E30 Sport Seat woes

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/talkshop/forum/messages/73005.html

So I got the E30 sport seats from the Pick N Pull, along with the matching rear seat. I have two problems.

Number one is that the front seats are off center. I was following the "no weld" thread at the link above. I removed all of the old sheet metal that the seats are supposed to mount to. Now when I put the seats in to mark the holes for the bolts the drivers seat (and passengers seat) is too far towards the outside of the car. Its about 1-2 inches off the centerline of the steering wheel. Its because of the bumped out part of the center tunnel. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to get the seats over about 1-2 inches?

Second is about the back of the rear seat. Can you fit these in a bit better than just wedging them in? When I wedge em in one side has a fat bend in it and the back of the seats isnt flush up to the wall there. Again, any advice would be great.

[Guest Anonymous]

Regarding moving the driver's seat toward the center-line of the car - my fault, as I managed to leave out a couple of steps.....

The "bump" will need to be dimpled in at point where it intersects the the seat rail to let the rail move up against the tunnel.

The plastic cover on the driver's seat inner recliner mechanism will probably need to be trimmed a little for clearance, and there's about a 1/4 inch of material that can be trimmed off the seat rail pads as well, all of which will help move the seat toward the centerline.

The seat recliner mechanism includes a small gas strut - depending on where the seat winds up relative to the tunnel, it may be necessary to knock a small additional depression into the tunnel for the strut's lower mount as well (remember to provide clearance for front to rear movement as necessary). There's plenty of clearance between the driveshaft and tunnel (about 3 inches in the area behind the center support bearing) to bump the tunnel wall toward the car's centerline where needed.

I went back and double-checked the relationship of my seat to the steering column - it's about 1/2 inch off to the outside, but it's never bothered me (maybe because the Recaro seat/steering wheel relationship in our old 911 was the same).

Haven't attempted to install an E30 back seat, so don't have any input there, but I've seen E30 M3 seats installed so hopefully somebody can provide some insight.....

My apologies if this has created headaches for you, and feel free to e-mail me offline if I can be of further help.

[Guest Anonymous]

I think im gonna just gonna cut that hump where it bends down and push in all the steel. Then im gonna weld it shut again, so that it was as if the tunnel never had that evil hump. I figure that this would be the best way to do it, and the seat will not be missing any of the components off the sides while being able to slide fore and aft. Any ideas?

[Guest Anonymous]

this afternoon, and took some measurements off my unmodified '69 that has 320 Recaros bolted to the stock sliders just to check the stock alignment.

The centerline of the driver's seat is almost 2 inches outboard of the steering column centerline with the 320 Recaros centered on the stock mounts, so I took a careful look at the original seats, too - the stock seats are essentially symetrical, so I have to assume that the stock seats must also mount about 2 inches off center. Maybe someone with stock seats in their car can verify this?

Given the above, it looks like we've all been driving around for years sitting on seats that aren't perfectly lined up with the steering wheel and haven't even noticed, so I'd have to guess that having the E30 seats an inch or so off center isn't going to be much of an issue, and maybe removing the bump in the tunnel won't be necessary.

You might want to try setting the seats in place on some pieces of 2x4 cut to span the floor between the tunnel and rocker, see if having the seat offset slightly bothers you and proceed accordingly.....

[Guest Anonymous]

My wife was the one who noticed that one. Never bothered me much, but it is pretty noticeable if you're looking for it (something's wrong with the logic of that last clause...).

-Dave

Colorado '71, stock seats