So I'm planning to get my seat re-mounted to fit me better. I would like to sit lower and further forward. Currently it has extra bracing on top of the normal mounting ribs for the seat. I looked at how some people had mounted theirs, but was wondering if you could fill me in on details.

As I recall, people had ground off the stock mounting ribs (sheetmetal rectangles generally aren't too strong anyway), and had then welded in either a plate or a couple of strips on the floor to mount the rails on. I presume you also had backing plates underneath the car.

Anything I'm missing? Any tips? If anyone could send me some quick pics of how their seat is mounted that would be great.

Might got to a race shop, but I suspect this is a simple enough job that a friend with a welder and a handful of talent could take care of it for cheap.

Mine is bolted directly to the floor using the stock seat mounting structure and side rails on my Sparco seat. I'm 6'1" and have enough room.

No pics - the car is in the trailer at a storage place - sorry.

I'm mounted on the stock mounting points but drilled all the way through and run backing plates underneath.

Hanks Hotrods has a weld in frame that I'd like to move up to as the floor pan is a notorious weak point.

Cameron,

First of all, is your seat a side mount or bottom mount? most are side mounts. What I did was mount the seat brackets to the stock locations but drilled through the floor and used backing plates. I also wanted to be lower, as my helmet always seemed to touch the roof so I looked at everybody's car to get an idea. If I remember right, only one of our guys floor has the seat "ribs" removed and has a flat floor, and because he seems to know what he's doing, I planned on copying his car. I was leery about cutting out the floor and welding in plates so I talked to Tony, our cage builder and he said "why don't you just drill more holes in the seat bracket?". Duh! Now I sit on the floor at the lowest point and it was easy. It also makes a difference in handling.

This winter I hope to get a new halo seat. Jim, the "Big Dog" swears by them and when Jim talks, I listen! Because the floor is notorious for buckling in a crash I'm also going to look at Hanksville Hotrods to see what they do to mount the seat to the tunnel and sill.

Thanks for the kind words.

As many of you know, safety matters. The floor buckles in heavy impacts. EVERY one that I have looked at have allowed the seat to move several inches at the top from a small buckle at the bottom because of the distance to the top of the seat. So what??? you ask.

When the seat moves side to side the drivers head can come into contact with the cage or other hard things. Some of our guys have been hurt because of seat movement.

I believe that attaching the seat to steel that goes between the side rails and the tunnel is the best option we have available to us. In other groups, seats are attached to the cage itself to provide the best mounting but I don't see that we have that option given that we are in street cars converted to race rather than purpose built race cars.

Mounting to (or through) the floor is a very poor choice. For the cost of a piece of steel tubing and some welding, you have a better option. In fact, Hanksville could even come up with a bolt in piece that would work. Side mount seats are more of a challenge but some good thinking will provide a better solution in every case.

Jim

The seat is a side mount. Currently it's sits on extra bracing that is on top of the stock mounting points that go between the side rail and tunnel. It is drilled through these and bolts with backing plates under the floor of the car.

I really want to be lower, because my helmet sometimes rubs on the rollbar padding on the front. I figure if I get lower, I can get a bit more clearance which will make me safer, comfortable, and aid ingress/egress. Also a rectangle on top of a rectangle does not seem like the most geometrically strong structure.

The extra bracing on top of the seat mounts seems gratuitous and adds about an extra inch to the height. There are more holes on the side rails to presumably lower the seat, but I've tried, and the seat bottom comes in contact with the bracing.

Sounds like my best option would maybe be two pieces of tubular or oblong steel between the side frame and tunnel welded up with some bracing, maybe with some triangulation between to two lengths, and maybe bolts welded up through that.