e24 rear seats?

[chuckybob]

will a set of these badboys fit in an e30 without modification? has anyone ever transplanted them before?

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/images/sto...4_rear_640.jpg

[NC325iC]

doubtful

[Madhatter]

I have :)

Had to modify the seat bottoms (they are plastic) to fit the shape of the E30 seat area, i just made a template out of styrofoam and marked it out on the seats. Cut them out with a diamond wheel on the angle grinder then used a carving knife to remove some of the horse hair.

Because of the way the seats mounted in the E24 they have tabs that sit over the edge, only problem is the E30 is longer in the seat area. To have the tabs line up with the body so you can screw them in ends up in the back of the seat being spaced about 2-3" away from the metal of the car.

So what i did was weld a piece of square bar right across the top of the seat area for the seats to bolt into.

You also need to make (or cut off the E24) the top brackets for the rubber tops which sit over the E24 seats. I made my own to suit the install dimensions of the seat, but basically it is a triangle (prism) welded to the metal of the car that allows the rubber tops to bolt to it and keep the seat held in place.

If you want the arm rest to function and line up correctly with the modified seats what you have to do is unbolt the bracket, shift it back about 1 1/2" and screw it back into place. This is to compensate for the length of the rest which sticks out past the end of the seats (i didnt like this so i shortened it so it lines up with folded down.

Only other problem you might find is you have to notch the side of the right hand seat because the filler pipe is in the way for the tank. No big drama, just measure the height (comes to about 2" that needs to be removed) and cut it out.

I havent got any new pics uploaded of the mods, just getting a new hosting account so i can write up a guide for it, but to give you an idea here are the seats sitting there before i removed another 2 inches out of the bottom so they drop down further (and of course before they were all bolted in place, etc)



You dont need to remove that much from the bottom of the seats, its just i wanted them to drop down lower (almost in line with the parcel shelf) so tall people still have room to sit in the back without hitting their heads on the roof.

Basically all i have to do now is look at the E24 door trims, im going to see if i can modify them to fit in the E30 and give it the full curved rear treatment like the E24. Then all i have to do is carpet the area and neaten it up.

I just purchased a pair of leather bucket seats from a limited edition liberty (great support, pump up leg bolsters, etc) for the front. I was originally going to have the standard E24 seats rebuilt to include leg bolsters but they wanted double the price of these so it just wasnt worth it. Just have to get the back retrimmed to match the pattern of the front seats now, probably have the whole lot retrimmed in fresh leather eventually, but for now ive got other things to do.



Ohh, the factory seat belts are identical to those in the E24, the position is pretty much the same too so you can poke your existing ones through the holes provided in the rest just like the E24.

[Madhatter]

Looking at the pic of the 2002 again, they didnt use the rubber top pieces for the seats. They are pretty stable sitting there so maybe they just bolted them in at the bottom and left them like that. No real big issue if you dont use them, the seats arent an anchorage point like the front so they dont have any real force transmitted through them in an accident (the belts hold you in fixed to the floor rather than the seat rails like the front).

[Jand3rson]

They don't even look like they're from the same kind of car. I think they look really bad, totally out of place.

[Madhatter]

thats because they arent from the same car?? like i said, i will get the rear seats retrimmed to match the front seats before im going to use the car. I really dont care about it at the moment as everything is coming back out for bodywork, so as long as everything bolts into position (have to make the adaptors for the front seats), thats all that matters (all going to come out next month for the shell to be treated, so the whole thing needs to be stripped bare).

Its very easy to modify the E24 rear seats, the existing leather is basically molded, stictched, then stretched over the seat base, its not even sewn or tacked into the base, its just glued and trimmed off around the edges. They are probably the most basic bucket seat ever, they are just packed with horse hair to give them support, nothing inside in the way of springs or anything, can pretty much do anything you want with them without a whole lot of fuss.

[hamann318is]

That's an awesome seat mod, I love it.

[PeaveyBassist]

We have an e24 at work. Those seats are actually really comfortable sitting on top of a stack of tires lol

Will

[erik325i]

That's pretty cool. I give you props for trying something new.

-Erik

[Madhatter]

They are pretty comfy to sit in while in your lounge room too. They have this flat bottom section which, when sitting flat, tilts you back into the seat, good for watching TV :D

It's raining cats and dogs here, so if we get a fine day this week ill push the car outside and get some photos of the seats in a better position after they have been dropped down a few extra inches.

[millsamus]

++++

Love it! Any new photos??

[AndrewBird]

Holy old thread bump!

[e30saam]

Holy old thread bump!

Because Facebook

[millsamus]

Holy old thread bump!

Thread is looking for action again!

[Chinampa]

uh oh...someone used the search function...