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Will Suburu STI seats fit?


VSnakeByteV

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Hello everybody,

 

  I have a 71 240Z and would like to replace my old warn out seats with some new ones. I am going to be painting the car blue. I want to match the interior to some extent and I really like the suede on the STI seats, does anyone know if they'll even fit into a Z, and with what modifications?

 

Thank you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was bored so I wanted to try to help you out, but the dimensions just don't seem to be out there. Closest I've found is this, which would at least tell you that the stock seats must be under 21.5" wide at the shoulders and 19" or less at the legs??? 

Find a local Subaru gathering and take a tape measure with you, and don't forget to measure the height.. you may not be happy how close some seats come to the roof, or how high up you sit in them compared to stock (which is quite low)  ;)

 

What seat dimensions will fit my GDB aka 2002+ Impreza?
Shoulder dimension should be 21.5. 22.5 will fit squeezing up against the B-Pillar.
Leg dimension should be 19. 20 will fit squeezing up against the center console.

Edited by thedarkie
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um, not without a big hammer.... a spot weld drill bit..... and a welder.  I am putting seats from a wrx in my 280z. 

Two things I have ran into;

If I try to mount on the old mounts, they felt way too high. So I had to make my own lower profile seat mounts after drilling the old ones out.

Once I got the seats down to the height that I liked, they had been too wide on the drivers side due to the bump from the transmission tunnel. So I had to hammer the floor board a bit.

So to be honest, no they do not "fit" for all intents and purpose. Unless you are really dumb (like me) and got them on a whim and are just determined to use them. 

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um, not without a big hammer.... a spot weld drill bit..... and a welder.  I am putting seats from a wrx in my 280z. 

Two things I have ran into;

If I try to mount on the old mounts, they felt way too high. So I had to make my own lower profile seat mounts after drilling the old ones out.

Once I got the seats down to the height that I liked, they had been too wide on the drivers side due to the bump from the transmission tunnel. So I had to hammer the floor board a bit.

So to be honest, no they do not "fit" for all intents and purpose. Unless you are really dumb (like me) and got them on a whim and are just determined to use them. 

 

He has a 71, its totally different from your 280z. The tunnel is narrower and doesn't have the cat hump. The seat mounts are also very much different.  Us 260 and 280 guys have it MUUCH harder in the seat department. So much so that I gave up on a set of brand new Sparcos and sourced some reupholstered original seats :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

They will fit in your 240z if you are short. Even cutting out the seat brackets wasn't enough clearance for me, I'm 6'2"

I felt that the geometry of the seat just doesn't work well either.  The thigh support is too high, making it hard to use the clutch.

My seat were from a 2004 STI.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does this help?

 

E140C203-6F35-4E41-BB0F-63E4827D116D.jpg

 

These are I believe STI Seats, though possibly 2.5RS. Not sure what year. Saw them on craigslist for $75 for the pair and figured I had to make them work.

I did extensive mods for mine though, however you may not need to go as far as I did.

 

Car is an early 260z. Not sure about the tunnel hump.

 

1) I'm 6'4" so height clearance was VERY important. To get the clearance I needed, I first hacked out the stock supports a fair bit. Shortened the front height out by about 2/3 and shortened the rear down to the ground. Then reinforced the rear floor with 1/8" plate where i was going to mount the seat in the rear.

 

2) I fully disassembled the seat. I removed the height adjusting mechanism on the driverside as it's parts took up too much space as it was and even in the lowest setting I wasn't satisfied with where it sat. By removed, I mean I did a fair but of cutting with a cutoff wheel and then patching with steel to reinforce a few areas. Along with removing that mechanism, I also reduced the height of the seat another 1.5" by cutting off more stuff.

 

3) The rails were rewelded to my modified seat frame and custom feet were made to attach to the floor and the front stock seat rail.

 

 

Now you may not need to go nearly this far for height change, but I certainly did with my height. I love this car and I wanted to make sure I was comfortable in it for long periods of time without having to recline it like a gangster.

 

End result was sublime. I can sit as upright as I want and still clear the roof. The seats were tight to fit on the width. You can not reach your hand in the side to grab the recline lever, you have to use just your index finger and lift it from the forward position. The plastic trims do fit however, but more or less rubbing the carpet. I possibly could have pushed the seat a little closer to the transmission tunnel, but then if you slide the seat forward it would hit the tunnel. The tunnel gets wider at the front of the car.

 

If you're ok with getting out an angle grinder and welding in some tabs/brackets, repositioning the rails, etc. You should be ok. If you're short you can probably get away with a lot less fab work.

 

Love the seats. What i saved in cheap craigslist seats, I had to make up for in hours and hours of fab. I probably have over 15 hours of work into making these fit for my height.

Good luck! If you want more pics, I could arrange it.

 

DBE8D976-9C88-4F05-BCF3-1C1E16A20240.jpg

 

stock rail support mods.

IMG_20140113_214348203.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

Sorry for the super late response, getting to working on the car again. I will be using a 4 or 5 point harness at some point, I plan to install the rear strut brace then have the seat belts go over the top of it to the back. I found out the Subaru impreza seats I;m looking for from a 04-05 sti are 19" at the top and 19.5" at the bottom. I know above it says 19" at the legs, but I gotta measure my 71 to make sure. I'm so psyched it's this close!!! 

Edited by VSnakeByteV
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Thanks for the inspiration. I actually picked up a set of 04' WRX seats. They are actually working out pretty well. I decided I want to retain the factory height and tilt adjustment but move the sliders inboard, that is complicating things a bit, but I think I will have the brackets built in the next week or two.

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I posted this a while ago in one of the seat threads. Could be even more motivation for you! I bought wrx seats for a smoking deal without even measuring them and heres how they sit in a 70 240z and the seats are from a 2011 wrx. No finished pics sorry this is just the seat sitting in the car.

 

0PCLUZgl.jpg

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