As we all know, mounting a sidemount Sparco bucket and being tall don't go very well together at all.

I am in the process of deciding how to mount this thing in there, and it needs to happen soon, as I need to pass tech with NASA for the coming season.

Have any of you eliminated the protrusions in the tub of the car so that you could pretty much mount the Sparco sidemounts directly to the floor with some kind of reinforcement? The ability of this setup to get my helmet well below the roofline/rollbar with room for adjustment is rather appealing to me.

If this isn't an option for safety reasons (strength of tub after protrusions hacked out), what are some alternatives?

Thanks for any help,
JP

 

ttt

anyone?

 

It depends on what Sparco seat you're using. If the bottom is narrow enough (Rev I believe) you can drop it between the stock sliders and use side mount brackets to attach it.

How much head room from stock are you lookig for?

 

The seat is an Evo, and I'm realistically looking for maybe 3-4 inches lower than stock I would guess, to keep my noodle under the rollbar level.

 

Measure the width of the bottom of the seat and the space between the stock sliders (the front will be the limiting factor). If you can drop it between the stock sliders then I would go with that.

Otherwise you will need to fabricate a custom slider setup.

 

Here's a pic of where my side-mount brackets are attached:



I had to use a hollow dowel around the front bolts so that tighening it down didn't crush the cross brace. They are bolted through the floor with backing plates on the bottom. The rears are just bolted to the stock mounting points. With a Sparco Corsa, a 6'1" driver, and a sunroof plug this is still too high. My next step is to remove the rear seat brackets and replace the front cross brace with something shorter (like "C" channel). This should give me about 1.5" extra and then there's no more room to go down.

 

So is hacking the protruding rear portions of the tub off out of the question for maintaining rigidity?

I was thinking if I could just eliminate the protrusion that the rear outside bolt attaches to stock, that I could just bolt the sidmounts behind the front protrusions right to the floor. Does this sound like a reasonable idea for a seating position that needs to be back pretty far and low?

Thanks for the help Geratol, much appreciated

 

Thanks for posting a pic Travis, that helps so much with seeing things and describing them.

What I was saying with my post right above this, is iff I eliminate the rear tub protrusions, and then just slap the sidemounts on the floor literally.

How hard would it be to get rid of these things on the tub, and would it be safe? Backing plates would be used of course.

Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondaJon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So is hacking the protruding rear portions of the tub off out of the question for maintaining rigidity?</TD></TR></TABLE>

The two small mounting brackets that are tacked to the floor are not there for rigidity, just seat mounting. However, people have made a case for the front cross brace as being structural. So, if you remove it, replace it. I discussed this a while back on IT.com (very conservative with the rules) and most people agreed that even the strictest interpretation of the rules would allow for hammering down those bumps for safe seat mounting. But considering that some folks still attach their seat mount to the floor AND the cage, take that advice with a grain of salt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondaJon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As we all know, mounting a sidemount Sparco bucket and being tall don't go very well together at all.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I disagree... I'm 6'4 and have tons of headroom in my civic.

I realize the integra roof line is slightly lower, but that shouldn't effect things too much. I did something similar to travis, except I mounted the sparco rails on additional strips of metal that I then welded to the front crossmember and then to the rear floor area. The sidemounts are attached to these pieces. The only way the seat could be lower would be to cut out the front mount/support and mount directly to the floor.

 

That sounds like something I might be trying then. As I'm looking for really as much headroom as I can get, and if it happens to be too low I can raise the seat height with the Sparco sidemounts.

So the rear seat mounts can be hammered down, and then I'm thinking to just put the sidemounts on the floor pushed forward to the crossbrace that the OEM seats mounted on top of.

Sound good?

 

How tall are you?

Unless you're considerably taller than me, you won't be able to reach the pedals, or the shifter if you put the seat that far back. I'm going on the assumption that the civic and integra interiors are the same. That could be incorrect.

With the front "lip" of my EVO2 resting on the front mount my legs are almost fully extended and right arm is almost fully extended to the shifter.

I initially test-fit the seat further back but couldn't fully depress the clutch and had to reach for the shifter - something I wouldn't be able to do once cinched into the harness.

Just be sure to make sure you can reach these controls before finalizing the mount location.

 

I'm big, 6'3'' and my seat rest againts that front hump. I have a bottom-mounted seat and I built 2 flat iron strips that bend over the front of the hump to 2 square plates in the rear. I have absolutely no headroom problems.

