Installation:
Installing these seats is fairly straightforward. The tools you’ll need are a power drill with big drill bits (3/8�), a Dremel tool, a Jigsaw (optional, but makes cutting steel easy) and a ratchet wrench with some bigger sizes (14 mm I believe). As far as materials go, a good 2 foot piece of steel, and a dozen thick bolts, nuts, and washers.
First things first, seat belt buckles on these seats will not work with our seatbelts. We have to remove the seatbelt buckles from our seats, and use them here. Bad news if you’re trying to sell your seats I guess. Once removed, the buckles need to be modified. At the bottom, where they mount to the seat, they have a tab sticking out that is used to hold it in place. The RSX seats do not have a hole for this tab. Using a Dremel, cut off this tab. Go ahead and bolt the buckles onto the seats. (Note: Driver seatbelt buckle has a sensor, be sure to carefully take the buckle off and not pull the wires out.
Put a seat inside the car, and line up the front tabs. I chose to bolt in the side that was closest to the center console first. And this is where the fun begins. Take a look at the 3 other tabs. They don’t fit. If you came in prepared, you would know this though, so no surprises. As you can see, the other tab on the front (the one closest to the door) is about 1.5-2� off. How do you fix this? I bought a piece of steel from Home Depot. It’s a good half centimeter thick I’m guessing. I drilled 2 holes into it (starting from small bits, and steadily incrementing, as to not destroy a big drill bit quickly). The 2 holes line up with the seat’s hole, and the car’s hole. I then bolted it in, and finished up the front. Note: I want to come back here, and put in some washers later, because there is a gap as the bolt can’t go in all the way at the moment.
Now for the back. One side of the back is similar to the front. It just requires an easy to make adapter to get the seat bolted in. I did this in about 10 minutes since I messed up my first adapter. Luckily I have a Jig-Saw, and cutting steel is a piece of cake. Look at the last bracket. The seat’s hole is on a plate of steel that comes down at a 60 degree angle, and the stock hole is on the floor. The solution to this is getting Home Depot to bend a piece of steel at the exact angle of the plate with the hole on it. I have not done this yet, but plan on doing it this weekend. Once you get your pieces made, drill the holes in the correct places the first time, no room for error. I’d recommend drilling for the car’s hole first. The hole on the seat is an extended one, and allows for a LITTLE play.
Congratulations, you’ve installed RSX-S seats. In the future, I’m going to go back and do 2 layers of steel as opposed to 1, but for the time being, this is good enough.
Review:
These seats are pretty nice. They’re not mind-blowing, or anything like that, but they feel much better then our stock seats- no doubt about that. On sharp turns, I feel like I’m gripped to the seat about 1.7 – 2 times better. The seats also have lumbar support, which is something I believe our stock seats should have had. A small point of interest, if you ever happen to let people sit in the back of your car, is that the seat slides all the way forward if you recline the seat all the way forward. From the outside, the seats look very clean, and would look even better if you had a harness bar, and harnesses on them. They’re impractical for daily driving (if you get in an accident, it’s better to have a seatbelt on when someone’s rescuing you), but look very cool. These seats have a hole in the ‘head area’ for this. I believe Recaro makes these seats, just like for the 4th Gens, and for a car’s OEM seats, I’m quite happy. I wasn’t expecting Bride, or Momo, so I feel like these seats get pretty close to hitting the spot.
So what do I not like about these seats? I don’t like how big they are. It’s not very noticeable from the outside, especially if you recline a little. But if you like to sit straight up when you drive seriously, these seats are a bit tall, and KIND OF look goofy in our cars. If you happen to be a weight freak, I noticed that these seats are considerably heavier then our stock seats. I also want to go back and make reinforced mounts. It might be overkill, but it would just be for the peace of mind.
I’ll post pics later
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Omar S. www.osardar.net
2007 Silver Alloy 350Z
Updated w/ some pics. Another thing I noticed was when you drive with both windows down, the inner-car aerodynamics are completely different. The air comes rushing in, hits the big seats, and mainly stays in teh front, from what I'm guessing. It's turbulent, and feels really good (but gets kind of loud)
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Omar S. www.osardar.net
2007 Silver Alloy 350Z
I'd be nervous that those homemade adapters/mounts wouldnt hold up in an accident. I dont want to get rear ended and wind up having the seat break free. Although they look nice when it comes to seats I'd do it right or not do it at all. Just some food for thought.
I'd be nervous that those homemade adapters/mounts wouldnt hold up in an accident. I dont want to get rear ended and wind up having the seat break free. Although they look nice when it comes to seats I'd do it right or not do it at all. Just some food for thought.
From looking at the pics I thought of the same scenario. It seems like he's using grade 2, maybe grade 5 bolts. At least locate some grade 8 bolts to replace those non factory bolts. They will handle the shear load better than those plain bolts.
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VAFC2, AEM CAI, AEM fuel rail, AEM Fuel pressure regulator, MSD 6AL ignition, MSD Blaster2 coil, NGK 7mm wires, UR ultra ss pulleys, Spoon sports ITR throttle body, Coolant bypass, Tanabe ss coilovers, modified Tanabe SR medallion cat back, Test pipe, Level 10 pts kit, Level 10 modified TC, Crower titanium retainers, Crower dual valve springs, Type S cams, UR cam gears, GE built block, 9.5:1 Arias pistons, Balancer belt deleted, Stainless steel valves
So where could I pick up some grade 8 bolts? Is that a Home Depot/Lowe's type thing, or internet order?
Home Depot has them sometimes, but I have better luck finding them at Ace hardware. They could also be purchase online, but you would have to know the bolt size and thread pitch (fine or coarse). I'd reccomend coarse.
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VAFC2, AEM CAI, AEM fuel rail, AEM Fuel pressure regulator, MSD 6AL ignition, MSD Blaster2 coil, NGK 7mm wires, UR ultra ss pulleys, Spoon sports ITR throttle body, Coolant bypass, Tanabe ss coilovers, modified Tanabe SR medallion cat back, Test pipe, Level 10 pts kit, Level 10 modified TC, Crower titanium retainers, Crower dual valve springs, Type S cams, UR cam gears, GE built block, 9.5:1 Arias pistons, Balancer belt deleted, Stainless steel valves
I'd be nervous that those homemade adapters/mounts wouldnt hold up in an accident. I dont want to get rear ended and wind up having the seat break free. Although they look nice when it comes to seats I'd do it right or not do it at all. Just some food for thought.
It looks like you're using the factory bolt holes, which is a step up from some of the ghetto installs I've seen in EFs on H-T. However, bolt grade is important. Get grade 8 fasteners. I don't know about that adapter plate either, to be honest.
I would reccomend finding a shop that builds cages and having them take a look or redo things in a manner that would be unquestionable safe.
Someone said they'd consider my asking price on the car (it's been on sale for a while), they're checking it out on Saturday, so I might actually sell these. They're buying the car AND the turbo kit it seems (if they like it).
BUT, the most i could do with adapater plates would be to double layer them. Grade 8 fasteners sound like a MUST use for utmost safety. So for anyone out there that wants to get these seats- YES it is possible to "easily" put them in, but NO, it is not very safe! Make sure you knwo what you're doing when you get these, the best plan, when it comes down to safety, is to have a professionally fit it to the Prelude mounting points IMO.
Thanks for the tips/advice everybody
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Omar S. www.osardar.net
2007 Silver Alloy 350Z
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