Optimum Seat Swap Question.

[Earthcruiser]

I've recently read that swapping out seats will increase the driving pleasure of the Z. Currently, I have original seats reupolstered in a cloth by the PO. They are nice, but are a bad color. What is you experiance in swapping of seats in your 240z? The good? The Bad? The Ugly? Problems w/ rails? etc...

[psdenno]

If you check the previous posts on the subject, you'll see that the degree of difficulty runs from about 1-11 on a 1-10 scale.

I'm in the process of putting BMW seats in my '71 and it requires quite a bit of fabrication to mate the stock seat rails to the seat. The passenger seat is in and I'm working on the driver's side. In my case, no welding needed - just lots of measuring, drilling, and bolting things together.

Dennis

[Walter Moore]

The DAD "racing" seats that I bought on Ebay bolted straight in with no modifications. That being said, they aren't the optimum choice for long distance touring. In fact I doubt that they are more comfortable than stock seats. They were just a lot cheaper than rebuilding the OEM seats.

[back-to-zcars]

I'm in the process of putting BMW seats in my '71

Dennis

Do you have any pic's of your install, and what BMW did your seats come from?

I just got Z3 M seats for my 72, (I had read on the other site that they needed some fab to fit in) when I tried a test fit My head was on the roof and I could hardly get into the car.

Dave

Edited March 28, 2010 by back-to-zcars
I can't spell.

[vercingetorix]

I've read on several places that Miata seats work well without much hassle and have headrest speakers to boot I finally settled on rebuilding the stock seats and really find them comfortable after they were fixed.

[TBone028]

I have miata seats in my 240Z without the headrest speakers. They fit perfectly and look perfectly in place in my Z. The only thing I would change is possibly re-covering them in leather. Only real modifications required are drilling new holes into the existing miata rails.

[psdenno]

Do you have any pic's of your install, and what BMW did your seats come from?

I just got Z3 M seats for my 72, (I had read on the other site that they needed some fab to fit in) when I tried a test fit My head was on the roof and I could hardly get into the car.

Dave

Here's a link to pictures of the seats before installation. You'll also see a diagram of the bracket needed to attach Z seat rails. I'll post pictures of the process after I install the driver's seat.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/album.php?albumid=174

The basic procedure is to remove the BMW seat rails and construct a frame that allows the Z rails to fit tightly against the bottom of the seat cushion. Each new frame requires 3' of angle iron and about 7' of 2" steel bar stock along with an assortment of grade 8 nuts & bolts.

Only the passenger seat is currently installed and offers ample headroom for my six foot tall son. The Z and I are currently slightly stranded 100 miles from home with a transmission issue. Hope to be home by the weekend.

Dennis

[John Coffey]

Having installed dozens of different seats in S30s, here are some tips:

1. Carefully check the stock seat mounts to make sure there is no rust, no cracking (the front mounts are very crack prone), no extra holes already drilled, and the factory spot welds are still good.

2. Reinforce the front seat mount to prevent cracking by welding some .063" sheet metal across the top and re-drilling the mounting holes.

3. Reinforce the front seat mount by closing off the front and making the "L" into a box. Make sure to leave openings so you can install and tighten nuts onto the seat rail studs.

4. Reinforce the rear seat mounts by adding some .063" sheet metal across the top pad and redrill the mounting holes.

5. Seam weld the stock seat mounts to the floor pan.

[zKars]

Lots of seats can "fit", but relatively few have the right shape to allow them to fit back far enough due to interference with either the wheel well, or whether the upright part of the new seat is above the raised area behind the seat, allowing it to go all the way back while the bum cushion is still in front of that area.

Optimal mounting height is determined by whether you can build thin enough (and safe enough, see John's comments above) adapter bracketing between the existing floor rails and the new seats, or if you have to remove or modify the existing floor rails to allow you to mount the seat low enough for your comfort if you are in the 5'10" and up group.

With a 72, at least you don't have the drivers side "hump" in the tunnel that 280's do either for cat or resonator clearance, which further limits which seats are narrow enough.

There have lots of topics about this, do a bit of hunting and searching and you'll see what others have done and what seats are common upgrades.

Jim

[lubu]

Ive just installed 300zx powered seats in my s30 and I must say they are very comfortable. The brackets however, are different for driver's and passenger's so don't make the mistake and duplicate (ask me how I know) other than that they fit fine. Also remember to use high tensile bolts for the brackets and the mounts.