BEFORE STARTING.. THIS METHOD I USED MAKES AN INCLINE FOR THE SEAT (which I prefer anyway) BASED OFF STOCK MOUNTING POINTS. Sit in your stock seat, put the front all the way up and the back should go all the way down (bottom piece you sit on)...... depending on the aftermarket seat you buy this is close to what it will feel like (a bucket).

It isn’t necessarily complicated, but it was tremendously time consuming. That’s only because no one had a write up and I had to figure it out before I bought anything, as well as dull drill bits.

You need:
- An aftermarket seat with FLAT tracks. (all "racing" seats come this way)

- 8' x 1" x 1/8" (L x W x H) (steel preferred, aluminum acceptable) ---------- this is an example, I went to home depot and ACE and found better pricing at ACE for steel.

- 16, grade 8 Nuts, Bolts, Washers and Lock Washers. (Keep the 8 stock mounting bolts) If your seats come with bolts then you only need 8.

- A drill, with various bits. (I do not remember sizes off the top of my head, but you need a pilot bit obviously and whatever size bit to match the stock bolts) Also, make the bolts you buy the same size or bigger than the stock ones (I believe 3/8", but I could be wrong).

- SCRATCH PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Torx sockets or (I believe) a 3/8" close end wrench I didn’t have a torx in whatever size the stock seat bolts were so I used a wrench in standard and it fit snug.

- Depending on your drill and bits as well as skill level, I recommend 3-12 beers a.k.a. sight lube

---- I attached sketches of what it should somewhat look like (forgive my poor drawing skills). Distance "A" is the Width of your new seats mounting, hole - hole (measured from the middle of the hole's). "B" is the distance of Length. Measure and write the distances on your scratch paper.

-- The 4 corner holes are the stock mounting points.
- Take a tape measure and measure middle of rear hole to middle of front hole with the bend included as best you can. Mark and cut your flatbar with a 1/2"-1” excess on each end. Mark the holes with a sharpie.
- Drill the rear hole on each piece (both rear hole's)....
- With the stock bolts, mount just the rear hole snug.
- With the bar in place and lined up, with just the one rear hole drilled, Hold the bar tight near the front where the bend needs to be and hammer it to make the bend.
- Make sure the sharpie mark you made looks like the center of the front hole and go drill that hole. (Do the same for the other side)

---- NOTE---- Once you make the bend it won’t look right, don’t worry and make sure to hammer less than it needs to be and let the bolt pull it in snug once you drill the hole. DO NOT BEND BACK AND FORTH, this will ruin the integrity of the flatbar.

--------- Check fit every possible change...

- With the left and rear sides bolted in snug, not tight, mark the distance for "B". Cut the cross bars to fit as even as possible on top of the Left and Right bars that are already in. Mark the corners (by middle of hole's) for the "square" based off measurements for distance B.
- With the holes drilled, put it all together, and check fit.
- Now, mark distance "A" and drill holes.
- Attach the new bracket tight to the seat.

----- Same for other seat.

Now for the more complicated part (also, make good judgments for this, I am explaining this off memory and don’t have my seat to look at)

- The seat belt latch, and wire with plug, needs to come out. To do this I had to cut all of the wires to get the latch and plug out and splice the wires from the latch to the plug back together once it was out. (Note: the only thing as far as wiring you need is the seat belt latch and plug with the wires in between)
- Make sure when you cut the wires to the motor(s) and pressure sensor etc, that you leave enough wire to splice them back someday or if you sell the seats for the new owner to splice his plug harness in.
- Now you should be looking at the seat belt latch with the wires going to the plug all as one piece. Now you need a mounting point on the seat for the seat belt latch. I used the left side beefy bolt that holds the back rest to the bottom of the seat.
- Now you are almost done…. With the seat, bracket, and seatbelt bracket all together outside of the car it’s time to put it in. Plug the wires in when you set it in place and bolt the front in loosely and the rear right….. Take the bottom of the seat belt itself and bolt it with the rear left corner to the floor (make sure there are no twists and you may need another washer and lock washer (recommended). If any bolts do not fit right, take it apart and file the hole until it works.
- Final step………. Turn the vehicle on and turn the steering wheel lock to lock a few times until the ESP light goes away.

This was done on a ’04 and this is all at your own risk.

This project is time consuming, but I also explained it more complicated than it actually is. It’s hard to describe things without pics and without looking at it. I hope this helps people and if you have questions feel free to post them, I will try to help out as best I can. Like I said, I will take pics when I get the car back from my dad, which may still be a few weeks.

EDIT: Also, forgot to add that the overall cost was about 10-15 bucks for bolts, nuts, washers, lock washers, steal, and 2 tall cans.




The picture is dark, sorry about that... This is just the harness, and the seat belt mounting point.



This is what the plugs should look like. Red plug, wire's to wire's.



This is how the seatbelt is mounted. Just imagine the seat bracket in there. This holds that down as well as the seatbelt.



