Need some ideas about mounting Cobra roadster 7 seats in my ST with an ally floor any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Hi,
First thing I would say is, if you didn't buy the Cobra Seat Runners for these seats then I would recommend that you do so as they will make life much easier. I have a welded steel floor and have welded in some cross spars which are just wide enough to span the seat runners (so that the seat runner fixing points are just an inch or so inside the span of the spars). I then welded some little right angled brackets onto the spars using 40x3mm flat steel bar and drilled these to accept the seat runner fixing bolts. I'll try to take a photo of this later tonight and post the image here.

Obviously if you have a welded floor then you can't weld on steel brackets but you may be able to do sonething similar in Ally or perhaps use nuts and bolts to make something similar.

Cheers,
Craig.

I intend to mount them directly to the floor using suitable load spreaders. I don't need the seat to be adjustable as I will be the only driver, I also subscribe to the 'keep the CofG as low as possible' train of thought.

Cheers Mick

Mick,
As you will see from the attached photo the CoG is not affected very much at all by these runners as they are very low profile. It also avoids having to drill holes in your floor and having nuts, bolts and spreader plates exposed to the elements (and speed bumps...)

If you do decide to use spreader plates, make sure you read the SVA manual carefully as you need to have the rear spreader plate under the floor and the front plate above the floor. Of course you can always have plates above and below the floor for both.

I agree that for most of the time the builder alone will be driving the car and thus will only need a fixed position but what about when you want to sell it on? Would you buy a car when you can't reach the pedals?
Finally, it's bound to be worth a few brownie points with the SVA inspector when you've used the genuine seat mounts as well I'd expect.



Cobra Roadster Seat Runners

Cheers,
Craig.

Craig
Thanks for the 'heads up' re the SVA requrements, (really must spend the cash and get a manual).
As for future adjustability, I will probably mount the spreaders front to back, above and below the floor and just redrill to suit should I ever decide to sell the car.
Both solutions have their merits and drawbacks, we decide the route that suits us best, that's the beauty / challenge of building your own.

Cheers Mick

Just be carefull mounting the seats on runners for the SVA. You need to remember the seat belts must slop down from there upper mounting point to the shoulders of a "standard man". So increasing the height of the seat will reduce this angle, and have been told of people who have had to take the runners out at the test so it would pass.

HTH Gordon

Gordon,
Good general advice but in my case specifically I have taken account of this and is one of the reasons I bought my seats so early in my build. I have welded in my roll bar and have added a horizontal cross spar. This cross spar has had threaded harness mounts welded into it at the correct height to match the harness slots on the Cobra seats.

The overall difference between mounting the seats on the floor itself or on runners is on my case 19mm (floor cross spar) + 3mm (bracket) + approx 19mm (runner) = 41mm

Of course the CoG and seat belt angle arguments have to be balanced against the "fair view of the road" argument because, in my case with a Rover V8 and a big pair of SU carbs in the way, I am a little concerned that my bonnet bulge will be too big to see over...

Cheers,
Craig.

Similar solution to avoid drilling the floor, cross members and lugs to bolt to cobra seat runners (back ones are a bugger to get at, with seats in and panelling in place)

Front crossmember welded in higher than rear, to tilt the seat back - much more comfortable.
Rescued attachment zz seat mounts.jpg