Now that there's going to be a few cold months before I'll be on the track again, I'd like to get it so that my harnesses are 100% correct. Has anyone ever had this done professionally so that it actually looks halfway decent? I just can't imagine daily driving in a race bucket until I 'inherit' another car in the near future, so I'm weighing my options. Or is it possible that the buckets could possibly be comfortable for 4-5 hours at a time?

Can anyone recommend a good upholstery shop in the DC Metro that can do this with a quick turnaround?

 

Ed(Zygspeed) is getting ready to do this and is in our area.

not sure if hes sourced anything out yet......

 

I was considering doing the same thing to my seats, but I haven't spent the time to investigate yet. It would be a lot easier if there was a seam in the seat fabric right where the slot needs to go. You could open the seam and insert a cloth sleve, then sew it back up and you would barely see it.

But, since there is ne seam, there will need to be a "patch" sewn in, or an insert of some kind to keep a nice look on the topside.

 

i personally wouldn't recommend running a harness with a non-race seat due to safety issues. one of the benefits of a race seat is the fact that it has slots built in for the harnesses to run through. particullarly in the case of the shoulder harness, these slots hold the belts in place, preventing them from seperating during the course of an accident. with nothing to hold the belts in place (as is the case in an non-race seat), the harness could spread apart which would pin the driver's shoulders back while allowing his chest to come forward--this can result in serious injury. just my opinion...

-tony

 

Any harness would be appropriately attached to a roll bar.
The sub-belt slot shouldn't be too hard for a seamstress/tailor/upholsterer.

 

Have you had it done, Ed?

 

Not yet, haven't looked under the seat yet either.

However, ...
I picked up that Kirk rollbar from my Mom's in Youngstown yesterday (btw -- S03's rule in the rain), and will be undergoing the turbo phase of the ITR starting this weekend since I'll be dropping the car off at Steves (and therefore I can now probably remove the seats).

I know of an upholsterer back home that can do it, otherwise I think my sister might be able to put some type of sleeve/slot in the lower seat cover for me.

 

While I fully understand that it's definitely optimal to use a race seat with harnesses, this is more of a temporary fix than the solution. In the program that I've been participating, the requirement is for equal protection for both the driver and instructor. Because of this, I would have to dig deep into my pockets to swing the seat upgrade[s]. Although unfortunate, it's just the way it has to be...either that or just not do any events...and that would be silly to imagine.

I've found in the last few months, that no matter what I've done to improve the safety, I would later learn of a better way of doing it. Right now, even with the factory seat, I feel infinitely safer with this setup than I did with no rollbar and the stock 3 point belts (Oh yeah, I used an awful helmet, too!). I agree, though, in that those harness slots are critical in keeping the belts where they belong. A properly run sub-belt will make this even more so.

On that note, good info...thanks!

 

I have. The bottom of the seat (at least on my Si) is solid sheet metal. So you'd also have to cut a hole in it, and cover the edges well enough to avoid fraying the sub belt. Maybe this winter. Until I decide to either cut or get a new seat, I've been using a 2 point sub belt attached to the rear seat track mount ing bolts, and coming around the sides of the seat. You sit on the straps and snap the anchor into the lap belt buckle. Works pretty good if you make sure to get the two straps outside your tender bits instead of right over them.