Seat Mounting

I asked this a year ago but thought I'd ask again to clarify and see if any new ideas have come up.

With current rules, when mounting an FIA seat, how are people mounting them? I am considering building a frame that is attached to lowest door bar, then across to the tunnel and in the rear attached to lower main hoop cross bar. Then attaching side mounts to this frame and seat to mounts. I'm planning to use 1 in. sq. tubing.

I would be interested to hear what others have done and pictures would be awesome.

Thanks,
Rory

no pictures handy but that's actually the type of dsign the rules are trying to encourage now. notice that there are no restrictions on cage attachment points if they are part of the seat mounting - use this to your advantage as a cage mechanism AND a strong seat mount.

I still found it easier to bolt my seat in, as the tunnel in my car is very high and access to the side bolds is limitted. don't have photos handy but I attach the mounting brackets to the seat, then the assembly to the seat mounting frame. that frame or "cage extension" is made of 2x1 box tube, in a square laid on the floor and stitch welded to it, with legs up to the cage at the door bar and main hoop. the interior is attached to the tunnell with reinforcement plate simillar to a cage foot plate. holes are drilled from the top down for the bracket bolts, then enlarged from the bottom and a thin tube tack welded in to fill the hole. so I'm only bolting accross one wall of the tube which keeps the floor from having threaded protrusions all over it and the tube from being squished. I use allen head bolts from the bottom and nuts up top, the rears are tacked to the seat mounts, the fronts I can reach so they are nylocks. hope this gives you some ideas. I'm pretty happy with my seat mount, nice and low and, I believe, strong.

Thanks Chip. Almost exactly what I had in mind. Now I just have to get it (and the cage) finished.

Rory

You would have to go below the floor plane with that frame in order to get the driver positioned lower--unless we are dealing with a jockey-sized driver.


Kind of tough to figure out, but when in doubt, try and locate near stock oem position. I like to mod the tunnel but only to accommodate the seat and not its mounting.

I think he is saying the tunnel prevents him from getting to the bolts on the sides of the seat, so he mount the seat to the side mounts first, and then attaches the side mounts to the frame, through the holes in the floor of the car.

I am expecting a similar arrangement for my seat.

I "massaged" the tunnel on my last build with some nice surgical moves.

both - actually. I have the radius at the base of the tunnel sliced to allow said frame, and do use the brackets to seat before seat into car assembly order.

the seat is rediculously low this way, the 1" of framing added tot he car puts the seat bracket bases lower than the stock seat mounts and the seat is low in those brackets. I can just barely squeeze my skinny arms under the seat from about halfwat back, not enough to do anything but grab belt webbing and the like. I'm 6'4", mostly legs and arms but still have a longer than average torso, and with helmet I have 4-5" of headroom in an AW11 MR2.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chip42

...... with legs up to the cage at the door bar and main hoop. .

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Chip - When you do this, do you simply butt a piece to the end of the tube across the floor at whatever angle is appropriate (i.e. 60 deg) and up to the cage?

You CAN do that and it is compliant to the regs, but it would be stronger to bend the tubing used to make the floor section to come up to the door bars. Because mine was a bit scabbed together, I did the former, but it's gussetted and all that to keep it strong.

Got it - Thanks. If I could make up my mind what kind of seat to get I'd get this done. I'm still debating myself - "aluminum or fiberglass....?"