Not from the seat, from the car, this is the plug you need.



Another view



This is how the plug should look



Another look.



This is how I mounted the seatbelt latch.



Another look.

The next few are shots taken of the bracket.

 

good post i did almost the exact same thing when i installed mine months ago now i have alot more leg room but no heated seats

 

And finally, here is the finished look of it all (out)...






Thanks, I did mine sometime last year but I got a good amount of PM's recently asking what to do... and whats funny is none of them have commented... ... but the leg room is nice, and with the bucket feel its warm enough in the winter .... at least here in Cali lol

 

Excellent writeup, you're a great resource to the forum.

 

Thanks John, I try to help out where I can.... I leave the engine modding to you and the others ....

 

I just know enough to be dangerous, Steve is my hired wrench

Seriously though, this was excellent. Hard to believe the weight savings... Imagine if you went carbon

 

For some reason I never got a notification (email or forum) for your post....


That is the perfect team though!!! Someone smart enough to make it, and another crazy enough to try it. lol


Thanks John, I had been meaning to do this for a while but without my car I felt it pointless. Until the PM's were rolling in of course... The weight savings are intense! to say the least. I swear, carrying the drivers seat to my shed ~ 500ft was ridiculous! I think the sparco carbon fiber beasts would be awesome, but for $1K I would buy something more beneficial lol.

 

We tried to get Nick (Thirteendog) to buy some carbon "Black Series" seats for his SLK55.... But he said he didn't want to lose the "neck scarf" function in his headrests.

I told him if he wants something to gently blow on his neck, to get a girlfriend.

 

LOL... Honestly though, I bet if he did swap the seats out, the difference in weight he would feel in the corners would make up for his fruity scarf lol... He could just swap the seats and get a cat, then he'd have better performance, feel and a pu$$y scarf wrapped around his neck lol. Im biased though. I love the bucket feel for seats. I hate my skinny a$$ sliding all over the place in corners.

 

Oh damn...guess I have to add this one to the list of to-do's lol. Nice write-up. Thank you for taking the time to inform and make this a better forum for all. Kudos!!!

 

No problem, and thank you. Overall it's relatively easy. It's just complicated to explain.

To all interested still, I am more than likely not going to have my car back until November or December to take pictures of the bracket's. Who'd a thunk they (my parents) would have my car on loan lol... .... Coming from a family that never shares anything, hmmmm I wonder where my kids got it from, it sure as $h!# wasnt me!!

 

Any pics of the interior with the racing seats in yet?? How much weight savings would you guess from stock to your aftermarket ones?

 

Ill get some today after work, sorry about that, things have been crazy. As far as weight.... Every time I see numbers for how much the stockers weigh it is different. Some say 58/48 (F/P), some say 54/48, 52/50, 54/52 all around there...... All I know is it takes two hands and a good back. My racing seats take a pinky. I could throw them like ninja stars. 16 lbs.

 

70lbs is no joke on weight savings. Thanks for the info Sir

 

It isnt. What is funny though is I just wanted those seats in. When I started my research I was like DANGGG even if I saved 50 lbs it would be more than worth it.....

On a side note, when I first got the crossfire I took a drive up to Fresno, it was about 9 hours round trip straight with only one stop each direction. My A$$ HURT. Two weekends ago I went to Vegas and it was 4 hours each direction and I felt no need for stopping other than to **** on something. The new seats are so much more comfortable its like night and day difference.

 

Pictures are in my Album for my profile under 2004 Xfire.... Ill add them to the thread and put descriptions tomorrow.

 

I have looked at racing seats before. I am sure it would lose 80-100 lbs yanking out the seats, and would help at the track...but I love the srt seats. I may get into that mood next summer, but for now....I still like the stock look, but not the sliding all over the place on the twisties....lol....nice write up... I will just keep my harnesses in the box for now....lol..

 

I wanted them for comfort. The weight was just a bonus lol. The stock ones were nice, heated and leather but all you have is a warm butt sliding all over the place like you were saying lol. The harness I could have done pretty, but there is a reason behind my madness. I wanted enough wire left to splice them together if need be, hence the excess. Then I wanted to be able to unplug it easy.... To do that, the easiest way was to make it so I could take the seat all the way out of the car, then unplug it. So I needed good length.

 

yeah...I actually have a set picked out I like...I just can't bring myself to do it. I still have other projects to finish on both cars. Hope EC will call me back and get these two retuned today before I leave for the weekend...It's a nice day here in Indy, and would to drive one of them...but cold air and leaning isn't something I want to risk since I still haven't added the power to the dashdaq/zt2 yet... Nice thing about our cars, is there is always more to do it seems....

 

Does it usually take EC a while to call back and retune? and what do you mean you havent added the power to the dashdaq yet??? I thought it just read parameters of the motor? I definately agree though, no matter what mod you do there is always more... I need to get ahold of a dashdaq soon...