Changing seats

[Richard_W]

Hi,

I am completely new to sevens but having just picked up 1400 supersport I am enjoying getting stuck into it. I am going to do some cosmetics to it over the winter but for now I am looking to see if I can change the the seats. I have worked through the guides and I am still not sure exactly what may or may not fit!

The car is a 93 K series and the seats in it seem bog standard for the year. I could keep them, as they pretty comfy, but they have no headrests. I assume any standard Caterham headrest will fit? Also, I can’t work out how to take the plastic blank / cover over the headrest slot out! I’m sure I could butcher it out but there must be a knack to it.

Second option is to replace. The seat runners are fixed to the, I assume, strengthening strips which in turn bolt through the floor. I assume I could take the strips, runners and seats out in one go and the dismantle on a bench? Second, I guess as long as any replacement seat fixes to the existing runners and is not to wide, they will go back in? I have looked at Tillett seats which come up pretty frequently but will they fit in an older car?

I’ve also been looking to see if other seats may fit. These look pretty good: 

https://www.lusomotors.com/product/rcc-mk1-bucket-seat/

But any other recommendations would be welcome!

I wondered if S1 Elise seats would fit? When I had my old Elise I found them OK. The best seats I have had in any car were the pro-bad seats in my Europa https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/5733126969_724a686505.jpg but I think they will be too wide and a really expensive! 

Sorry for the essay, it may be the firs of a few, but any any advice or suggestion will be really appreciated!

 

 

[Wrightpayne]

Richard,

can you post up a picture so we can tell you what you’ve got. In the toolbar use the icon with the black bar with an arrow above it to upload pictures.

I have had leather S types and tillets in mine and prefer the S types which are fitted again now.

Never heard of elise seats being fitted in a seven.

Ian

[Richard_W]

Thanks for the reply Ian.

I hope I have added pictures to this showing the seat and the front of the runner assembly, you can see the support strip that the runner is attached to.

It would seem pretty straight-forward to swap out but knowing what will actual fit and how easy (or not!) it is to make he change is the bit I am less sure of! 

 

[Wrightpayne]

Richard,

These are the early seats - later ones were on runners that bolted straight through the floor with some additional ally strengthening channels riveted to the underside of the floor.

Ian

[Wrightpayne]

[Richard_W]

Thanks for this, that is really useful. I think the main difference, in principle, is that the early cars (mine) have the strengthener on the inside of the car and then the runner mounted on that. Later cars have the strengthener on the underside which I assume allows the runner to be mounted on the floor in the car. In both cases I assume the strengthener is there to ensure the floor doesn’t buckle, without them the seats are eventually going to cause the floor to distort.

The options are:

- Retro fit the later strengtheners, ditch the inboard strengtheners and then just mount later seats and runners as per newer cars.

- Keep the existing arrangement and either hope that I can mount a new seat to the existing runner.

- Another option is to keep the existing strengtheners but ditch the runners and just bolt new seats to the existing strengthener. That wouldn’t be a massive issue for me as I have to have the seat right back to be able to get in and then drive the car so I can live with them being fixed in place but It would only be an issue if anyone else drove it, which is not that likely. 

Have I missed anything? Time to get the tape measure out and start measuring to see what will fit!

[Drumster]

IMHO the aluminium channels they use under the floor don't add any support as the floor is still taking the whole weight of you and the seat. When I rebuilt my '92 Supersprint I didn't refit them but had some inboard supports like yours fabricated.

I also ditched both sets of runners and my seats are bolted directly through the supports and the floorpan meaning that the weight is borne by the supports on the chassis.11 years later and the floorpan and rivets look as good as new. 

[Golf Juliet Tango]

The best option is to call Oxted Trimming, who made the seats.

Head restraints for pre-S type seats have their own shape but I would expect them to be able to make some for you. What will be difficult will be to match the leather (nice to see seats which are not black!)

I would be surprised if any seats from an outside source will fit. The cockpit is so (delightfully) narrow that even the standard seats are a tight fit.

[Richard_W]

Thanks all.

I hadn’t thought about going to Oxted, that’s not a bad shout. I assume that they could refurbish the existing seats, make up some headrests and I’d look to get them retrimmed in green leather.

