Back in the mid to late 80's. I mounted a set of the BMW recaro's in my 72 and as I recall, it really wasn't all that difficult. (Sorry, no digital camera's back then)

Using 2 flat pieces of steel (1/4" x 2 or 3" x ?/Forgot length) I laid them out and moved them around on the underside of the recaro's until they were in such a position that would allow them to be bolted to the frame of the recaro and yet have available space for holes to be drilled in them to accept the Z's rails (just take mearurements of the holes that the Z's rails fit into on the underside of the Z seats and transfer those to the plates for your drilling points, as I think they're different from the measurements of the floor mounting points.)

Don't know if this will help much, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Happy Motoring!

<SNIP>

Don't know if this will help much, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Happy Motoring!

Good pointers! Thanks! Next I have to see about how to bolt the steel runners to the seat frame without having to deconstruct the seat & upholstery. Thanks, again.

Dennis

Good pointers! Thanks! Next I have to see about how to bolt the steel runners to the seat frame without having to deconstruct the seat & upholstery. Thanks, again.

Dennis

Can you post some underside pic's of the seats you want to install?

Ok, I am actually getting on this right now!

here are two pics ot the setup.

1 is the bottom of an E31 seat with the OEM rails and adjustment hardware removed.

The other is a set of 240Z rails jigged by setting them in the seat mounts and then braced with some strap to keep them in position while I work out where to mount the rails to the seat.

Time to put the boys to bed, I'll be back in a few to continue.

Will

Edited July 10, 200915 yr by hls30.com

The paper laying on the seat is the tag receipt from the car I took the black motorized seats from-that way I know what car these seats were in, and have the VIN. The Black motorized seat is holding the seat pictured in the position it is in-so you can't see it at the moment!

I'll see about using this thread to get all the pictures sorted out and the crux of the Technical article sorted out.

Pictures of both seats-the black is an unmolested fully powered passenger seat the tan drivers side seat is a fully manual seat with the tracks removed-are here. I'll take some pictures of both of the passenger sides and drivers sides with cooresponding factory Z seats after everyone goes to bed and I can run to the trailer unencumbered with little boys!

I'll also take and post measurements at that time.

Well, the rain is starting again, so I will be waiting on most of the other pictures, but I have a set of Z seats in the Florida room (that is a Jalousie porch for those that don't know). As soon as the boys are asleep, I'll bring a Z seat in and proceed with more pictures and measurements.

Will

Pictures of the Z seat beside the Manual E31

Will

Quick over all Measurements Z vs E31.

Measurements include all knobs/covers!

Widest part od thew seat bottom

Z..... 21"

E31.. 21"

Overall width at hinge(includes covers and knobs)

Z..... 20"

E31.. 20.5"

Length of Seat bottom

Z..... 22"

E31.. 21"

Width of seatback-including knobs/covers

Z..... 19"

E31.. 21"

Length of seatback

Z..... 29"

E31.. 30"

Thickness of the butt support (rear to front)-unladen, no mounting rails!

Z..... 4.5"-5.5"

E31.. 3.5-7"

Thickness of Z rails 13/16"

Will

Contact cygnusx1 over at hybridz. He has them in his car and they look absolutely beautiful.

Joe

Contact cygnusx1 over at hybridz. He has them in his car and they look absolutely beautiful.

Joe

Did that a couple months ago. On June 14th he said that he'd pull a seat and take some pictures of the mounting set-up when he had time. I look forward to seeing the pictures when he has the time.

Dennis

While they say you can't bring back the dead, I'm going to try to pump life back into this thread since I've seen a couple other forum members pondering BMW seats in a Z.

I've posted pictures of the seat frame I fabricated that enabled me to use stock Z seat rails with BMW seats. No welding required. The frame is made of angle iron and flat stock and bolted together with Grade 8 hardware.

Here's a link to pictures:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/album.php?albumid=357

The factory mounting points on the floor risers are still used, but to secure strips of flat stock running front to back. Because the style of the seat differs from the stock Z seat, the seat adjusting rails bolt to the flat stock that stretches across the original riser mount points and extends several inches rearward. This allows the factory rail mounting bolts to mount several inches rearward from their original mount points.

Dennis