MK1.5 seat mounting

[MPersanis]

hey everyone, I have an MK1.5, I have the original seats (Fiberglas bottom) and want to change the mounting, I want to rasie them a little bit and have them angled back. any suggestions?

[Jim Doak]

Have you contacted Breeze (Mark Reynolds) to see if his mounts will work? If you can swing it, you might want to consider upgrading to Factory Five's current seats. There's a world of difference in the quality between the old fiberglass seats and the new ones.

[MPersanis]

world of difference in which way? THey do look substantially better built, but in terms of comfort etc? thanks

[weendoggy]

The original "boat seats" on the MKI/II were just that. I took mine out after one trip and put Cobra Classic seats in (over 26yrs now) and they're great. Also, the newer F5 seats are a nice fit/comfort over the ones you have. jmo

[Jim Doak]

My Mark I came with fiberglass seats with a thin wood base. Maybe your seats are better quality; however, mine were poor quality and if I remember correctly, were mounted directly to the chassis with lag bolts. (This was in 2000.)

My Mark IV seats are similar if not identical to the Cobra Roadster SS seats which were eventually installed in my Mark I. They use a square tube frame and are simply better seats than the old fiberglass/wood-based early FFR seats.

I used Mark's seat mounts in both my builds and they have two nice features: They're adjustable, allowing you to move the seats forward/rearward approximately 2.25 inches, and they're canted rearward which makes them more comfortable vs. sitting flat on the floor.

[MPersanis]

yes. mine are fiberglass based. I took them out and added steel bars (flat) to the mounts to try to make them a bit safer and added a 1 inch metal square tube up front to get them to lean back a bit, but its not great. THey are mounted with lag bolts. How did you mount the seat mounts to the car? Any pics would be great! thanks!!

[Jim Doak]

Here's a few pics showing the Breeze bases mounted in my current build.

[MPersanis]

what does the mount mount too? (mounting bracket to car), or in other words, how do you know where to mount the mount bottom?

[Jim Doak]

There's two parts to the mounts: a base that's riveted to the chassis and a bracket that bolts to the bottom steel frame of the seats. (The bracket is then attached to four studs permanently mounted to the base.) I temporarily mounted the brackets to the bases in the rear-most adjustment holes then laid the seat assemblies onto the bare aluminum floor. I then situated/adjusted the placement of the seats to ensure that there was sufficient clearance for the seat belts; that the seats were right against the rear cockpit wall (to maximize leg room); that the seats would clear the door latch assemblies; and that the seats wouldn't interfere with anything else (such as the e-brake or transmission tunnel) when they were adjusted to the forward mounting holes in the seat brackets. Once I was satisfied with their placement, I used a marker to trace an outline of the base onto the aluminum floor. I then removed the seat assemblies, separated the bases from the brackets, then riveted the bases onto the floor, making sure that the rivets were located in underlying steel structure. After that was accomplished, I mounted the seats with the passenger seat in the rearmost position and mounted the driver's seat in the second from rear adjustment position.

[MPersanis]

so how do you know where the frame under the floor is? and are you confident the rivets will hold?

[Jim Doak]

Raise your car and look underneath the floor area, you should see some underlying steel structure including steel plate and square and/or rectangular tube. And yes, the rivets will hold.

I drove my first car over 46,000 miles without any problems with the Breeze mounts.