How to: Vader-e36 seat install

[Uber E30]

I have a second revision of these being fabed up at the shop right now... Pics in a week of the new design and them installed.

[Chuzo]

if any of you guys wanted this, i can arrange a friend of mine make this (he owns a machine shop).
he charged me $100 for labor and material, the only thing you need to do yourself is the seat belt bar thingy (chop it off and re-weld it).

can you share pics on how does they look? :)

[Toms73NovaSS]

nice job.good write up but,you should post more pics of your interior.

Right now in the final stages of my turbo install and not at the best point to be taking interior pictures. When I get it put together and outside I will have enough room to get some shots.

[Toms73NovaSS]

so the plate for the seatbelt rod is under the car?

Yes, I put a support plate under the car to spread the load.

Nut is welded to plate, plate to car....

[dnguyene30]

if any of you guys wanted this, i can arrange a friend of mine make this (he owns a machine shop).
he charged me $100 for labor and material, the only thing you need to do yourself is the seat belt bar thingy (chop it off and re-weld it).

[Uber E30]

so the plate for the seatbelt rod is under the car?

[fiercee30]

nice job.good write up but,you should post more pics of your interior.

[e30pwr]

Can you get more of an overview show of the seats in the interior, I think I just found my spring break interior mod.......

[E30 Cabrio]

I have never understood why people are scared about a seat moving or breaking in a frontal collision. In a frontal collision, the only stress your body puts on a seat is from the weight of your body down on it, no more. Inertia causes your body to move forward and forward only. Not down or back or up or any other direction. Your seat belt is the only thing that holds you back.

Now, that isn't to say force isn't applied in a roll over or rear end collision, but rear end collisions usually aren't nearly as bad as frontals and roll overs are going to be bad regardless of how your seat is mounted.

Also, as far as welding the seatbelt bar, as long as the weld is done properly, the welded section of bar will actually be stronger then the rest of the bar. And, with the shape of the bar, even if it did break at the weld, it would have to fold over itself before the seatbelt would come off.

The seat belt receptacle is bolted to the seat, so if the seat breaks free then the receptacle probably won't do much good, nor will the seat belt.

[bostonbmw]

looks really clean. Thanks for posting the drawings!!!

[Chisum]

Why not just drill new holes in the floor and reinforce them with 1/4 steel plates on the underside??

[e30serg]

chris4891: That bent rod is stock on my '88 325is. Maybe earlier models didn't have it. The load path with the e36 seats is the same as with e30 seats. In a front-collision crash, the 3 points being loaded are: the bent rod/bracket, the seat belt snap attached to the seat and the B-pillar mounting.

A person moving forward on the seat due to the crash will load the seat belt snap and therefore the seat frame. The bent rod/bracket will also loaded and if not welded correctly (with full penetration) could fail.

The way these seats are mounting is probably OK, I just wanted to clear things up a bit. I haven't done any FEA analysis myself, and it would be a good idea. Yes, I'm also a Mechanical Engineer.

[formula driver]

If you can get around to making some extra brackets, I would definatly take a set.

[SamE30e]

The only thing you need to worry about is is breaking on acceleration. And I doubt your e30 makes enough power to do that.

And if you were in a 30g collision, you'd have a lot more to worry about then your seat popping loose.

[chris4891]

The forces involved from just your body weight can be significant. Lets say you decelerate from 60mph to nothing in 100ms. That equates to roughly 27 g's.. we'll round up to 30.

For a mass that weighs 200 lbf accelerating at minus 30 g's, the equivalent loading is 6000 lbf.

I just wouldnt want my seat brackets to break or bend under that kind of loading and allow any part of my body to slam into the steering wheel or dash. At that point you're already having a bad day, but it could get worse if your seat were to break free. (i realize thats extremely unlikely)