Question for those of you with aftermarket / different seats... help!

[AZhitman]

Feeling like a doofus for asking this, but here goes:

 

For those of you who have retrofitted different seats into your Dime, what did you do about the brace across the floor (that the front seat bolts go through)?

 

I'd like to avoid having my seats 5" off the floor... :)

[DAT510]

Rather than modding the dime, I welded metal plates to the seat, and welded threaded studs onto the plates and just bolted it on. with the stock black braces that run long ways

[Cmac]

2006 and older Evo seats bolt in right on top of the factory mounts. you need to re drill the rear hole on the slider and thats it.

[Just Joel]

Yeah, my recaros are mounted on top of the factory floor brackets. Mounted any lower, it would be far to short for a normal driving position (unless your seven foot tall ;) )

 

Later

Joel

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

I had all new brackets put in... but I'm 6'4" so I basically have to sit in the back seat of the car to drive it anyways.

 

I had the bulkhead taken out completely, and then had bars welded in from the tranny tunnel to the door sills. There are nuts welded to the bars for the seats to screw into. It's kind of an all out approach but now all I have to do to fit any seat in there is make some steel plates and drill holes in those. They also sit about an inch lower than the stock seat rails.

[AZhitman]

Hmmm... Maybe I should ask this instead:

 

How "structural" is that piece? If I were to cut the majority of it out (leaving about 1" all the way around), would it compromise structural integrity?

 

I'm using BMW E30 seats, by the way.

[datsunwizard]

Why don't you contact Okayfine on the 510Realm, he has installed the same seats in the "Whitebird" and see how he did it?

[AZhitman]

Think I have a solution...

 

After some test-fitting, I'm mounting the seats right behind the cross-brace. I had to remove the BMW lever for fore/aft adjustment, but fortunately, that lever just actuates another lever on the side of the seat.

 

Cut off the old lever, shorten it, weld it to the side lever, and *voila*! The seats slide back and forth easily.

 

A couple 240Z plastic spacers to "level out" the seats on the 510's floor and I should be good to go.

 

I'll post up oics once they're done... this project has taken me WAY longer than I planned. :)

[INDY510]

.

I'm missing pieces of my rocker panel, and cut out the whole front floor ... . everything was solid until I cut out the seat cross-brace

 

heard a "pop" ... now the rocker panel moves,,, and any weight on the floor makes the whole car bend... so yeah that cross-brace is VERY structural

[AZhitman]

Good to know.

 

Makes me kinda wish I didn't already have a fairly complete interior.... would be nice to brace the floors even further.

 

Amazing how thin the floor pan steel is on this car compared to all my other Datsuns.