Seat Mounting Brackets, Frame Rails, Drip Rails

[Guest thinkmonkey]

I'm 6'3" so I'll be putting in Corbeau Forza's, which are quite large seats. Ceiling clearance for the seats and my head is uncomfortable with the stock mounting brackets, so I'm going to remove them. They seem to be structurally important, so should I weld in frame rail style supports into the floor, underneath the floorboards, to compensate?

 

After heat gunning that tar insulation off the floor I found that I have minor rust on the frame rails, so I'm going to cut them out and install square tubing that extendsall the way back to the rear subframe, ala Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z. My concern is that while I'm replacing the frame rails and seat mounts, whats holding the car together, and should I be concerned about where to jack up the car so it doesn't contort when I weld it back together. Currently the car is stripped of everything but the front and rear suspension. My plan is to replace one at a time, any other precautions I should take?

 

I also want to remove the drip rails, and I found a good site that explains how, but has anyone had a bad experience with this? Screwing things up or getting an odd looking product?

 

Thanks guys.

 

-David

[Dan Baldwin]

Have you already bought the seats? I almost bought a Forza seat, but luckily was able to try out a floor model, and found the seat bottom to be way too short for adequate thigh support, and I'm only 5'11". Maybe you're talking about the Forza II? Multiple dimensions for most racing seats can be found on the internet, so I estimated what I wanted relative to the Forza I tried out, and ordered a Momo Rookie. Fits me very well. More money, but I definitely like the feel of a form-fitting fiberglass seat to tubular steel with webbing and padding. Regarding mounting brackets, I didn't use any. Just bolted the seat to the Momo dual ratchet sliders, and bolted those to the stock seat mounts. I did have to drill new holes in the mounts. Seems like most racing seats should bolt in like this, without using brackets, though I only have experience with mine. My seat is quite a bit lower than stock, even using one spacer (~.5"). Everyone I've ever heard of using brackets has wound up with a really high seat.

 

The rockers should provide ample stiffness for handling the car with the floorpans out, the stiffeners in the floorpans appear to be more for local stiffening of the floor, they can't do much for overall chassis stiffness.

[pparaska]

Aren't the Forzas a bit wide in the shoulder wing area?

 

I believe the Corbeau A4 is not as wide in that dimension. Even still, I had to mount it a bit off center toward the tunnel in relation to the steering wheel to not have it hit the door panel. I don't like having the seat not centered behind the steering wheel.

[Guest thinkmonkey]

The Forza is http://corbeau.com/brochure/forzadim.shtml and the Forza II is http://corbeau.com/brochure/forza2dim.shtml . I took some measurements a few months ago and I seem to remember them just fitting, but I'll have to check again before I order. Ideally I'll drive to the seat dealer with one chair out to test fit.

[Guest thinkmonkey]

I tried out both the Forza and the Forza II's and I liked them both a lot. I'm tall and I weigh 200lbs, so they hug me very well. I'm actually buying one of each; the smaller snugger forza for me, and the larger forza II for my passenger who eats their red meat. I was very suprised at how comfortable both seats were, especially compared to Sparco seats. As for momo's, I haven't tried them (I love my momo wheel though) and I don't need a tighter fit because this is more than a sunday cruiser or track car, it'll be a 3/4 times a week car. Thanks for the help.

 

-David