J.C Whitney Cheap Seats $159.99/pair

[Challenger]

Wow, looks nice. Does the fabric seem like it will hold up? I wonder how long the sale lasts.

 

Edit- Nvm, 8-31-08

[mario_82_ZXT]

Can you check the clearance with the bump on the driver's side tranny tunnel? I don't know if all 280z's had it, but I know for sure the later ones did.

 

Because of that I had to raise my Recaro up to clear it.

Mario

[Guest 73LT1Z]

Wow, looks nice. Does the fabric seem like it will hold up? I wonder how long the sale lasts.

 

Edit- Nvm, 8-31-08

 

The fabric seems OK, it is a nylon type material. I don't really know what to compare it to. I don't think there is an expiration on the buy one get one, it was several months old in the Jeep forum when I found it. The discount codes do expire on 8-31-08, but JCW always gives out new ones when they send you a catalog. I have never had to change my address with them, their catalogs always seem to find me even when I haven't ordered from them in a long time.

 

Can you check the clearance with the bump on the driver's side tranny tunnel? I don't know if all 280z's had it, but I know for sure the later ones did.

 

Because of that I had to raise my Recaro up to clear it.

Mario

 

I'll let you know later today when the other seats arrive and I work on that side. I spent most of last night trying to reinvent the wheel for mounting these and ended up just going with the 2" bracket. Still have to drill & file to fit one side. I didn't think it would be this involved.

 

The main drawback to easily mounting just these sliders in the 280Z is the extra metal (boxed in) in front of the rear mounting point. The sliders could be bolted directly to the flat metal pieces on the car, but:

A. It would be very difficult if not impossible to get washers and a nut on the rear bolts, and

B. Once the sliders were in place, it would be very difficult if not impossible to get the seats bolted up to them. If the seats were bolted onto the sliders beforehand, you still could not access the rear bolts.

 

There is a relatively small open area between the car mounting points. I placed the front bolt hole of the sliders behind the front cross member. I was not comfortable with having the rear mounting point a couple inches back, so I moved it further back and drilled a 5/16 hole in the sliders to match. I believe this would also severely limit back and forth travel on the sliders, since the bolt would be well forward of the slider's stop and it would prevent the seat from moving back.

 

As it stands, I am removing some metal from the top of the boxed in part so the rear mounting bolt can pass through here and my mounting bracket will sit flat on top and I can use the stock mounting point. Otherwise, the rear of the bracket would be raised up and would be resting on this bolt. With an oversize bolt head, this would be an easy way to raise the rear of the bracket so long as the length of the bolt was OK for slider clearance. I didn't want to have it resting on the 5/16 diameter of the bolt.

 

It seems like one other option would be to cut an access hole in the sides of the boxed in part and then run a bolt through the top into the slider. This would make for three attachment points vs. the stock two points per slider, or you could just bolt the slider in place here since this would give you access to the rear bolts.

 

I used the supplied 8mm bolts with some 1/4 Grade 8 washers under them to mount the sliders to the seats. I then used some Grade 8 5/16 bolts/washers/lock washers/nuts to attach the sliders to my 2" wide brackets. A 5/16 hex nut fits inside the slider and will not turn- good thing since there is no room for a a wrench in there. The stock seat bolts can be used to mount the 2" brackets to the car.

 

If I have time today, I will try & weld some metal onto the 280Z brackets and try this route as well. With what I have learned, it seems like this may be the simplest way out.

 

I will update all of this with pics later today.

[Guest 73LT1Z]

After looking this over and trying several variations, I have decided it is indeed easiest to use the 280Z brackets on the JCW seats. You have to drill one hole in the sliders, and then for the passenger side the mounting holes where they bolt to the car have to be enlarged with a round file about .25" or so to one side. I now have the passenger side bolted in.

 

I sat this seat on the driver side and the tunnel bump was not a problem. The door panel will definitely hit the upper wing though. I still need to do some more figuring on this mounting, since the mounting points seem to be a little different than the passenger side as far as offset goes. I will try to enlarge the slider holes as with the passenger side and see if this works.

