Need some help: bottom mount seats vs side mount

[ZiG]

So I've decided it's time to replace my broken leather drivers seat, but I'm really unsure what to get.

First of all, what are you all running, and what do you think of it? Is anyone here using a bottom mount of any kind in their s13?

And for those of you that have buckets, how often do you wish they would recline and why (to throw something in the back seat, let people get in the back, want to stare at the stars through your sunroof, etc)?

I'm having some problems deciding on what I want. I'm not a big guy (5'8", 130 lbs, 34 waist and dont know about my shoulders), but I get the feeling any bottom mount recliner is going to sit at least an inch higher than a stock seat, and as it is, my head is only like 1-1/2" from the roof. Is that a fair assumption? Do they even make side mount recliners? I haven't seen any.

[onosqv]

The only side mount recliner I've seen is the Bride Gias (or something like that), you are looking at $1500-1750 per seat!

The only issue most people have w/ bottom mount is that it raises the sitting position. With the vert, should not be much of a problem most of the time.

What you have to consider is what you will be doing with this car. If it's all daily driver, definitely look into reclinable or another stock seat (s14, s15, r32, whatever).

With sidemount seats, things start getting a little hairy since you should technically be running a harness with those, which then you have to mount correctly & possibly consider getting a rollbar. Of course, most people don't bother w/ the bar, or even the harness in some cases.

I can no longer recline w/ the top down and just look @ the stars, the price you pay for a daily driver/weekend track monster.

[ZiG]

Yeah, I just found out about the gias shortly after posting this.. My problem is that if I get raised up more than just a hair, I'll have problems with hitting my head (coupe's got a sunroof).

I'm leaning toward something like the Bride zeta III sport right now.. The car is a daily driver though. Why did you say I should technically be running a harness with that? I think if I unbolt the bottom mount for the belt and feed it through the harness holes on the sides of the seat, I'd be fine.. right?

Well thanks for the info. If all else fails, I guess I'll mod it to accept r32 seats.

[onosqv]

Sorry about that! I had thought I was in the convertible sub-forum for a while! hahahaha.

My coupe also has a sunroof & I almost hit the headliner (actually, I can hit the headliner if I sit upright 90 degrees). The vert has PLENTY of room, he he. Sidemount is the only way to go for coupe w/ sunroof.

For the harness, you should run one because the stock seatbelt harness no longer holds you the way it should since you are oriented differently. In the event of an accident/crash, a stock harness may not help at all.

You'll notice it when you install or sit in a full bucket in a car.

If you are set on reclinable. You may want to look into the old Bride Brix I. Those are bottom mount, reclinable, and sit very very close to stock height. However, they are also rare (the new brix ii is bleh, most people don't like the way the new one sits).

Another thing you can do is to get bottom mount & drill the seat directly to the bracket. This elminates the slider portion. Won't be able to adjust sliding for other people to drive, but you'll save another 1/2" right there. That's what I originally did w/ my bottom mount.

With some seats, there's a lot of seat cushion, and you can take that out and remove some of the cushion to give yourself another .XX" room of clearance.

[ZiG]

Haha, no worries. I was wondering why you were talking about verts..

Good points about the harness. I guess I'll have to factor that in to the cost now..

I'm not set on reclinable, but I'll see if I can find a brix 1 all the same.

Thanks for all the help. Mucho appreciated.

[TRBOMOFO]

use the search button i got a topic on this with about what to do with the seats and the height issue

i havent gone into different seats try to get the side seat brackets

[ZiG]

I read your topic, didn't help me much. And I really don't like your line of thinking on the hump (see my response in that thread). And suprisingly, not much else popped up.