Legal requirements on custom seat mounts

[Bananaman]

Gday lads,

I know i should ask an engineer about this (and i will), but i need some thoughts on this. I'm fitting some bride replicas that i purchased from justjap a while ago, to my ke20. They come with custom rails, which are flat.

Heres a shot of the floor of my old car for some idea of what it looks like:



After looking at the rail, and the car, and dummy fitting it, measuring, etc, i have a plan of attack, which doesn't involve any welding.

The width between the rails on the seat is 350mm, as opposed to 390 (from memory, i forget now) on the floor of the car. Its enough for it to sit more or less between the rear mounts.

What i was thinking of doing was using two pieces of angle. On the rear, i would simply bolt the angle to the stock seat mount holes, and then bolt the seat to the angle.

On the front, i would do the same, but to allow clearance for the nut and washer, drill two holes wide enough for them to poke through that front rail. Noting by that i don't mean using these holes for any form of mounting. The stock mounting holes are on the front of that rail, and i would use them once again.

Is there any dramas with what i've suggested? Its simple, should be perfectly strong, and would work, and theres no dramas with strength of welds.

Thoughts?
Cheers
Bardin

P.S. Noting that i am in NSW, please don't post about legalities of other states - we all know you can rego any old bomb in other states

[Youngy]

Hi,

I found this on the RTA website:

Seats
Owners should ensure that the seat and its anchorages comply with any applicable ADR requirements (possibly by
certification from the seat manufacturer or by an engineering signatory) and the appropriate seat belts are fitted to
all seating positions.
Vehicle Standards Bulletin No. 5 issued by DOTARS covers requirements for the manufacture of additional seats.

Which led me to find this:

http://www.dotars.gov.au/roads/publi...s_vsb_05_b.pdf

I am pretty sure that the States cannot go outside the standards set by DOTARS. Hope that helps

[Bananaman]

Cheers for that mate, i'll have a read

[oldcorollas]

unfortunately, the seat also needs to be complied to Ausie ADR, or you need to be able to show that it does meet the ADR... (i'm not sure how much leeway an enginner has for certifying seats, esp copies...??)

that article is interesting but is talking specifically about "additional seats" as opposed to driver and front pasenger seats... but still worth reading nonetheless

[Draven]

I'm with stu - the seat will not meet ADRs, so the mounts are not especially important (in terms of meeting engineering requirements... in terms of meeting safety is another thing altogether)

[Ben Wilson]

Seats can be tested by an engineer to meet ADRs fairly easily.

A friend got the marine ply framed seats in his clubman passed with no problems.

[WDE_BDY]

Now correct if I'm wrong, but what is the application date for the ADR's? Don't some early KE20's fall before this therefore don't need the seats to comply?

Callum

[Ben Wilson]

ADR 3 - Seat Anchorages for Motor Vehicles - first published 1 Jan 1971.

3a - published Jan 1977.

[WiLo]

might come down to the engineer, mate had some recaros in his sprinter which were on rails from a KE20, had small bits of aluminium in a L shape for the rear mount, not sure on the front but the engineer passed it was on the papers as being safe etc.

[Youngy]

I adapted the cars original seat mounts to the new seat. The engineer had no problem with this as the original mounts obviously meet ADRs.

He spent his time checking the adaption plates etc to see how well they were made.

["Z" UTE]

I am withy Toungy on this one. I have fitted a number of aftermarket seats to various Celica's. Using the original runners from the car is the way to go, if you can. The anchorage, is then as original, and with newer seats, the engineer is going to tick the boxes for you.

cheers Chuck.

[Stefan]

Seats can be tested by an engineer to meet ADRs fairly easily.

A friend got the marine ply framed seats in his clubman passed with no problems.

Without destroying the seat in the process? Really? What exactly do they do?

I've always been curious about this, as I have a pair of Bride seats, which I'm sure are as safe as, say, Recaros - but weren't sold in Australia. They do have proper rails to suit my car, though, and the rails seem a lot better made & solid than the stock ones... I had a stock rail on a stock seat snap

[Ben Wilson]

I wasn't there, but as far as I remember, he just put a small jack with a strain guage against the seat and stressed it until it met the standard.

[Bananaman]

The seats are ADR approved, so don't worry. I've got the paperwork too. I can't really use the stock rails, as the with between them is different anyway. As best as i can tell, what i've thought up is the strongest and simplest way i can do it.

Bit tired and grumpy now to think about it, but i'll ponder this further over the weekend

[Wezelton]

I have made a rail out of flat bar aluminium for my RA60, i got a pair of brides. All i did was hack off the stock rails, make a cross bar to join the rails, somehow the mounting points on the rails lined up almost exact with the mounting points on the bottom of the seat so i just had to drill 4 holes in the flat bar and bolt the seat in, then bolt the flat bar to the rails.. quite easy, seems solid as..

I also have broken two stock seat rails.

When i get home, i'll post up a few pics of the rail set up i did. There the early stage pics but you will get the idea. I also want my brides ARD approved.. I bought a pair of the justcrap bride copies and i can tell you now that i have two genuine brides it was a stupid idea to get the copies lol good for a daily tho, just not for hard driving.

Wes.