Richard_W

I use bikes all year round and have tried just about every type of rust preventer over the years. My experience is that nothing is a true solution but ACF50 and FS365 do work as long as you keep right on top of it. A good coating coupled with a weekly wash and re-coat works as long as there is no salt all over the road. As soon as the gritting season starts then its different league, the bikes need to be rinsed off after every ride to get the salt off and then reapply the coating. By Doing that then it really works, The thing is that keeping a bike coated is much easier than a car as you can see just about every part of the bike. It’s certainly worth doing but in the depths of winter I wouldn’t trust this stuff on its own. Although in reality I doubt I’ll be in the car much either! Where it probably will work really well is if the car is stored in a garage that is not temperature controlled, much like mine. In that situation there is much less likelihood of contact with salt and this type coating does prevent rust from simple storage. I have used it on bikes stored without any activity for a year or so (I have got to many and they tend to get used in rotation) and it does help stop general deterioration.

Thanks, so is fitting the late bar a direct fit or is any modification needed? Is there a link or part number? Basically I just want to copy what you have done :) I reckon I can knock up the pads myself but I ideally I don’t want to buy a bar that won’t fit... This has been a complete education, I kind of assumed that just about all parts would fit all cars, a bit like Land-Rovers, which I do know about. I’m learning that may not be quite the case!!

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.

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!

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

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...

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!

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!

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!