Greetings everyone!

My notchback project is progressing and I now need to get some seats for it.
I'm after some recommendations from people as to what you've used, what fits most easily, and engineering / legal considerations.
Hopefully some others have some experience in getting them legal - the car will need inspection by an engineer due to other changes so if the seats need to be passed as safe as well then fine.
I just want comfy seats with a sporty look and feel. What works?

Cheers!
Toby :thumb

i used silvia seats in mine but ive also seen excel and honda prelude in a bug

I have Excel seats in my Notch.

i suggest going to one of the jap wreckers and trying before you buy and find whats comfortable for you. they will have to be engineered no matter what way you go about it

I was advised to use Prelude seats by Shimo (back in the days...)
If I wanted to just have a 2 seater and didn't need front folding seats do you think magna seats would be able to be engineered without a drama? They are pretty comfy and supportive, and I have a good set on hand...

if your willing to get the car changed to a two seater ie remove the back seat completely and get it changed on the rego

I am willing to do that. Don't plan to take more than 1 passenger in the car anyway.
Now the big question...does size matter?? (hehe of course it does)
Not all seats are created equal...large car seats must be bigger than small ones.
This must sound lazy but what would you expect to pay for a good 2nd hand set of prelude seats on average? Then what would be the engineering costs of having them fitted to the floorpan?
Thanks, Toby :thumb

[ Edited on 3-6-2006 by type3lover ]

give a couple of the jap wreckers a call and get a price or jump on http://www.partsplus.com.au  and email some about prices

I've used Prelude seats before - they're comfy and the seat frame (on mine anyway - '88 model) had two bars that were tapped for threads running down each side making the easy to fit to modified stock seat rails.

Note: it can get very messy welding new rails to the pan unless you can handle a welder - this is not an area you want a dodgy job! Some vehicle inspectors will get upset if you merely bolt a frame through the pan.

Good luck.

Cheers 67Fasty! Got any details of the conversion?
I have decided not to go the magna option - they don't swing forward and they're pretty big as well. Not worth engineering seats that I don't plan to keep forever. I might have a set of Recaros coming my way - fingers crossed!
I really need to get something in there very soon. I'm thinking stockies without too much damage on them and a back seat to go with them. Just something roadworthy but temporary.
To keep the thread on topic...what have others done? Any progress pics of the conversions?
Cheers, Toby :thumb

i got pics of the silvia seats in my resto thread which is in my sig or search for pheonix or it will live again in the members rides

Cheers Barls. I have taken a look. Nice job by the way and I still can't believe you weren't f#$%^ed up by that smash! Of all the VW's around with Jap seats in them there hasn't been much talk of the fitting of them.

try u2u'ing bredan ie 71ejvan he had jap seats in his bug as well

Bueller? Fry? Anyone???

I've been told the seats in my type3 kit are Sigma Scorpian. They have modified (welded) rails that passed engineering no problems. They will be out in two weeks (to re-carpet and re-trim the interior) so I'll take some pics and post them.

Thanks I look forward to seeing the pics!

From all my research I found that nearly all Mazda seats will be suitable as the track width will sit nicely onto the original base. You will need to make some simple brackets, weld on and use the bolts from the mazda to lock it in. I used seats from the Eunos (Mazda) 30X which were the same as those from the earlier Astina SP. Very sporty seat.The No.1 choice would of course be the MX5 seat but $$$ and hard to find. Will try and get some pics together.

My fasty has just been engineered with EJ20T and the seats passed with flying colours as well.

[ Edited on 14-7-2006 by GTMac ]

Thanks Andrew. I have just picked up some mazda seats which are quite "sporty" looking and feeling - possibly 323 seats. The donor car (early squareback) has had custom mounting points welded to the pan. Appears to be quite a professional job too, so I might think about cutting them out and having them welded to my pan and doing away with the original runners. I have no bases to use from original seats as I stupidly took them to the tip when moving house!
Will post any progress made here.
Cheers, Toby :thumb