body and interior Recaro Question

[max210]

So I'm a bit confused about mounting E21 recaros in the 02. I've found a few seats for sale but a majority of them say they don't have the brackets/rails/sliders. Brackets, rails and sliders meaning the same thing? For those seats that lack the brackets/rails/sliders, can I just reuse the ones from my 02 without modifying anything or buying anything else?

 

[hanksjim1]

Most folks use the E21 brackets for installation into the 2002.  Lots of posts on this.  If the seats don't come with them, you can find them used.  You can put in a parts wanted ad or buy them from Aardvark.

[max210]

Most folks use the E21 brackets for installation into the 2002.  Lots of posts on this.  If the seats don't come with them, you can find them used.  You can put in a parts wanted ad or buy them from Aardvark.

So there is no way to mount the seats without the E21 brackets? What do the rest of the folks do?

Edited June 12, 2013 by max210

[Chamonix72]

I took my stock seat rails and bolted them to the E21 seats. From there, right to the stock brackets. You're a tad off-center, but not too bad.

[thehackmechanic]

To be clear about this, every Recaro seat (at least every one I've ever seen) has the mounting holes 16" apart side-to-side. To mount them into a specific car, you then need to buy or make the specific brackets that adapt it to the bolt pattern on the floor of that car. There's nothing unique about the bolt pattern of E21 Recaros -- they're just Recaros with 16"-spaced mounting holes. I've bought Recaro Trophy seats from VWs that have power bases, and when you unbolt the power bases, those holes are still 16" apart.

 

It just happens that, since E21s had Recaros and since the bolt pattern of an E21 seat is is the same as a 2002 seat, that there was a BMW adapter bracket for the E21 that also works on the 2002. As the previous poster referred to, if you look on http://www.2002parts.com/bmw/recaro-seat-parts/rec-bracket-02.html, you'll see that Dave Varco at Aardvarc is currently selling his own adapters.

 

When I wanted to put Recaros in my 3.0CSi (E9), there was no commercially available adapter, so I made my own out of plate aluminum. It's pretty easy; you just need to carefully measure the bolt pattern on the Recaros, the bolt pattern on your seats, and split the difference. Dave now sells home-rolled E9 brackets as well.

[tashakes]

I took my stock seat rails and bolted them to the E21 seats. From there, right to the stock brackets. You're a tad off-center, but not too bad.

+1, I did this as well, why spend unnecessary $$$?