 

My Sparco REV is mounted to the floor using a combination of the steel Sparco mounts, bolts and strategic welding. The GCR does not allow you to remove the cross brace under the front mounting point so we welded the bracket to it-fits just fine. You will also notice that there are several mounting holes available to position the seat. I am not over 6' but come up high in the seat. With a helmet on I barely meet the 2" rule in a CRX.
Another approach that will not compromise the cross piece is to notch the mount -but still weld it in. That is also part of the plan here. You will use a couple of spacer blocks under the mount as well-if you have any gap. Our install was done as part of the cage install so as to get the correct clearances.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JeffS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I initially test-fit the seat further back but couldn't fully depress the clutch and had to reach for the shifter - something I wouldn't be able to do once cinched into the harness. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I did the same test fit and I was surprised to find that with the front brackets mounted behind the cross brace I couldn't reach anything either. I had planned to mount the brackets directly to the floor behind that cross brace to give me another 2", but no such luck. My suggestion is to remove everything from the OEM mounting brackets (sliders, bolts, etc) and just set your seat with side-mount brackets on the floor. Then sit in it and slide it around. I bet you'll be surprised how close you have to be.

 

Travis, I really don't think I'm seeing exactly what you're saying about hacking up the stock brackets? Could you maybe explain a little more?

And you think that putting the sidemounts behind that front cross brace would make reaching the pedals a challenge? My car is in storage right now at another location, so I can't just go out and test these new ideas right now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondaJon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Travis, I really don't think I'm seeing exactly what you're saying about hacking up the stock brackets? Could you maybe explain a little more?

And you think that putting the sidemounts behind that front cross brace would make reaching the pedals a challenge? My car is in storage right now at another location, so I can't just go out and test these new ideas right now.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You only need to remove the stock mounting brackets if you need to go all the way to the floor with the side-mounts. Otherwise, you can leave them alone as pictured above. If you need to go lower than that, you can cut out the rear tabs since those are only tacked to the floor and are not structural. Then you can weld new plates to that area and bolt through those with backing plates below. That takes care of the rear.

The front is more tricky, since it's a pain in the *** at best (and illegal at worst) to cut the cross brace. However, it's in the way unless you have VERY long legs/arms and can mount your seat on the floor behind it. Like I said, that was my plan but it ended up being way to far back for me at 6'1". My suggestion would be to first see if mounting the front of your seat on top of that brace (as pictured above) is low enough. If not, your options are to hammer it down, notch the top and weld on a new top, or replace it completely with something lower. Again, these options are ??? for the road racing rule books, but my feeling is that as long as you do the minimum required for a safe seat mount, most rule books allow this (ITCS, for example "Factory seat tracks/brackets may be modified, reinforced, and or removed to facilitate replacement mountings provided they perform no other function").

So, based on this, my next plan is to remove or pound down the rear tabs to gain 1/2" in the rear, and to notch the front mount and wend in a c-channel top for an additional 1-ish" in the front. That's about as good as you can do I think.

 

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.

I have a much better idea of what I need to do to get my seats in there.

I'll let everybody know if I come up with a better/different fabricated way to get some more headroom without cutting/welding too much.

Thanks Again,
JP

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JeffS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">With the front "lip" of my EVO2 resting on the front mount my legs are almost fully extended and right arm is almost fully extended to the shifter.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

From what i've been told, you want to be able to hang your wrists over the steering wheel while your sitting flush with the seatback. This way you get a full range of motion, and your hand is positioned over the shifter so there's no hunting involved. Is this correct?

 

Yes, I have heard that also JV.

I have a question. How thick of a backing plate are you guys use'n? 1/8"? Also it's a steal plate right? I'm going to be adding new seats also and need to know the right way to do it.

thanks


Modified by 577HondaPrelude at 11:43 PM 2/23/2004


Modified by 577HondaPrelude at 11:44 PM 2/23/2004

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITACRX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm big, 6'3'' and my seat rest againts that front hump. I have a bottom-mounted seat and I built 2 flat iron strips that bend over the front of the hump to 2 square plates in the rear. I have absolutely no headroom problems.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd like to see some pics of this setup if you could.

At 6'7", I can literally take the seat completely out of my 88 CRX and sit on the floor with my back against the gas tank hump and have perfect leg / arm position. So I guess I need to get a seat as close to that as possible!!

 

I'll be happy to take some pictures for you, however, it might be a week or so before I can. I've been living at work