Installing Bucket Seats

Step 1

Finding Seat Rails

This is the process I followed to install a set of OBX Torino reclining bucket seats into my Mini. The process I would say is fairly similar to installing most bucket seats from a different car. Obviously you have do a fair amount of redesign as the way modern bucket seats are attached to cars is completely different to the way Mini seats were attached. So while not all of this will apply it most likely that alot of it will. The following process assumes that you have obtained some seats, this proces should also apply to most bucket seats from newer cars aswell. Anyway here's a step by step breakdown of what I did...

1. Obtain seat rails - Now having said that you could "hardwire" the seats into a static position but that makes things awkward. Now you can obtain "universal" seat adjustment rails with the OBX's but they wanted $150.00 and given the seats are roughly $800 this seemed a bit steep. So what to do. Well get some second hand seat rails. To this end I went out to a wreckers and looked at a whole lot of cars.
   
      
   
   A note of warning a lot of modernish cars have the seat anchor points fabricated as part of the floor of the vehicle. And in many cases the two sides where the seat is bolted are uneven. So what your looking for is a car with floor anchor points that are equal height. Trust me when you start looking at them you will notice that the bolting points closest to the door sill in some will be lower in comparison to the ones near the gearstick and they simply change the shape of the seat bottom to compensate. These aren't really suitable as there are slight changes that mean they don't work well on flat bottom seats (as most aftermarket seats are).
   
   Anyway to cut a long story short I found a 1990 model Suzuki Swift with seat rails that would do the job.
   
2. Attach the rails to the seat - Not quite this simple but near enough. The OBX seats simple have four bolt holes in the base. And obviously these did not match up to the Suzuki seat rails. This required the creation of adaptor plates that allowed the holes in the rails to match the ones on the seat. This had a dual effect of slightly raising the seats but also allowed me to slide the seat back in comparison to the rail as I have fairly long legs. I did have to weld some 5mm steel flanges onto the back of the rails so that I could bolt the rails to the rear support. It was also necessary to drill larger holes to take the high tensile steel bolts. Anyway the pictures below should help show you what needed doing.
   
       
   
       
   
3. Create mounting points on the floor bulkhead - The OBX seats are slightly wider than the Mini ones so you can't used the existing captive nuts in the bulkhead. To get around this I welded a piece of right angle steel to the bulkhead with nuts welded in place. These holes were determined by offering up the right angle steel to the front anchor points (which should be parrallel!) and then marking with a pen. Then simply drill holes in those spots. Then it is a case of clamping nuts in these places and spot welding them in place.
   
       
   
   
   
   It is vitally important that you weld this in he correct spot so the method I used was to bolt the right angle to the front of the rails and then with seat attached place it in the car with the rail flush against the bulkhead. A few things to look out for are to extend the seat as far back as the rails allow as this will inform you if the seats will hit the rear bins next to the rear seat. Generally if it clears these it will also clear the door bins aswell. This also raises the issue of the width of the seat as it may fit with only one in but when you attach the other the two will clash. This possibly something you should check before you buy the seats (I didn't I was just lucky, for once...). The OBX's were 550mm at their widest and as you can see I have a gap of about 5mm between them and maybe 10mm between them and the B pillar.
   
   
   
   You may have to mangle the bulkhead a little so that there is room for the captive nuts so you get a flush fit with the right angle steel. But once your certain of the location weld in plate. This is the front mounting done.
   
4. Creating the rear mount - The rear is a little more complicated. This requires the creating of a raised bar so that the seats sit level. The hand drawn picture below described my design. Fabricate something similar and then bolt to the floor this should be the mounts done.
   
      
   
      
   
      
   
                            
   

So that's it really, seems simple but there is a fair amount of work in it. Still new racing seats in the car really make it. Plus given the extra performance a good set of seats will make driving that little easier. If you have any questions please email me.