Other option is still these:

https://www.lusomotors.com/product/rcc-mk1-bucket-seat/

I’ve double checked all the measurements and I think they may well fit. They are narrow enough, the mounts will fit as long as I abandon the runners and bolt straight in the only thing I am not completely sure of is this seat rake front to back. 

Decisions...! Thanks all, wait until I get to the rest of it :) I’ve been looking at carbon wings...

 

[Wrightpayne]

Where are you in the UK ? Maybe worth trying a few different seats first via local owners. To me comfort is more important than looks!

Ian

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Rake isn't a big problem, you just add washers between floor and seat.

[Richard_W]

Great, thanks for this.

I agree on the comfort / looks debate! I tend to need a seat that is quite firm and upright or my back starts to get sore. The current seats are fine if a bit soft, they also need something for my head, it does feel a bit odd to be driving something without headrests.

The only other car I have that is like that is my old Land Rover, but that is now 63 years old and makes very gentle progress so maybe not an issue. The bikes on the other hand... :) 
 

I’m in the Thames Valley, the nearest group to me appears to be the one around Reading, although I saw a lot of cars around Oxford yesterday, I assume coming back from Gaydon in the pouring rain! I’ll see if I can drop into one of the meets and look at other cars.

Richard

[SM25T]

Please think of them as head restraints, rather than head rests. Useful safety feature.

[TomB]

Try Tillets, they look uncomfortable, but they fit my backside perfectly and I prefer them to the leather S types I replaced.   

[Golf Juliet Tango]

I agree about Tillets, I find them remarkably comfortable but they might look odd next to the green leather. Oxted (again) will do liners for the Tillet seats, they could do those in green leather to match the rest of the interior.

But changing the seats brings in quite a lot of expense.
 

[Sooty]

I enquired of Oxted about adding head restraints to my original seats- as yours but in leather as well as a local trimmer regularly featured on Car SOS and was lead to understand it was likely to be just as expensive to retrofit tubes to take the head pads as to buy new seats

[Richard_W]

Yes, that is the conclusion I am coming to! 

I have found some seats that would fit but all in its quite a hefty wedge. I think an alternative may be to keep the seats as is and change the roll bar to a track day approved one, something I am planning anyway. Because of the diagonals within the bar I think it would be quite easy to mount to restraint pads to the bar. Doing that will certainly be no more expensive than changing both seats.

Now go to find an imperial bar. Caterham parts have SV versions but not standard ones!

[Red Line Components]

79032U (double diagonal FIA roll over bar for Series 3 Imperial) in stock at Redline Components 

sales@redlinecomponents.co.uk

Enjoy your new car

Chris

[Wrightpayne]

From what I’ve seen the double diagonal bar has a much better / neater way of attaching head restraints for both driver and passenger. The single diagonal uses a series of fabricated brackets and exhaust U bolts. It aint pretty but it works. Never seen a passenger one for the single diagonal bar.

This is the bracket for the double diag. There are several types - Chris will probably have these too!

https://caterhamparts.co.uk/headrests/3075-head-restraint-roll-cage-s3-sv-superlight-cage-only.html?search_query=Head+restraint&results=172

[Wrightpayne]

This is half the steady bracket for a cage - there is a second similar piece that holds the pad. The FIA bar one is similar but no longer shows on caterham parts.

https://caterhamparts.co.uk/headrests/2264-steady-bracket-headrest-fia-full-cage.html?search_query=Head+restraint&results=172

[robert green]

Oxted trimmed the fia bar head restraints in leather to match my s type seats. The original head restraints wouldn’t fit on the drivers side due to the diagonal bar fouling. Really pleased with a neat result. 

[robert green]

A photo may help....

[Richard_W]

That picture is exactly what I’m looking to do! Thanks!

Have you got any details for the head restraint pads? 

I’ve mailed redline about a price for the roll bar so hopefully I can get started soon.

 

[Wrightpayne]

Richard,

Thats the later double diagonal FIA bar - the earlier ones dont have the fixing holes for those brackets / pads.

Ian

[robert green]

Yes it is the later bar which you would need for this. Mine is a 94 car so they do fit the imperial chassis. The brackets are metal squares and oxted fitted some padding and then trimmed them to match.