Leather seats installation

[nicotom]

Hi everyone.

 

I own a 1981 S3 Xflow 1600.

There is a "bench" in it.

I am thinking about replacing it with leather seats + headrests.

 

Is it something "easy" to do ?

Do i have to pay attention about diferences in metric/imperial while looking for seats ?

I think my 7 is an imperial. How to be sure ?

 

In the mean time i am thinking abour installing lowered floor panels.

Does anyone have a reference explaining how to install this ?

Does every "standard" caterham seats (not race one) fits with lowered panel ?

 

 

Thanks

 

Nicolas

[Croc]

A genuine 1981 chassis will be imperial.  Changeover to metric occurred post 2000 sometime.  If you want I can check your chassis number to be sure, as year of chassis should be coded in that - PM me with it.  

 

The recent leather seats are called "S Type" seats.  Assuming this is what you mean?  Photo shows it missing headrest.

 

 

 

 

For the Caterhams with the two individual seats, they have bonded three-sided aluminum channels under the floor to provide floor rigidity for the seat mounting point - 4 of them running longitudinally.  The seat frame then bolts through these.  So you would need these.  Inquiry of Caterham may be able to source them otherwise you would need to fabricate here.

 

For seats, there are two types, the S3 type and the S5/SV type.  SV type are a little wider.  Going off the top of my head the width was an extra 1.5 inch between the 2 versions.  The S3 width should fit your imperial chassis, as the size variations were minimal but noticeable, but you need someone on here with a recent S3 build to measure their seats to confirm width of seating tub area and width of seat just to be sure.  I have an SV chassis so cannot help here.

 

Lowered floor is an option on Caterhams - both chassis types of S3 and SV.  I just checked the parts site and I can see they have imperial chassis lowered floors for an SV.  You would need to ask Caterham if they can supply a lowered floor for a pre-long cockpit imperial S3 chassis and before purchasing confirm with them it will work for your car.  Lowered cockpits came in on the long cockpit imperial S3 chassis and were then modified in the conversion to metric.  Caterham may not make one.  In which case you would need to fabricate.    One question, I do not have the answer for is whether the lowered floors still use the three-sided channels for seat mounting?  I cannot recall and it may not be needed as the lowered floor shape may offer sufficient rigidity for the seats to mount safely. 

 

A lower floor installation is just a removal of the existing ali panel floor rivets on the two floors (driver and passenger), remove and then apply new lowered floor and rivet.  

 

As to whether this is easy to do is subject to opinion but I am sure a good race workshop would have no problem installing both the seats and the lowered floors if you decide you don't want to try.

 

 

[11Budlite]

Nicolas,

 

Here's a few photos of the seat tracks on my 310 with lowered floors.  According to the assy manual, they just bolt thru the floor with large backup washers and nylocs.  I have the leather S-type seats like the photo that Mike posted above.  They simply bolt to the seat tracks with (6) button head screws and then the seat bottom just sits in place.  The seats are really comfortable for me, I'm 5'-10" and around 160-165 lbs.

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by 11Budlite

[nicotom]

Hi Mike,

 

Thanks for your response.

Yes, i am interrested in the S type.

My Cat is an S3 and the chassis number is 4008.

 

Thanks Bruce for these pictures.

I realy understand how everything goes in place.

 

But a question just poped in my mind.

 

My "bench seat" does not seems thick.

Will a lowered floor + tracks + S seat be lower then my actual "bench seat" ?

 

My goals are to have something more comfortable and being lower.

Will i be "significantly" lower ?

 

Thanks

[Croc]

The seating positions between bench and S3 seat should be similar on a standard floor.  The lowered floor option should give you an extra 1 inch lower.  Its hard to say without doing the measurements to compare.  

[11Budlite]

I just measured and the floor drop is around 1-3/4" and the seat track height is just under 1".  If you didn't mount the seat directly to the floor you would gain a little over 3/4".  Hope that helps.

[11Budlite]

To add additional info to this thread.  I temporarily installed a Kirkey racing seat on the drivers side seat tracks and discovered that the seating position was raised up compared to the Caterham S-type seat.  This was surprising since the Kirkey seat has almost no padding.  Did a little more checking then noticed that the S-type seat bottom drops down between the seat tracks enabling you to sit lower than it first appears.  Would have to do some measuring when I get home but I think there's another 3/4" drop from the seat track height so maybe close to 1-1/2" total drop of the 1-3/4" lowered floor.  Not sure if any of that makes sense!

[nicotom]

Thank you very much for these infos !!

I am Now pretty sure i will start looking for seconds hand S seats and order 2 lowered floor from Caterham.

 

It will not be as original but it might be a nice upgrade.

And i will keep everything if i want to go back to original spec !

 

Thanks guys !