Adapting Z33 Seats for S-Chassis

by babowc

Overview:

OEM S13 seats suck. Whether you’re interested in comfort for the daily commute, flashy design for shows, or more support and holding ability, you can be assured almost any other seat can do it better. Z33 seats seem to be an excellent alternative, and thanks to babowc you should be able to adapt them to fit your car!

Difficulty: ****

Time: 4-6 hours

Cost: $250-$500

Tools:

– angle grinder
– electric drill
– welder
– socket wrench with a 14mm and 10mm socket.
– flathead screwdriver
– hammer
– tape measure

Materials:

– an extra set of all four seat brackets from either S13 or S14. Seats with the brackets removed will not be usable! Go pick up a junk seat and take the brackets!
– drill bits and lube

Procedure:

==Inspection==

First, lay the two seats down on a table or some sort.

Take a good look at the bottom side of the two seats, you will recognize an immediate difference, where as the stock seat’s brackets are much lower than the Z33 seats.

==Removing the Brackets==

Take the stock seat brackets off.

I do not have the during-process pics, but you will need to drill out the spot-welds on the brackets and the large rivet (shown in red) to remove the brackets.

Repeat the process for the z33 seats.

To easily remove the brackets without damaging them after the rivet and the spot welds have been drilled/ground out, use your flathead and tap it into the crevice where the bracket meets the rail. It will require some force!

***You do not need to drill out the Left (driver’s side door) side rear bracket, but I have and had to add washers and a longer bolt to make the seat level.***

It’ll take some time to get these all out and will be a messy process.
If you care about your old brackets, try to keep it clean, but I got fed up and took the angle grinder on everything and got them off, keep in mind however, these are not re-usable now!

I used duct-tape to mock-up the process and eventually welded them together.

I measured the distance between the stock S-chassis brackets and mocked it up on the Z33 seat accordingly. On the S-chassis right side bracket, the distance between the center of two holes were around 41.75cm for the right side (closer to the tranny tunnel when installed) and 42.75cm for the left side (closer to the door when installed).

right side:

left side:

Last step would be to weld these brackets onto the Z33’s existing rail.
I didn’t take any pictures during nor after the welds.
I used a Flux-core welder and it looked like ****, but who cares? its going under the seat!

After 30 minutes of welding, I cooled them off and installed it in the car.

As soon as I installed the seats, I realized I had made a mistake on the Driver’s side Rear left side bracket.
I should’ve kept it! As well, iI should’ve test fitted it in the car!

Anyhow, heres the aftermath, I couldn’t install the front left bracket correctly and just stuck a 2×8 under there and called it a day.
I know its very dangerous, but it’ll work until I take the seats off again and re-do the left side brackets!

I’ll post another how-to after I permanently fix the brackets on the left side!