Fiat Coupe seats into a Triumph Stag

[Cheesy]

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of my seat swap.

The seats are from a Fiat Coupe. I bought the complete interior off EBay for £20 !

I made adaptor brackets to suit. The seats are a little taller and quite a bit wider at the top of the backrest, which meant getting to the seatbelts was tricky, so I've moved the upper seatbelt mounting further up the post.

The camera seems to have given them all sorts of strange patterns; they're quite plain really!

[Cheesy]

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... and a view from the back

[marty64]

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cheesy they look excellent, did the back seats fit as well?

looks like the back are in too

marty

[mad cyclist]

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i need a seat, little bit modern for me, but they look comfy!! is your new seat belt mount up to the job?

Nick (Mr standard triumph)

[Cheesy]

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Marty - the patterns the camera has "invented" makes it look like the back seat is in, but it isn't! It was way too big to fit into the Stag.

Nick - I tried to replicate the original seatbelt mounting by welding a nut to a plate, then plug welding the plate inside the post. It was a real pain as the only access was much further down the post, but I got there in the end!

[mad cyclist]

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cool, i want to learn how to weld but cannot find a course locally are you self taught ?

rgds nick

[mjheathcote]

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My classic 70's Recaro's

An ebay find, dry stored for over 20 years, originally I believe bought aftermarket from Recaro for a BMW. They are 'as new', all the foam padding & bolsters perfect!







Transforms the driving experiance been held in place
Best mod I have carried out!

[Cheesy]

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mad cyclist wrote:

cool, i want to learn how to weld but cannot find a course locally are you self taught ?

rgds nick

Nick,

I had to learn to weld because of various horrors I found lurking under my Stag's underseal. What was meant to be a suspension rebuild turned into something else entirely! :shock:

A brilliant website for welding information: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/

I bought a second-and MIG set off EBay and spent a couple of weeks practising on scrap steel, getting used to the settings on the machine. The guides on the website are excellent and they also have a very active forum which is full of useful stuff.

Mark

[Cheesy]

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mjheathcote wrote:

Transforms the driving experiance been held in place
Best mod I have carried out!

I saw your seats in an earlier post, which is what made me think about a seat swap in the first place! The Recaros look excellent.

Agree about being held in place! It's much nicer to not be sliding around on the vinyl, especially during "spirited" cornering!

[mjheathcote]

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I have looked into having mine retrimmed. My local trimmer has the same basket weave PVC material per original. Popular with bikers apparently for their seats, water resistance and non slip.

Been quoted £150 per seat. Fancy leather thought!

[Staggy]

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I nearly bid on ebay fora set of black leather seats from a BMW last week to replace my fading seats. Liked the black because they matched up with the rear seat.

It is certainly a cheaper option than a re trim !

Were the runners easy to adapt ?

BTW your seatslook fab ! Its given me food for thought.

[Oldromola]

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I really admire you guys who are able to adapt non original fittings for your Stags, but I was wondering what you don't like about Stag seats? I have always thought they looked good in the car.

It's just the same regarding Stag alloys. I think they suit the car perfectly, but I know many owners prefer something a little more modern.

[mad cyclist]

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Robert 2 Stags wrote:

I really admire you guys who are able to adapt non original fittings for your Stags, but I was wondering what you don't like about Stag seats? I have always thought they looked good in the car.

It's just the same regarding Stag alloys. I think they suit the car perfectly, but I know many owners prefer something a little more modern.

i woul have kept my standard alloys had decent correct size tyre been available, I went for minilite replicas that would have been available when the car was new. I too really like the satg seats and think that 150 per side is pretty good value.

rgds Nick

[Cheesy]

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Staggy wrote:

Were the runners easy to adapt ?

The holes in the Fiat seats line up perfectly "front to back" but are at slightly different centres "side to side", the Fiat seats sitting on a narrower mounting frame.

The frontinnermounting bolt uses the same hole as the Stag seats, then I had brackets made to line up with the remaining three holes. I had no idea how difficult it would be when I bought the seats, but luckily it ended up being quite easy.

It helps when you work for a metal fabrication company, though!

Robert 2 Stags - Personally I have nothing against the original seats and they do suit the car perfectly, it was just a matter of economics. It was either pay for the originals to be re-trimmed, or spend £20 on EBay and get free brackets made at work!

[mjheathcote]

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In my case, as can be seen in the last picture, all I needed to do was fab some brackets to pick up on the original tapped mounting holes. The original stag seats mountings are quite off-set to one side. Again helps that I work in engineering

I had no idea when I bought my Recaro's that they could be made to fit quite easily. Measured both up and knocked up a CAD drawing at lunchtime while at work.

Being quite tall at 6'4" I made the brackets as low as possible. Compared to the original seats I sit slightly lower now. Also the runners on the Recaro's allow the seat to travel a few inches further back too, another bonus!

Oh, when I get around to having them retrimmed, I will be fitting heating elements for those cooler evenings