DIY Seat Brackets by carbd7age

7 minute read

DIY Seat Brackets

Compliments of carbd7age @ www.club4ag.com

Having an SR5 means I'm blessed with flat, unsupportive seats. In fact I actually have trouble staying centered in the seat even sitting still due to lack of bolstering. So a bucket seat is a natural upgrade when the handling limit of the car is whether I can hold onto the steering wheel and stay in the seat.

So a new seat needs it's own mounts since aftermarket seats are universal. You can buy AE86-specific seat mounts, and that's all well and good, if you have a couple hundred bucks to spend. But think about this: what is holding your current seat in? Aha! This is how to disassemble a stock seat to obtain the bracket/slider combo, and save you an asston of money.

Tools you need:

Ratchet, 12mm socket, 14mm socket, Allen head sockets

Allen keys

Little Philips head screwdriver, like a #1 

Pliers

Drill and drill bits - nothing bigger than 3/8", so any set will work

Hammer

Big hammer

Punch for knocking out rivets

Center punch for marking holes

Dremel - everything needs a little trimmin lol

Tape measure

Beers

Step 1: remove the seat. 4x 14mm head bolts hold it down. If you need a picture and help with that, do yourself a favor and buy Buddy Club rails.

Step 2: turn the seat upside-down so you can how the sliders work. Mess with the levers so you understand how it works and how it all works together.

Step 3: remove all the side stuff. There are a handful of tiny Philips screws that hold the two plastic side covers on. The knob on the left side is held in with a spring clip. It'll shoot off and knock a little hole in your drink cup if you're not careful. Underneath those covers are 2x 12mm bolts on each side. Take them out, these 4 bolts hold the butt cushion to the frame.

Step 4: drill out the 6 rivets that attach the seat frame to the seat sliders. There are 3 per side, plus a special hidden spot weld on each side towards the back. I used a 1/8" drill bit for a pilot hole, then a 3/8" bit to rip the heads of the rivets. A hammer and punch will knock out the rest of the rivet. I used a broken screw driver and pry bar to separate the sliders from the frame. I'm pointing at the surprising spot weld I'm this picture, you can see the 3 holes drilled out and the slider separate from the frame.

Step 5: once both are sides are separated, you can reinstall the rails into the car using the original hardware. Try to keep the two sides even with each other, they can slide and lock independent of each other now that the frame is off. This is not a bad thing because your new seat will tie the two together just the same as the original frame.

Step 6: attach your mounting brackets to the seat and set the seat on the brackets in the car, then mark where your holes will be and take the seat back out. The stock rails are 1" wide and spaced exactly 15" apart, so your brackets will need to be 16" apart from bolt center to bolt center. I was going to try to use 4"x4" L shaped aluminum to make the L brackets, but that crap was hard. I got pre-fabbed universal seat brackets. These are available on eBay for $30 shipped. With these bolted to my seat, I needed spacers because the front was 15.5" wide and the rear was 14.5" wide. I got longer bolts and some spacers to make the brackets 16" apart so they sit centered on the rails. I also got some carriage bolts to fit under the seat to hold the brackets to the rails. 

I would recommend using these pre-fabbed brackets off eBay for $29.99 shipped: http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem ... 1603727990

I got a set of Nagisa Auto brackets:

Here are the Nagisa brackets bolted to the seat with the longer bolts and spacers. These spacers put the centers of the base brackets exactly 16" apart so they sit dead center with the rails.

These are the longer bolts and spacers. I don't know exactly what size (if any) spacers your seat may need, as I was under the impression they were all square on the bottom anyways. Spacers are 1/4" and 3/4" long, 5/16" ID, that works out to 0.003" difference between 5/16" and 8mm, the seat bolts are m8x1.25 thread BTW.

I used carriage bolts to bolt the brackets to the rails. I THINK they are 3/8" thread, I know they are 1" long, and I had to cut about 1/4" off each bolt because they were too long, they bound up the slide mechanisms and I have zero adjustment, steering wheel was in my chest lol. Also I would like to point out how important it is to keep your workplace clean and organized. I actually have 3 different tape measures somewhere in there because I kept losing them in all my mess lol. 

I didn't take any pictures but I did run into a fitment issue with the seat bottom and the sliders adjuster arm. When you pull the lever, it turns another arm linked to the other rail. That arm comes up and hits the bottom of the seat. That's where the Dremel comes in. I cut a little notch, maybe 1.5"x0.5" so the arm could swing up freely and pull the other side easy. It all works smoothly now, and you'd never know I cut the hole since it's underneath the removable cushion in the front.

It's hard to see, but here it is all bolted in and ready to go. Doing it this was shouldn't cost more than 50 bucks, add more for however much you drink of course. 

Now sit back and crack a cold one, cuz you just saved a hunnad buxxx.