Need help with seat selection

[Puchi]

I'm looking into getting into autocross, and one of the more prominent rules is that you have to have a helmet. While I have no quarrel with this rule, my head does. I have a 90 coupe and I need to increase the amount of headroom that I have by lowering where my posterior rests. That way I can keep my driving posture pretty much the same, and be able to safely wear a helmet. I'd prefer not to spend a gazillion dollars on a seat. I'd appreciate any suggestions on my seating dilemma. Thanks!

[r34 gtr]

how tall are you? ive got a corbeau forza drivers seat and while i have no chance of getting a helmet on where i usually sit (im about 5' 9", not particularly tall) my dad has about 50 feet of headroom (he's 6' 4"). this is on the corbeau 240sx rail too. total shipped was about 320 bucks for the seat and rail. by the way, its FIA approved nomex fabric and its a really solid, well built seat that holds me in like theres no tomorrow.

- tim

[Puchi]

I'm 6'2, I normally sit with almost all of my back against the seat, with a moderate recline. I have the problem of being long legged. If he's 6'4 and can fit, I might be able to as well.

[tex240]

is that forza comfortable enough for daily use and what about the lumber support?

[USsil80]

i have the corbeau a4 they are the most comfy thing ever.... they fit pretty good into the 240 too... i am 6' mild build and i fit fine... the seats need brakets though..just post anything if you have any questions.. might be able to hook you up too on corbeaus couse my good freinds dad is a distributer for them ... thats were i got mine

[Puchi]

USsil80 where in MD are you?

[USsil80]

ocean city

[Puchi]

Cool, I'm in annapolis. Too bad you're not a little closer. I'd ask if I could test your seat.......... I couldn't think of any way to say that without sounding either retarded or perverted.

[USsil80]

no prob .. i would let you... but it would only be a seat test car parked for sr swap that is going on

[USsil80]

but if you are 6'2 the braket may be a little tall... i almost hit my head and i have a sunroof..you would have to custum make any braket with after maket seats couse you would sit to high... i am thinking about doing it just soo i can sit lower in the car

[Puchi]

Fun, so I gotta find someone that can do custom brackets, and install the seat...... that probably won't be cheap. I smack my head on the side of the sunroof as is. How is your dad able to fit in his?

[USsil80]

How is your dad able to fit in his?

huhhhh???????????

[Puchi]

:fried:

oops that was someone else's post that mentioned their dad, my bad.

[tex240]

did you get the corbeau brackets and how high do the sit. i dont want my legs hitting the wheel. i am only like 5'8" or so. im short just do want to feel like sitting in a truck

[chmercer]

corbeau / sparco brackets are going to substantially increase the seat height in 240s i have heard. bride / jdm recaro / jic magic / etc etc brackets move the rail away from the floor hump so that it can mount closer to the floor. I have been looking for a cheap way to mount my seat but it looks like im going to have to shell out 150$ for some jdm brackets, either that or gut the headliner lol.

[USsil80]

yea you sit really high...... i might just bolt the seat to the floor and say haahah i can't move my seat...

[Puchi]

I'm considering a floor bolting, screw the other people that want to drive my car

[tex240]

where can you find the jdm brackets for sale. i havent seen any

[dareo]

Would it be possible to take out the 240sx seats, remove whatever mounting stuff they use and McGyver it onto new seats? i would think the existing mounting stuff would be the best. i havent taken the time to pull out a seat and really check it out though.

[chmercer]

thats what i have done with my current aftermarket seat. its pretty ghetto and i wouldnt reccomend anyone else doing it. but it is good enough to last me until i get my new seat. im sure a machine shop or somthing could do a lot better than i did however.

[USsil80]

yea the only thing about bolting it to the floor is the thing that SCC ran into..you have to weld in brackets couse the floor you will crush it

[chmercer]

if you had a welder you could actually do a very nice bracket with the stock brackets. i ran into problems because the bolts that i was using started to run into stuff and i couldnt optimally position the bracket. if you welded it there would be no excess material and you could actually line it up correctly. the problem with my ghetto bracket that i am currently using is that the seat is like 5 degrees away from being perfectly level, because the rail that attaches to the side with the floor hump is slightly higher up.

[tex240]

do you mean weld it to the car or weld the bracket. i have access to a welder so if you have any pictures of what you are talking about that would be helpfull

[chmercer]

i dont really want to take the seat off right now to take pics but i can try my best to explain it. this is for an s14, but i think all the s chassis are the same. my seat that i did this for is a bottom mount seat BTW.

when you take the seat off, the side closest to the door is top mount, and the side closest to the ebrake is sidemount. what i did was get an L shaped steel bar and bolted it on lenghtwise along the side mount rail, and then drilled holes in the other leg of the L. Off of these holes, i had to get some more metal bars to extend over to the seat holes, because my aftermarket seat is narrower than the stock brackets. then i screwed the seat into these 2 inch extender bar things. for fhe side that is closest to the door, this rail is top mount to begin with, so there is no need to make the L bracket thing. I just drilled out the correct distance holes in the stock sliders and did the extender bar thing again and screwed the seat into these, as i did on the other side. another problem with the nuts and bolts is that if you are screwing into the slider, the bottom part of the bolt will hit on the roller in the slider, removing some of your rear sliding distance, but its only like 3 clicks worth.

it sounds pretty good, but the problem is that the side mount rail screws into the stock seat in a higher position than the bottom mount rail, so for me i ran out of room for my screws and bolts when i was drilling the L bracket for the side mount rail. you might not have this problem because welding stuff dosent require bulky nuts and bolts. for me to get the seat level, i had to stack a bunch of washers on the bolts going into the rail closest to the door, to raise it up so that it would be more or less level with the higher side mount rail that was adapted for top mount.

lets see if i can draw this with the keyboard

............ __________...........|.....................| ...........|.....................| ...........|......seat........|.....this would be if you are looking through ...........|.....................|.....the front windshield............|.....................| ...........|.....................| ...........|__________ |

........___....................___...............extender bars.........._.........|.............................................L bracket......_|_.......................__.................stock rails

on the picture where i have the L bracket drawn, it actually bolts into the side of the rail beneath it but i couldnt draw it like that. the periods are there to preserve spacing and have no meaning.

hope this helped somone make a good seat rail for cheap!