Help with Sport Seat Brackets

[gtarwiz]

Ok, so I picked up some fairly mint but the frame rails are rusted to epicly shady proportions so I want to swap them out.

I found http://www.esatclear.ie/~bpurcell/318isseat.html and it made sense on how to take them apart but I am stuck at separating the bar from the rails.

The rail on the new seats look like this


I am contemplating just cutting them but I dont want to mess anything up.

Any thoughts or methods on how to remove the bar from rails?

[bmwstephen]

i think you have early model seat rails which in this case makes it inseperable. your best bet now is to swap the upholstery on the bottom seats to later style seat bottom and later style seat rails

[gtarwiz]

Could I just cut it off? The frame rails that are in my car are the late kind like in the website provided.

[bmwstephen]

Could I just cut it off? The frame rails that are in my car are the late kind like in the website provided.

it be better for us to see the entire rail in pics before we go hacking and slashing

[gtarwiz]

I'm already hacking up the other one since it's unsafely rusted, but here is what they look like.

[bmwstephen]

yeah you have early model rails for sure. those are the the thinner ones that are designed for cars from 83-85. Later model had thicker rails, and the pipe that lays across the rail isn't straight.

if you tried to use late model seat rails with your existing bottom seat, it won't work. the mechanisms built into the seat bottom are not cross compatible. again your best bet is to swap the upholstery to the later model seat bottom via hog rings or zip ties.

[gtarwiz]

But if I cut the bottom off it should be able to button up to the new rails correct?

[bmwstephen]

it's not that simple. trust me. I've been in your situation and it was a wasted effort. you have 2 options. Either do what I just said, or find new early model rails as a complete set.

even if you successfully transfered to later model seat rails, good luck bolting it back onto your car because the mounting hardware is completely different on early model cars. You'll have trouble trying to bolt down the rear mount points because late model cars used bolts that went through the chassis whereas early model cars use nuts to fasten

[gtarwiz]

My car is already a late model with much crappier condition sport seats already in it and thats where I would be getting the new (to the seat) rails.

[bmwstephen]

if you used your existing bolts on the early models when you have a late model car, you might want to check your fuel line to see if it was pierced.

[gtarwiz]

if you used your existing bolts on the early models when you have a late model car, you might want to check your fuel line to see if it was pierced.

When you are referring to the early models you mean the rails correct? If so, my car has never had early style rails in it to my knowledge. That's part of the reason why I want to switch them out for the late style.

I was trying to find a way to not cut the fabric that goes around the bar even though that would be much easier.

[bmwstephen]

ahh that makes more sense. In that case. Hack it off!

[gtarwiz]

LOL, thats what I wanted to hear! I wanted to make sure I was heading the right direction 8)

[td325ic]

So reading the thread it looks like you want to swap the rails from your old sport seats (the ones in your car) to the new sport seats you just bought.

As Stephen pointed out, the seats you just bought are early sport seats so the rails are not interchangeable with the ones from your car.

It sounds like you already cut the metal bar on the new seats so if you did that then you kinda made things more difficult as now you either have to source replacement early rails, or swap the bottom half upholstery to your old seat frames. The seat top sections are interchangeable though so it's only the bottoms you'd have to swap upholstery.

Just for the future, that metal bar that you were having trouble with simply bangs out with a mallet. The only thing holding it in is friction and perhaps some surface rust.

Also you mention the whole reason for doing this in the first place is because the rails were rusty, usually it's just surface rust and easily comes off with a wire brush. The ones in your photo don't look that bad at all.

I have a good .pdf walkthrough on how to take apart sport seats, PM me your email address and I'll forward it to you

[gtarwiz]

Yea. I definitely made it more difficult on myself by cutting it. Especially to find that they don't bolt up to the later rails :???: So I ended up pulling the fabric and re wrapping the bottoms just because the new to me seats were in that good of shape.

I would be interested in that pdf for future reference.

Also, that rail was the better looking of all of them and possibly salvageable but the other one was so rotted, I had idea how it was even still bolted down.