A question about seats...

Hi All

Having bought Ashley's silver GTA a few months back I promptly moved to Dubai so haven't posted much, or had a chance to play with the car.

Anyway I'm back for Christmas and the first thing Santa brought me was a set of leather rear seats courtesy of the car Mark is breaking.

Now I know these cars are pretty idiosyncratic but having removed the old ones I can't believe how different these leather backs are to the fabric ones. The seat bases are identical, but whereas the fabric backs are 'one piece' with a bar running between the two and hanging a central flap to cover the ECU, the leather ones are separate, have a complete frame and fold down mechanism - why I'm not sure!

I'm sure this won't be news to any of you but it surprised me!

So here's the question - how do these mount up to to the rear bulkhead? Can anyone describe it or show me a picture of the back of one when folded down? I could guess but I'd rather be correct.

It also doesn't help that I've forgotten my members password to see the pics in the manual... I'll pm for that

Cheers for any help and Merry Christmas

Matt

Later cars had the fold down rears .
You need a plastic stud that is bolted to the rear bulkhead .This enters into a hole in the rear of the seats when upright and locks them in position .
Ask Mark as they must still be there in the breaker

Thanks Clee

I've got a feeling there must be a couple more mounting points too as the fold-down frame has four mounts and the old one just slotted in the base.

As you say the bits must be on the breaker...

Cheers

Matt

Yes,there may well be a few additional bolts .I have all mine out so can take a few pics and positional dimensions for the new rears if you like .

If you could that would be great.

I've dropped Mark a pm, but I think he was heading off for a week or so after Christmas.

It should be pretty straight forward for the back 'base' as it's four bolts and the lower two are the top two of the seat base if that makes sense! so the higher two are easy to map. So the position of the back release stud in relation the the lower two of the back base would be great.

Also an idea of how the ecu cover attached and where, from a quick glance it looks like there was probably a frame for it to attach to on the rear bulkhead around the ecu, which is lacking in the fabric flap version.

Thanks for your help.

Matt

Just for completeness here are some pics of the seats to show the difference:

First the fabric rears - no backs and two bars running the full width holding them together - they slot behind the bottom pads and then have just the one central bolt in the middle at the top holding them in place.



Then the new ones - seperate peices, folding mechanism and belts?



Finally the bare bulkhead with no ability to attach the ecu cover. Also I'll check but the obvious 'pop out' bit's on the sound proofing don't tally with the higher to bolts on the fold down frame.

I did this conversion on my car about two years ago give me a ring if you need any info on 01492533430 Andrew

I did this conversion on my car about two years ago give me a ring if you need any info on 01492533430 Andrew

Thanks Andrew, I'll give you a call once I've had a proper look, then lost patience and all hope!

The whole thing begs the question, why did they change to fold down anyway, its not as if it gives you access to the boot

I guess it's just from a time when the accountants didn't build the cars and the designers felt it was a good idea.

The whole thing begs the question, why did they change to fold down anyway,

My guess is that when two people go touring in the Alps with fold down rear seats, you can secure two extra small suit cases under the straps provided, which increases luggage carrying capacity, which is what I use the folded down seats for. I would say it is a very worth while conversion

Also it is somewhere to put a rear spare wheel in its bag, if you are unlucky enough to have a rear flat and have to change it for the lightweight spare. (often wondered what to do if you have rear passengers, and a rear flat!!!.....any suggestions would be welcome)

[BIG_MVS]

Yes the rear folding seats are very useful for bags/small cases and also my golf clubs!