Final option is to sell the seats and buy a thiner lighter fixed back seat to make up for the 3Kg's my F-in-L added to the weight of the runners by making "sure its going no where" :roll:

Making the seat base go concave is my favourite option at the mo but other peoples thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers,
Jim
 
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AJ4

Guest
I had the same problem, I've only got cheapy Cobra's though. I couldn't mate them up to the original runners so I coughed up and bought the aftermarket gtir runners for the seats. The seats were way too high and way to back, couldn't reach the pedals :oops:

I had to cut the runners all over the place and weld in a new crossmember to support the back of the seat. The seat is fixed in position now but at least I can reach the pedals :D.

You know that crossmember at the front of the seat on the floor pan ? My seats are now sitting on it, so they are as low as they can go, and my head still touches the roof ( I'm 5'8 ) :(

If you look at the Nissan seats, there are kinda like a bucket where your ass is nearly on the floor, but aftermarket seats are flat based :evil:
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
Cheers for the comments Ross, I didn't think it was just me.

AJ4 said:
You know that crossmember at the front of the seat on the floor pan ? My seats are now sitting on it, so they are as low as they can go, and my head still touches the roof ( I'm 5'8 ) :(
:shock:


I've solved the steering wheel knee rubbing problem since I posted by buying one of these :

http://silverimageracing.com/pd_spw_quick.cfm

This adds 6cm to the reach and in turn a couple cm to the height. Was looking in to buying just a spacer but whichever way I did it it was £60 :shock: :shock: and this also comes with a security/meet gimic 8) . The advantage regardless of the seats is it will improve my driving position as I was always too close for the pedals with the wheel in the right place.

For the head nearly touching roof problem, the more I think about it, my plan is to make the seat bucket more underneath. The Corbeau Carrera uses wire underneath that ultimately takes the load of the person. If I cut these off and my a**e doesn't fall though the subframe its done, otherwise I'll have to weld them to the subframe and see where I sit. If that doesn't work its attacking the seat foam time :(

Once the R is finished, my next hobby will be beating myself with birch twigs as it will be less painful.

Jim
 

c20ona

Member
Don't know if he still kicks about these forms but i got a custom set of frames made up for my seats about 3 or 4 + years ago from a bloke called Martin Bell (gtir yahoo form). They weight absolutely nothing yet strong as feck !.
Cost 40.00 for the set, and seating position perfecto etc.
If anyone knows him, worth giving him a shout.

Regards

Kenny
 
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GTI-R Kid

Guest
Don't Cobra do special subframes for the GTI-R? I remember reading somewhere that they were developed with the help of Adrian Cash?

Might be helpful for someone.
 
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AJ4

Guest
GTI-R Kid said:
Don't Cobra do special subframes for the GTI-R?
Yeah, thats the ones I've got that I had to cut and reweld. They are designed for people with midget top halfs and 6 foot long legs :(

Like said above, the standard seat sits inside the mounting frame, aftermarket seats sit on top of the frame so your head bangs on the roof. Because they sit so high, you have to put them really far back so your knees don't hit the steering wheel... and then you can't reach the pedals :evil:

I'm only a shortarse as well, god knows how some of you lanky feckers cope with it :shock:
 
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GTI-R Kid

Guest
Oh dear. Looks like i might have to expand my search so for replacement seats and frames then - i'm 6'0" :shock: :oops:
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
All is not lost. Thanks for the tip Kenny, I imagine the custom frames I've got are similar (Except heavy :oops: ) as they can't physically go any lower so aren't as bad as they look.

The seats are the problem. My passenger seat look massive and really high compared to the OE drivers seat.

I attacked the base tonight and took out the bottom retaining springs so the base could sag a little more. When I sat in them again, my head felt too high and I could only get 3 fingers (very technical :oops: ) between my head and the lining. In the OE seat I can get and extra little finger (about 12mm). So although I might look like I'm sat on a platform, If I take the 8mm addition to the base off to clear the runners, the seat cushion has raised me up less than a cm.

