DIY / Foam / Bead Seat Kits..

[Stevemcmaster]

Hi All,

I was wondering if any of you had experience with any of these DIY / custom seat kits?

I am in the final stages of refurbishing an early 1970s Spitfire based 7 lookalike and am having trouble finding a seat to fit due to the need to have a very thin seat back and narrow base to the seat in order to fit between the transmission tunnel and the cockpit side.

So, while browsing demon tweeks, I noticed that they see a Real Essential seat kit, mich like those used in single seaters, and this triggered a number of questions:

1) If I used a kit like this to make the seat, would I then have to secure that into the car for MOT purposes, or could I leave it as removable? I will have a 4pt harness to secure me and the seat into the car.

2) Have any of you had any experience with these kits?

Cheers and thanks in advance

Steve

[The Black Flash]

Not personally, but the ones I've seen pics of always look a bit messy.
You could try JK composites, they will probably make a grp one up to your measurements, if you like that style of seat. Really helpful guys.

[Tim.C]

I made my own expanding foam seat for my last racecar. They are much more supportive and comfortable than anything else I've ever tried. I don't know what DT charge for a kit by I bought a 5kg pack of expanding polyurathane foam from CFS
, a cheap bucket from Asda and a Survival bag from Cotswolds. Worked a treat and cost about £40 all in.

You can take things further as seen here: http://www.danstuff.info/seat.htm

[Furyblade_Lee]

My mate was an RGB racer, and was looking into a kit from Demon Tweeks. But they were around £150. At the time I was working for British Gas, a got hold of a kit of expanding foam which they used for sealing gas mains (big kit of foam, and my god it was cheap........ :-). Did exactly the same thing , and it worked well. But shocking hideous to the eye, even after he had sanded and painted it. There is no way I would want one in a road car. Doing it was fun, basically mixing a vast amount of two-part foam into a bin liner which was growing and expanding all the time. Complete recipie for disaster if the bag had split, would have trashed the cockpit! I would do as above personally, call the composite company. Striker / Phoenix seats they do should fit, pretty much the skinniest seat available.

[tribbles]

'70s spitfire-based 7 lookalike - Locust (is it plywood body)?

It is difficult to get seats that fit - when I did my Locust, I ended up putting a steel frame in it, which allowed me to use "normal" seats for 7s, as I'd lost the width of the plywood. But even then it was tight.

Unfortunately, I can't advise you of the (seat) kits though!

[Stevemcmaster]

Thanks All for the replies....

The car is a Spit chassis with the outriggers removed and a frame added to hold Alloy panels. Upside is its light, has spit front suspension and bits are easy to get hold of, downside, it has spit rear suspension and a Triumph 1300 engine with 75 BHP. Still, loads of scope to drop a new unit in. Oh, and it was given to us free, so I could hardly refuse!!!

RE the seat, I will check out the links and feed back the outcome. The main issue is, with the current seat base in place, I am a little too high, and a bit too far forward. If I take it so, so I am sitting on the floor, its pretty much perfect, if I wear thin and narrow shoes.

The father in law has made a flat bottomed wheel for me (wood and alloy job, looks amazing), so, my hands just clear my thighs when I am on the floor.

Thanks very much again

Steve

[ezakimak]

I have heard that the two part expanding foam can give of some noxious fumes, and also goes not go to well in a fire should you crash it. aparently the bean bag beads and some epoxy resin all mixed up in a plastic bag is a lot safer,dont know if its true.

PS i plan to try this on the social climber.

ryan

[Stevemcmaster]

Ryan - Genius idea...

A load of beanbag beans, put them into one of those vacume bags that Argos do for storing clothes under your bed, add the resin and vacume it into shape.

Might have to put a filter over the bag mouth to stop the beans being sucked out, but its worth a go.

Cheers
Steve

[ezakimak]

http://www.jakelatham.com/stohr/projects/seat/
sorry about the spelling - stuby fat finger on iphone.

Ryan

[antnicuk]

i will be selling a pair of intertrim odeysseys that are very narrow, they are lost in my little stylus so should fit anything. They wlll be quite cheap.

[Stevemcmaster]

Hi Tony...

Let me measure up the car and see if these would do the job - I will drop you a PM if it looks good...

Cheers
Steve

[antnicuk]

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid...