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Miata!


BluePanda

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I don't suggest mounting the seats to the floor. Better to weld in bracing and drill through that - a 1/4" piece of steel straight across with holes drilled in it would suffice if you're short on clearance.

 

Besides not being legal to run at any track if they check it, its not safe. Even with underside bracing unless its welded to something stronger then the floor pan you risk yanking the seat out during an emergency stop or (god forbid) an accident. It wouldn't be too hard to drill out a simple flat mount yourself from some sheet steel and probably only be like 10 bucks to have an exhaust shop or something weld in place.

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I don't suggest mounting the seats to the floor. Better to weld in bracing and drill through that - a 1/4" piece of steel straight across with holes drilled in it would suffice if you're short on clearance.

 

Besides not being legal to run at any track if they check it, its not safe. Even with underside bracing unless its welded to something stronger then the floor pan you risk yanking the seat out during an emergency stop or (god forbid) an accident. It wouldn't be too hard to drill out a simple flat mount yourself from some sheet steel and probably only be like 10 bucks to have an exhaust shop or something weld in place.

The forums I've been checking along with the SCCA regulations say that it's fine as long as the backing plates are large enough. The stock mounts are just point welded in place to the floor pan so whatever I fab up (which will run over the center frame rails on each side) will surely be a LOT stronger. I'll probably drop by a shop and have them weld the plates in place once I'm 100% sure they're to spec.

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A bit of progress today (I got sidetracked with shopping, thank BP for that one :lol:):

 

We decided that the sliders probably aren't needed. Amanda can reach just fine with the seat as far back as it will fit...and I don't really fit in the car regardless so I'll never be moving the seat forward either. We also realized that removing the stock seat mounts and mounting directly through the floor caused an issue.

 

The issue? The spring and handle assembly for the side of the seat runs right into the frame rail since the seat sits lower down in the cabin. :lol:

 

So what did we do? Oh, not much, but I broke out the dremel, drill, and hammer, and got to work. :lol: The seat is now, ugh, fixed at a set recline angle. It can be moved but it requires tools to do so. :P The bonus? It literally sits about 3" lower than it did before, at least, so it feels entirely different to sit in the car now. :D I did have to do a bit of body modification to get it to fit (the transmission tunnel did not like where I wanted to put the seat) but hopefully the driver's side isn't so annoying. :teehee:

 

Here's a shot of Amanda when we finally got the seat to fit "properly":

 

driving.jpg

 

 

The seat is now below the frame rails on the car! Not by a small amount either. My ass will be sitting not even 7" off the ground once we get the driver's seat in. :D

 

lowenough.jpg

 

 

Prior to this "mod" if you want to call it that the tip of the seat was actually almost level with the roll bar. :lol:

 

seat.jpg

 

 

I somehow managed to forget to take any pictures of the modded seat, or the removed sliders, or the holes I drilled through the bottom of the car. I'll try to do better tomorrow. :lol: We need to visit Lowes for some new grade 8 bolts, washers, and some new stock to do proper reinforcement brackets on the bottom of the car.

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