The front of the Corbeau seat has a 4" pad that raises your leags off the floor and give the impression the seat is really high up. With my $80 steering wheel extension this won't be a technical problem. Next job is to get the driver seat in and when I have time in the future I'll sort out the base.

When I get my act together I'll try to post some pics.

Thanks for all the feedback.
Jim
 

Aimee

Moderators
Staff member
Hmmm there goes my idea of getting some bucket seats for the R.

Jim tell me how it goes and we'll have a badger at the seats next time at mascrat when theyre done, im interested to see and know how much hassle it is to do. i prefer the standard seats but ant doesnt :roll: ! lol

Aimee :D
 
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stevenrsturbo@aol.com

Guest
i know what you are saying, i m 6 foot 3 and have put some cobra monacos in ????

i am use to them now but i had to adapt my seating position or open the sun roof,, :D :D

i would say the PROS ( LOOKS, COMFORT,) etc out weigh the cons .
though tbh
 

Aimee

Moderators
Staff member
Me and the partner arnt exactly giants so we might get away with it, but i dont want the seats to be hitting the roof.....that would peck my head! :roll: lol

Aimee
 

paz

Active Member
AVH_25 said:
Me and the partner arnt exactly giants so we might get away with it, but i dont want the seats to be hitting the roof.....that would peck my head! :roll: lol

Aimee
PMSL, aren't exactly giants.... Munchkins might be a better description :lol: :p

Paz
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
Hi Amiee,

with a following wind I should have the seats all fitted for next time so you can have a look and sit in if you want. (Does that mean I have to clean my car next time :oops: )

TBH, the top of the seat is only an inch higher than standard and the front of the base is definately only inch. (Checked with spirit levels and tape measures :D )

They deceptivley look much higher than they are.

Jim
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
stevenrsturbo@aol.com said:
i know what you are saying, i m 6 foot 3 and have put some cobra monacos in ????

i am use to them now but i had to adapt my seating position or open the sun roof,, :D :D
:shock: :lol: :shock: :lol: Good effort !!
 

BenD

New Member
Ive got a corbeau revolution with sidemounts.

i am seriously considering chopping the side mounts around the 'lump' on the drivers side flor, and also shaped around the cross member, then welding the mounts to the floor. i cant be arsssed to feck about with std/cobra runners, like you say, they are waaay to high anyway :evil:
 

mattygti-r

New Member
dont take this the wrong way

but i dont see why people bother going to that extreme when fitting seats

ive aftermarket seats on my R

BRIDE seat rail, and a Recline BRIX seat, to take the old seat and replace took about 15mins, job done

im 6.1ft and ive plenty of room in the R,

the seat fits perfectly, so does the rail
 

paz

Active Member
Because they want after market seats and don't want to pay extortionate prices for Brides. Simple as that.

Paz
 

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
mattygti-r said:
dont take this the wrong way

but i dont see why people bother going to that extreme when fitting seats

ive aftermarket seats on my R

BRIDE seat rail, and a Recline BRIX seat, to take the old seat and replace took about 15mins, job done

im 6.1ft and ive plenty of room in the R,

the seat fits perfectly, so does the rail
What's the clearance between the floor and the seat base at the front? I'm interested to know if Bride/Nismo have been able to create a lower base or not. IIRC, the mofidifed runners put the seat about 15cm above the floor.
I can check that later
Jim
 
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blugtirboy

Guest
i've got honda integra type r recliners in my R and have the same problem
everybody's described with them being a bit high ,saw a pair of similiar
recaro's for sale the other day (megamodz if anyone's interested) but they had what looked like professionally made subframes with a part number on them but no maker ,when i brought my seats i phoned recaro
and asked them if i could buy a recaro gti-r subframe and they said they didn't do one so does anybody know who could have made this subframe

if anybody's at pts tommorrow and want's to try sitting in them just ask :D

also if anybody would like a pair of red type r seats i know where there
is a pair for £650 ,PM me if interested :D
 

Nad

Active Member
I take it this issue is only with recliners on sliding rails and not with buckets on fixed mounts??

Nad
 
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