Thanks for that Jag,
I was intending to use the Spitfire ones which came with the car, I already have had to buy two new wheelboxes, as the others had corroded away, and the threads had gone.
If that route fails, I will definitely have a look at the Corsa ones
No top
Oz D,
I know what you mean, I've had several soft top cars over the years, and being a six footer, my head has always been half above the windscreen, and after a couple of hours driving feels as though I've had a ten rounds with a cricket bat!
Which is why this will not happen with this car. I had intended to drop the floor if need be, but I don't think that will be necessary, as when I make the seats, there will be no frame, and my botty will be only an inch or so off the steel floor after compressing a couple of inches of seat foam.
That's interesting, I did not realise seat adjustment was an active part of the Mot. In fact I'm still not convinced about that one!
Mr Towed, do you have any info in this area?
I can immediately see a way round this, as when I bolt my allow flat seat panel in, I will drill a couple of extra holes in the floor and point out that the seat CAN be adjusted by repositioning.
Seat adjustment
That's what I love about this forum!
Answers to most problems!!
Your Mot man was correct to fail your car!
See the pic
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I will certainly address the issue now I am aware of it!
Thanks for that DM :-)
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seat adjustment
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Thanks Drummajor, your Mot man was correct, and I will make some provision so I don't get hit the same way!
That's what I love about this forum, answers to all the problems!!
Do you have any printed criteria for this Jim?
That would be interesting to see.
Thank you for that Mr T, good advice as ever.
I always hankered after a Lambo countache, until I sat in a real one,
(not a replica!)
The steering wheel was in front of me and my feet on the pedals were around 45 degrees to the left, leaving my body in a horribly stressed out twisted position, (as the front wheelarch is where the pedals should have been).
Also I was virtually lying flay on my back.
I realised then that there was no way I could live with either of those factors, and I gave up the idea easily!
It just occurred to me that there are blokes on this forum who have Lambo's,
so how do you fella's cope with the pedal offset? Are the replicas different from the originals in that respect?
AcC8braman and Davecymro??
Hey thanks for that input Dave, that's interesting stuff.
Hopefully, all this input may help other people to not fall foul of the regulations and laws that seem to plague us all!
I think what people need to do is to shop around for an Mot tester that is willing to give a little and be more flexible where our type of cars are concerned.
Good idea OD! When the Mot man asks me how the seat adjusts, I'll point to the cushion and say "like that" mate! Stick that behind your back!
seats
Today I spent time planning the seat configuration.
I needed to know what size they will be, so they will fit in the cockpit, and also how thick the foam will be that I will make them from.
This involved an awful lot of farting about getting in an out of the car, trying different thicknesses of foam, trying this and that.
I did get a lot out of it in the end. So it was worth it.
I will use 4 inch foam for the bottom seat part, and 2 inch foam for the seat backs.
I have ordered it now, and when it arrives I will set to and crack on with the work.
In the mean time, I will make the alloy seat backs and " adjustable" seat squabs. :-)
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Seats
Oxford,
Chris supplies a rear bulkhead type thing that fits behind the seats, but because the XKSS has that divider thing,
(which I have had to re-create) the seat backs themselves act as a bulkhead.
So in answer to your question, the plastic bin bits were put there as,
(if you like), a pattern. I will replace them with alloy, which will form the combined bulkhead/ seatback.
Mr Towed,
I take all your points on board, and thanks for the excellent pictures!
I already have been in and out of the car so many times with the plastic buckets at different angles, and sponge foam of varying thicknesses under my bum and back.
I reckon now I have a pretty good idea of where I need to sit and at what height.
As I said earlier, I have now ordered the seat foam in what I think are the correct thicknesses.
If I have made a misjudgement, it will in sitting too low, which can easily be remedied later, by raising the seat a bit higher, but I don't think so at present.
By the way, the idea of using the bin was not mine, but came from the "other side"! One of the lads used a bin to shape his seat backs, and I nicked his idea! (Like you do)
Oh! Is that Mr T?
I thought he'd hired a male model to pose for him :-)
Seats
Today I cut out the four blanks in aluminium, which will form the seat backs and squabs.
As I said earlier, I had planned to cut the floor and drop the pan to give extra head room, but I found another way to tackle the problem!
Instead of dropping the floor, I set about dropping my bum.
I had intended to mount the seat foam on a flat bit of ally, but if I were to do that, I would lose about one inch of the recess, which goes exactly
where a drivers bum would end up.
So I cut out this bit in order to gain this important inch.
This cutout can be seen in the third picture.
I was dissapointed with the result, as the finished seat squab had no torsional strength,
However, I had put so much thought and effort to getting this far with it, (and the concept does work) that I was very reluctant to scrap it and start again.
Also, I had already cut out the second (passengers seat) and being
as tight as a fishes rear orafice, decided to give it the rigidity it needs by welding a very lightweight steel frame on TOP of the alloy so as not to lose any headroom.
I was so cheesed off with the way it had turned out, I packed up and will do that another day. :-)
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Head room
I had a picture taken last night to illustrate the head room I have been able to salvage by using the seating method I chose.
I am almost worried now that I am too low!
However that can be sorted very easily at a later stage, but one thing for sure, my head will not stick up above the screen like it has in other soft top cars I've had!
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I'm having a minor problem with the forum at present, when I hit "forum" on that page, the bit that usually tells you who is on line is missing?
Does anyone else have the same?
Yes, as you can imagine I've studied stacks of pictures including that one you posted, and I reached the same conclusion as you did.
Curved alloy seat back with only 2 inches of foam and flat alloy panel on the floor with 3 inches of foam.
That pic you posted is the best yet to illustrate how the screen top should look, and I will copy the shape, it will be in steel not alloy, but will be functional and look almost as good.
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