all I managed to get completed this evening were to the two rails on the passenger side. Metal is still uncleaned, but the length is perfect and the bend for the front bolts are perfect. Still need to do some minor trimming to clear the contours in the floor below the front bolt holes. Next step will be to drill the holes using a step drill bit. Then test fitting on the car. I'm using a 2" x 1/8" channel iron, the channel is 1/2". By running channel, I can use the thinner and lighter 1/8" thickness steel and it WONT flex what so ever. However, a regular bar 2" x 1/8" steel will bend like crazy.
On the oem seats, there is no bracing from left to right rail. The only bracing would be the THIN sheet metal bottom of the seat it self. So I didn't feel an extreme need to brace. If you want to see some BEAUTIFULLY awesome machine just check out the sliders on the stock seat. Absolutely amazing engineering.
I AM going to brace it still though. My bracing will consist of 1" x 3/16" steel bar, that will be welded in on the bottom side of the brace. On the passenger side, the seat will always be left all the way back. From left rail, left edge to the right right rail edge is about 17". I will use one long approximately 23" long piece of bar. It will be welded on the bottom left to right right below where the stock seat belt mounts are located. And then each end will be upward 90 degrees on both sides so they extend upward about 3" from the railing on each side to make seat belt mount tabs. A hole will be drilled in each of this brace/seat belt mount . On the inner side of each end tab, a nut will be welded over where the hole is. The hole will be the size of the stock bolt and nut overall will be larger than the hold obviously. Should be alot safer than welding the nut on the outer side of the tabs. Seat belts will be in stock locations for the passenger side by welding the brace to make tabs in the stock location at full back in oem. Also in the event of an emergency, when the seat belt pulls tight at full force, the belt will not only pull on the tab but also the entire single piece brace that is now welded onto the inner rail AND outer rail that is wraps underneath the rails and also the anchor location of the seat belt itself. In essence, in a hard enough collison, the entire assembly, seat, seatbelt, and rails will tighten down on itself.
On driver side, same bracing/tabs will be done. However location is still an issue. I will be 99% driver but my buddy occasionally drives it too but he's quite a bit taller. Since the seat belt latch stays in the same location regardless of where the seat is slide, it's going to be an issue. I do NOT plan on running the latch through the harness inner side hole of the aftermarket buckets. The seats are slim enough that it'll jab my hip the whole time I drive it, and even worse for my taller and larger friend. The belt itself WILL be routed through the outer harness hole located at the hip though. Just NOT sure where to exactly to weld this brace/selt belt mounting tabs on the driver side to maximize safety and fitment for various size drivers.
Another issue, I wanted the sliders to sit within this seat base bracket I made. One of the reasons for the channel. Problem is,the slider mechanism and latch/lever all sit FLUSH with bottom of the sliders, not raised. So the slider latch mechanism hits on the channel. These sliders woudl work best on a flat surface or one that raises it up a little bit. My solution so far, buy a 1-3/4" wide x 1/2" thickness aluminum bar and it down to the length of the base of the sliders. Place the bar which now became a spacer inside the channel to raise the sliders up. Use that whole bar as a spacer. I don't want to use washers or stacks of them, I want it to be flush. The aluminum bar will weigh next to nothing. Also, it still keeps overall strength high since the base of the sliders still make full contact with the seat base/mounts.
Yeah, they're still ugly. However, it's still in the development stage. I WAS going to get them powder coated but 99% chance it'll just be wire brushed, primed and rattle canned flat back. I don't plan on using these seats long anyways. Maybe a week or something.
Project continuing on saturday/tomorrow. This is all I have for now