 

Here are some driver side test fit pics:

This is with the seat offset to the console:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pics with the seat offset to the driver door:

 

 

 

 

This pic shows how far off the JCW tracks would be if mounted on my 2" plate while the outside slider was bolted to the car as normal:

 

Upper wing hitting door:

[Guest 73LT1Z]

FedEx delivered the remaining three seats this afternoon. It is worth noting that for the remaining seats, all the knobs were good; however, I was missing a box of sliders and one handle (from different boxes). I called JCW & they will send the sliders & handle ASAP, but the knobs are on backorder.

 

Since we are back to warmer weather this week, I will work on the driver side install later tonight.

[BSD]

Awesome, thanks for the info bud, makes decision making for some of us alot easier.

[AK-Z]

FedEx delivered the remaining three seats this afternoon. It is worth noting that for the remaining seats, all the knobs were good; however, I was missing a box of sliders and one handle (from different boxes). I called JCW & they will send the sliders & handle ASAP, but the knobs are on backorder.

 

Since we are back to warmer weather this week, I will work on the driver side install later tonight.

 

So do the seats really do weigh 40lbs each? Just curious, because my F150 seat weighs just about that much and thats OEM. I don't think that any aftermarket seat manufacturer would use that much metal for one seat.

[BSD]

When I called and talked to a lady on the phone, she put me on hold, and when she came back to the phone, she said the seats weighed 37 pounds each with packaging.

[Guest 73LT1Z]

So do the seats really do weigh 40lbs each? Just curious, because my F150 seat weighs just about that much and thats OEM. I don't think that any aftermarket seat manufacturer would use that much metal for one seat.

 

I will have to stealth the bathroom scale into the garage tonight & find out. Mrs. LT1Z gets upset when "her" stuff is in "my" garage, same with bringing "my" stuff into "her" house . They feel lighter than 37 pounds, most of the comparable ones I was looking at were like 30-32 pounds, so I would say they are close to that.

 

If weight was a concern, I'd figure out how to remote the car ala Mythbusters and save a lot of weight by me not being in it . I'd definitely add their ejection seat (flash video link) while I was at it.

 

Anyhow, I got the driver side seat installed today. What I ended up doing was mounting the 280Z outside (non adjuster) slider to the seat as with the passenger side. I then cut the legs off one of the 2" brackets I bent. I ground about a 1/8 deep notch in the center part of it to clear the adjuster mechanism. I then drilled holes in it to mount it onto the 280Z inside (adjustable) slider using the existing holes, and two more holes to mount the seat. A pic is worth 1,000 words, so here is what it looks like installed:

 

 

Here is the plate on the slider:

 

I used a couple of short 5/16 hex bolts through the slider in the existing holes, and put a nut on the other side so the slider to space the plate over the adjuster mechanism. I also removed the rubber flap that was here to protect the seat. The plate seats on the nuts, and I used a lock washer and another nut to secure the plate. Once I had set the seat & sliders in place, I could see about where I needed the seat holes in the plate to be. I didn't drill these as close to the slider as I should have, which resulted in more filing on the slider mounting holes. Make sure to use socket head bolts here (I used the ones that came with the seat) for clearance. This way the seat is offset to the console about as much as you can do. The upper seat back wing will still be hit by the door when it closes.

 

After I was satisfied with the fit, I took everything apart, ground the rust off the 280Z brackets, degreased them with some engine cleaner & water, and then after they were dry sanded & painted them and put new grease on them.

 

Here are a couple more pics for reference:

 

 

Parts degreased, sanded, and painted:

 

Yellow/black seat installed:

 

 

In summary, to mount these seats in a 1975 280Z, I did not use any of the sliders/handles that came with the seats. I used the following parts/materials/tools:

 

Parts:

1 Pair JCW seats

1 Pair Datsun sliders

 

Hardware:

About 14" of 2" x 1/8 steel plate for the bracket

2 x 5/16 x .75 grade 8 bolts

4 x 5/16-18 grade 8 nuts

2 x 5/16 grade 8 lockwasher

2 x 1/4 grade 8 washer- plate to seat bolts

4 x 8mm washer- sliders to seat

(Optional) 8 x 8mm x 1.25 pitch x 30mm bolts & washers to mount seats (or use your old ones) I found the 1/4 grade 8 washers sold by my local Tractor Supply (hardware store) fit the 8mm bolts perfectly.

