Seat advice

[Outwest34au]

Hi guys,
long time no see.

Long ago it was nigh on impossible to get ADR compliant seats, the guy making them was unresponsive and my build ground to a halt.
I had a meltdown and went and bought a rusty yacht to throw all my money into.

I'm back on land now and determined to finish the blue money pit in my shed. It currently has autotechnica seats which didn't have the correct ADR tag but were VSB5 approved according to Tony.

Assuming these seats are not OK, would MX5 seats be suitable for engineering requirements? If so, do they need to be a particular year model?

What's your thoughts/ experiences?

[t walgamuth]

Its worth looking at. The pinch point is the front of the seats which angle out while the tunnel of the car angles in.

[stephen low]

I started with MX5 seats and as they are ADR'd you can use them.

In fact I narrowed mine 50mm to better fit the G-Force cockpit and had the leather skins professionally downsized so they looked the goods but forgot to tell the engineer all that.

These still didn't work for me, so after engineering I had Marty Govett at Kenmer make up a pair of seat frames he's had ADR approved for his kits.

I ended up with a narrowed version of his normal frame which I had upholstered into a traditional look seat, as shown below.

Raw frame in-situ



Traditional look non-adjustable bucket



The whole shooting match trimmed



These are a comfy seat I've had no issues with on long drives but this would also be related to the quality of the foam bolstering used.

Marty's down here in Victoria but any thing is do-able.

Good luck on the research!

[ssv ute]

I just got mine registered with seats from a 2014 Ford Festiva, no problems from inspectors or engineer. One suggestion i had was to remove Air Bag Tag on side of seat.

Richard

[xb-60]

Welcome back on land.

My seats came from PACE in Qld. They were supplied as bare aluminium 'buckets' and are ADR/registration compliant. Bare headrests (now padded and upholstered) were included.
I had the seats upholstered by local marine upholsterer. He did a nice job; comfortable too

Here they are....(headrests not shown in this pic)



Cheers!
Glen

[t walgamuth]

are the backs 90 degrees to the bottom?

[Outwest34au]

Originally Posted by ssv ute

I just got mine registered with seats from a 2014 Ford Festiva, no problems from inspectors or engineer. One suggestion i had was to remove Air Bag Tag on side of seat.

Richard

Are festiva seats a flat rail/base?

If so this is an option,

Thanks

[Outwest34au]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

are the backs 90 degrees to the bottom?

On my seats?
No. They tilt back on the recliner mechanism a bit before they hit the back wall.

[t walgamuth]

Thank you!

[BJ's Snake]

G'Day Gary

Welcome back!
Sold my Evans early in the year and kept the Pace.

Cheers
Brett

[Outwest34au]

@ stephen low.
Thanks for the input.

Was it necessary to narrow them to fit or was that personal preference?

Where I am we see not many newer cars at the wreckers so it's hard to go browse/ measure and compare.

[Outwest34au]

Originally Posted by BJ's Snake

G'Day Gary

Welcome back!
Sold my Evans early in the year and kept the Pace.

Cheers
Brett

Hiya Brett,
Is the pace roughly the same in the seat fitting area as the evens was?
I just rang them and waiting on more info. I was told they are drop into recess type, I have made a frame from 50 x 6mm flat that sits on the top of the chassis rails so I loose that seat tub effect.

[BJ's Snake]

I would have to measure the width between the tunnel and side panel but as a guess the Pace is wider.
Can measure later in the day if you want or maybe someone with a Pace can do it for you now. Glen is online.

[Outwest34au]

Originally Posted by BJ's Snake

I would have to measure the width between the tunnel and side panel but as a guess the Pace is wider.
Can measure later in the day if you want or maybe someone with a Pace can do it for you now. Glen is online.

Thanks Brett. Only do it if time permits.

One question I should have asked is, What year model car onwards do I need to make sure they are suitable. It's been so long I've forgotten more than I knew.

Local bloke has a mazda cx7 around 2007 in there. Just looking online they may have a suitable base to adapt.

[stephen low]

The narrowing in my case is to make them fit the oddly shaped G-Force cockpit. As was mentioned, you are battling the widening trans tunnel where the front / mid part of the seat would be but the G-Force also runs an elevated edge around the general cockpit area so you step up from a narrower floor footprint to a slightly wider area atop the lip.

Just makes seat set up in the G-Force a bit messy and limiting. This is about the only major gripe I have with this kit but the issue was overcome by a narrower seat profile. The seats measure 480mm at the rear of the seat / upright corner and the seat side rails spring out slightly to 490mm wide before narrowing again at the front.

Any current car seat is going to be able to pass engineering, the manufacturer did that at start of their car design process, you just need to find one that fits if you aren't going to modify them, and that's the good luck factor.

After the fact I reconsidered what car seats might have worked, some suggestions are seats from:

Suzuki Mighty Boy
Merc smart car
MX5
Original mini frames

But the answer is above I think, a set of PACE frames, even if these have to be narrowed should get you an engineered article to satisfy your build engineer.

All part of the wonderful research phase.

Will be keen to hear how you overcome this.

[Outwest34au]

Slowy,
My tunnel was wide but then removed and done in 3mm ally with 2 side pieces and a top cover. I gained a little space by being able to make the tunnel narrower which is probably why the autotechnica's fit in, albeit snug.

Looking back through old posts I found one referring to 03/03 which I interpreted to be that a seat from a vehicle with ADR compliance post Feb 2007 is ok. If I can confirm that these mazda seats in town might do for now.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by BJ's Snake

I would have to measure the width between the tunnel and side panel but as a guess the Pace is wider.
Can measure later in the day if you want or maybe someone with a Pace can do it for you now. Glen is online.

Gary, the minimum width measurement for the (PACE) seat fitment on my car - same as BJ's - is 460mm (see pic, where the carpet starts) ....and the width of my upholstered seat, at the base, is 400mm.
The seat easily clears the handbrake.




Cheers,
Glen

[Outwest34au]

Glen,
very decent of you to post that info and picture.

It helps me avoid costly mistakes.

[xb-60]

Easy. Any time!

[ssv ute]

Originally Posted by Outwest34au

Are festiva seats a flat rail/base?

If so this is an option,

Thanks

I had to remove the rails and cut down base a fair bit and make some mounts for 50x50 angle. Without modification seats would've been way to high.

Richard