E46 Seat Installed

[TG Goose]

Well the original seats had seen better days. When I first bought the car, they were shit brown colour. I vinyl dyed them black and they looked like new. Problem was they still felt like old ass seats when you sat on them. I also tore a hole in the ass of my jeans from an errant spring that poked thru.

I came across a great deal on craigslist for some 2004 335i power/heated seats and figured I could make them fit in the old E30. Making the brackets was super simple and took me about an hour to install including fabbing the brackets. The E46 seat is a little taller, but I actually like it as now the steering wheel feels its in the right place. There is still a ton of headroom as well. Here are the results

New and Old Seat:


Installed E46 Seat:


External Shot:

[Killacortes]

does the power and heat work on it too?

[FL318is]

I like it

[TG Goose]

Power works completely, I have it spliced into the cigarette lighter. I haven't sorted out the heat part yet, I've got to find proper switches for heated seats. The seat is a little wider, and just barely touches the center console near the front of the seat.

The only thing that I don't like so far is that the seat doesn't flop forward to access the back seats. I have to move it all the way forward and you have to squeeze into the back.

[bernzpeed]

should've gotten a seat for a coupe... but oh well... it works right. you should get a 4door center console so u have the holes punched out for the seat heater switches.

[mutty]

Welcome to the club. Damn comfortable as well. I have an extra pair that I need to put in my DD.

[CarsSuck]

I need to find a seat solution as well. Those things are BIG, though. How much more did they weigh than the stock seats?

Do you think you could post a picture of your brackets?

[TG Goose]

the brackets are just a slab of 1/8 high strength steel with 1 hole drilled to fit the factory bolt and 1 hole drilled to fit the seat bolt location. I used grade 8/8.8 hardware to bolt the seat to the bracket. On the driver side I'm using the front right E30 factory bolt to mount the seat, and making the rest of my brackets to fit.

I havent put it on a scale, but the new seats are at least double the weight of the orginals.

[Tchao]

[Jroc]

What seats are those^

[Tchao]

E46 ZHP (Sport package)

[martijn76]

Are the sportseats too wide to fit in a convertible or not?
I'm looking for good e30 seats, but that's starting to become impossible here for prices lower than 1200 euro..
I like the e46 sportseats, so that's the next best thing.
I'm not a welder, but a bracket won't be a problem to make.

[325isBen]

So do the seats make your driving position higher? I would love these but I can't sacrifice any headroom.

[cncmastr]

E46 ZHP (Sport package)

Also this applies to the ZSP "sport package" - ZHP is the "Performance Package"

[blocke]

I've had the zhp e46 sports in my car for 2 years. My thread is burried in this section somewhere. I'll be pulling them out soon. Decided to go with a re-done stock sport interior.