 

Tools

Black marker

Tape measure

Round hand file

Hacksaw/sawzall to cut plate

Bench grinder for notch in plate

Hammer

Center punch

Drill assortment, mainly 5/16 plus a couple sizes larger

Drill or drill press

Bench vise

Metric allen head socket for seat bolts

1/2" hand wrench or socket for 5/16 bolts & nuts

 

Other

Engine degreaser

Grease for sliders

(Optional) Sandpaper & paint

[GeeZ]

I received a pair of these seats today. Looks decent. Thanks for your photos and instructions. I'll try to install in a couple of weeks.

[AK-Z]

Nice LT1Z.take your time on the weight. I hope this deal goes one all summer, because I'm gonna have to order these while I'm on my trip to korealand and have them shipped to my parents house.

 

I won't be able to work on my Z for 3 months :'(, so I'll be ordering a bunch of parts while I'm there. I'll have a big pile of goodies to come home to .

[Guest 73LT1Z]

Weight w/o tracks is 29.6 pounds on the bathroom scale.

I will deny telling you this if questioned.

[BSD]

Hmmm, that's not to bad.. if I was done with the paint and body work on my car I'd prob jump on it.

[Xnke]

Did you ever get the seats to clear the door well? I am considering the black seats to mount in my '72 Z, and the mounts are seriously different than what you are showing.

 

Anyone here know if they will fit well?

[Guest 73LT1Z]

Did you ever get the seats to clear the door well? I am considering the black seats to mount in my '72 Z, and the mounts are seriously different than what you are showing.

 

Anyone here know if they will fit well?

 

 

The top wing will be hit by the door for sure on the driver side, and probably on the passenger side as well. I don't have the sound deadening material on the doors or the panels and this will add to the door depth.

 

You will have to evaluate how your seats are mounted to determine the type of adaptation needed. If the 240 seats are anything like the 280 ones, you should be able to bolt your old sliders onto the new seats with minor adaptation.

 

Between bar, angle, and channel steel I'm sure something will work. If you can post a digital picture of what you have in the car, I'd be glad to offer some free advice.

 

You can always buy the Procar seat adapters at Summit, but they are like $69 each side (don't forget the "free" $11 shipping) & they would probably need some work to fit these seats as well.

[AK-Z]

I won't be running a cat on mine. So you guys think , if I modded the trans tunnel, that these will clear?

[Guest 73LT1Z]

I won't be running a cat on mine. So you guys think , if I modded the trans tunnel, that these will clear?

 

Even with the Datsun sliders bolted to the seats, they sit higher than the stock seats. If you look at the installed driver inside slider pic in my last post, you can see how close to the tunnel they are, and the bottom of the seat is mostly above the hump. I don't see the hump in the tunnel being in the way, but you could flatten it some to gain a little extra room. If you could mount them lower somehow then the hump would be an issue.

 

I'm not concerned about the door hitting/pressing on the wing part of the seat, since I don't use these cars very much.

[VinhZXT]

When I installed the Recaro seats in my friend's 280Z I had to massage the tunnel to move the seats further inward to clear the wing and the door. The seats look good. Thanks for all the pictures

[mojus]

I just recieved my set yesterday and mocked up the driver's side. There is no way all 6'2" of me is going to fit comfortably in the car with those seats. With no rails installed on the seat the height is just to much. I had to hunch down and lean my head to one side to sit in the seat. With the stock seats Im just fine with 2 inches of clearance to the roof.

 

Having said all that, the seats are very nice. Mine arrived with all parts and no broken adjusters. I think they are well worth what you pay for them. I just wish they fit my 280z and me better.

[LT280z]

Well im 6'2" as well and ordered the seats Friday so i hope i can come up with a way to get them to fit me and the car. Maybe removing some of the seat mount material would help (part connected to floor). If they dont fit i can always throw them in my truck!