3 Rotor FB build - "Silvie II"

ducktape · 07-26-2010, 10:45 AM

Another boring interior update, this time with some welding. First, I finished cleaning the tar off from the bin area. Zzzz...

Before:

After:

I decided I would tackle the problem of my head being too close to the roll bar by dropping the seat as far down as I could. I don't have any pictures of it, but originally the seat was mounted on risers that were bolted to the OEM seat slider. I started by removing the sliders and placing the seat in the car in the proper driving position.

With the seat in this position, I was still not satisfied with the clearance for my head. the risers sat perfectly on top of the factory seat mounting points front and back but I decided to take it one step further. I removed the risers and found that if I cut the rear seat brackets out of the car I could basically bolt the seat directly to the floor. The fronts would require shorter L-shaped brackets.

After I cut out the brackets, I replaced them with a couple of pieces of 1/8th inch steel plate welded to the floor. I then donned by race helmet to check the clearance, and found I could move my head freely in the car without contacting the roll bar. I sat there for 5 minutes or so; a full grown man, shirtless with a race helmet on in a non-running car at 4 in the morning making engine noises and pretending to shift gears.

The hardest thing about this was figuring out how to set this seat up so that both Chris Ludwig and I could drive the car comfortably. For those who have never met Chris, he's 11 feet tall... No joke, one time I was staging his ITS car at a track day at IRP and nearly ran over an official because I couldn't reach the pedals.

So, for Chris I made the seat mount plate an extra 4 inches longer. I figure we can use the risers bolted into the floor in the front, with a separate set of holes drilled into the mounting plate in the back. Should be a 5-10 minute job to move the seat into "Andre the Giant" driving position.

07-26-2010, 10:45 AM	#1
ducktape Hardcore Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Louisville, Ky Posts: 88 Rep Power: 16	Another boring interior update, this time with some welding. First, I finished cleaning the tar off from the bin area. Zzzz... Before: After: I decided I would tackle the problem of my head being too close to the roll bar by dropping the seat as far down as I could. I don't have any pictures of it, but originally the seat was mounted on risers that were bolted to the OEM seat slider. I started by removing the sliders and placing the seat in the car in the proper driving position. With the seat in this position, I was still not satisfied with the clearance for my head. the risers sat perfectly on top of the factory seat mounting points front and back but I decided to take it one step further. I removed the risers and found that if I cut the rear seat brackets out of the car I could basically bolt the seat directly to the floor. The fronts would require shorter L-shaped brackets. After I cut out the brackets, I replaced them with a couple of pieces of 1/8th inch steel plate welded to the floor. I then donned by race helmet to check the clearance, and found I could move my head freely in the car without contacting the roll bar. I sat there for 5 minutes or so; a full grown man, shirtless with a race helmet on in a non-running car at 4 in the morning making engine noises and pretending to shift gears. The hardest thing about this was figuring out how to set this seat up so that both Chris Ludwig and I could drive the car comfortably. For those who have never met Chris, he's 11 feet tall... No joke, one time I was staging his ITS car at a track day at IRP and nearly ran over an official because I couldn't reach the pedals. So, for Chris I made the seat mount plate an extra 4 inches longer. I figure we can use the risers bolted into the floor in the front, with a separate set of holes drilled into the mounting plate in the back. Should be a 5-10 minute job to move the seat into "Andre the Giant" driving position.